An aspiring model turned her hair shaming moment into a movie with a message. When Trinidad and Tobago model Garbriella Bernard was a contestant on Carribean’s Next Top Model, she was told she had to relax her hair for her makeover or go home.
“Please do not relax my hair because I had it relaxed for 15 years and my brand is about embracing your natural beauty,” the 24-year-old said when she was propositioned by host, the former Miss Universe Wendy Fitzwilliam.
She eventually gave in but hated every second of it.
“I decided to fake it. No, I really didn’t think I looked like Wendy, but it was a good line to say. I took all my attitude and swallowed it. It wasn’t truly me. I cried about it every single night until I chopped it off two months later.”
After placing third in the competition, she cut her hair and decided to tell her story. She filmed a documentary entitled Black Hair that not only talks about recovering from her hair shaming experience but also the racism she has witnessed during her modeling career.
“It will help to spread my message and inspire other as I talk openly about recovering from this cheap reality show stunt, racial episodes in my past, and being unapologetically black in a society that has Eurocentric standards and expectations,” she told the Trinidad & Tobago Guardian.
The 20-minute doc was selected to be screened at the 2018 Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival and will now be coming to the states for the 2018 Baltimore International Black Film Festival which is happening October 2nd-8th.
