Meagan Good Reveals She Was Injured by Ill-Prepared Hairstylist

Actress Meagan Good is opening up about her experience with hair mistreatment. Speaking at the Hair and Makeup Equity: Changing the Industry Standard virtual event in May, the Think Like a Man actress recalled a "frustrating" past on-set experience with an ill-prepared hairstylist that left her injured.

Candidly discussing the ordeal, Good, who recently opened up about the importance of highlighting the Black experience in film, told listeners and her fellow panelists that she was left with burns on her forehead after the hairstylist "went to press my hair." According to Good, the stylist "put a metal comb underneath the comb and that comb slipped out and the pressing comb basically burned my forehead." The incident left the actress with "about five or six tooth marks on my face." Reflecting on the ordeal, Good said that "it was quite frustrating for someone to say that they knew how to do it and to not really do it and to kind of use me as an experiment."

Good was just one of several actors to open up about their experience during the virtual event. New Girl actor Lamorne Morris revealed he "would have to go to the barbershop at 4, 4.30 in the morning before set to get my hair cut." When he arrived to set, he said, he "would see everyone else in the hair and makeup trailer getting their hair cut. When I asked why I couldn't get my hair cut at work, it was because – this is what they told me – they didn't have the budget for my hair."

Speaking with The Guardian, Camille Friend, a top stylist who has worked on titles including Black Panther, Tenet, and Captain Marvel, said that despite it being 2021, hair mistreatment on productions "is still a huge industry problem." Friend added that "there shouldn't be hairstylists or makeup artists without knowledge of all hair textures and all colors of skin tone. There must be better education for all hairstylists and makeup artists." Friend said that in order for producers to create a more inclusive set, the internal structure of the business has to change, and producers should take responsibility to "look for hairstylists and makeup artists that are well trained for the diversity of the cast."

"Hairstylists and makeup artists who are not qualified to do Bipoc hair or makeup shouldn't take the jobs if offered to them," Friend said, adding that the actors' union also needs to make changes. "[The Screen Actors Guild] is a very powerful union and they have the power to change the rules for their actors of color. They can require Black actors to have a say in who is hired for hair and makeup departments, including barbers. This should be a requirement."