MidCenturyMadOne
VIP Member
I know that they have some very experienced people in now. 2021 series they had Gemma ( @gemflossi) who did Oti and Aj’s makeup and had worked with them before. Anna the hair girl used some specialists to do the plaits and weaves , especially on AJ’s Halloween hair and also the semi final quickstep look. They’ve certainly got a lot better with black hair styles since Jamelia anyway.I know there was some chat this week about Strictly backstage drama we weren’t aware of and a clip from an old interview with Jamelia just came up on my FYP where she talks about how the Strictly team would repeatedly tell her that her hair wasn’t elegant, that she needed to relax (permanently straighten) her hair and how she had to do her own hair and make-up each week because there was no one who knew how to do it for her.
As a black woman myself, I’m not surprised but it’s so disappointing that she was dealing with that. It was only in 2015 which wasn’t that long ago - and the same year that Oti joined. I’d love to know how much work Oti had to do to instigate change in the hair and make-up department because I remember her always wearing wigs and weaves in her early years compared to rocking her natural hair in later series.