By the time Diessou Kante opened JolieDen’s Beauty Bar in 2018, she already knew what she didn’t want. She’d spent years ...

Every few decades the theater needs its “Steel Magnolias.” Before Robert Haring’s beauty-shop dramedy opened in 1987, there was Clare Booth Luce’s 1936 comedy, “The Women,” which also made a beauty ...

Braiding is more than a hairstyle. For generations, African American hair braiding styles have held deep cultural significance, telling stories of survival, status and self-expression. What may seem ...

To playwright Jocelyn Bioh, the African hair braiders of Harlem are icons. “They’re a large part of the economy of Harlem,” Bioh said of the Manhattan neighborhood. “Those are women-owned businesses, ...

Jaja’s realistically encapsulates one day’s worth of work in a Harlem-based braid shop. Clients of all backgrounds come in asking for different styles: everything from sew-ins to micro braids. And if ...

The show curtain has a picture guide for the uninitiated: box braids, cornrows, micro braids, Ghana braids, tree braids. Even, if you’re lucky and the stylist is in the right mood, kinky twists. All ...

From “Barbershop” and “Beauty Shop” to “Shear Madness” and “Steel Magnolias,” hair emporia have served for years as great settings for plays and movies. They’re community staples, home to countless ...

The actors who play the sisterhood of stylists in 'Jaja's African Hair Braiding' sit down for a candid beauty-shop conversation in light of the show's L.A. premiere at Center Theatre Group's Mark ...

If ever a play seemed tailor-made - tailor-braided? - for the Mark Taper Forum stage, at least in the 2020s, it's "Jaja's African Hair Braiding." The most intimate of the three Music Center theaters ...