Hosted by Stephanie Podolak
and Tamara Robbins-Griffith.
E34 - Haircuts & Harps
Curl Next Door Episode 34 - "Haircuts & Harps", featuring Quinta Brunson, Cole Walliser,
Sandra Pittana and Brandee Younger.
Hosts: Stephanie Podolak and Tamara Robbins Griffith.
===
[intro music]
Stephanie and Tamara: Curl Next Door!
[sound of doorbell]
Tamara: Welcome. Welcome to Curl Next Door Podcast.
Stephanie: Welcome back everybody to our third season of Curl Next Door podcast with Tamara Robbins Griffith and Stephanie Podolak
Tamara: And was gonna say, and Podolak
Stephanie: we're back, back for season three.
Tamara: And a little bit of a break, but oh, we've been making notes, taking notes, trying things all, all the time. All break long.
Stephanie: All break long. Yeah, this was a long break, but we've really been trying to focus on balance and polishing how this podcast works in our lives relative to other things in our lives. And so we needed a break and we needed to regroup and focus on some other things, but we're back. And season three is going to be chock full of great stuff, although the format's gonna be a little different.
We're gonna be on less frequently, but you're still gonna hear great bios, exciting interviews, product reviews.
Tamara: We've got some excellent guests coming on that we're very excited to, um, share with you and yeah, I mean, the goal being we talk about wellness, we talk about taking care of yourself, um, on this, on this podcast. And so we have to do the same for ourselves. And the best way for us to keep doing this podcast for you ongoing, um, is to just do it a little bit less frequently, but we're gonna try and be regular about it.
So maybe we won't need to, we can, we can keep our season three running a little bit longer, but we won't be posting new episodes every two weeks. We will be posting new episodes and we've got, uh, yeah, lots of exciting products to share with you. Hopefully some contesting coming up as well. And yeah, the curly haired journey continues, basically.
Stephanie: It does.
Tamara, I have so many hair stories I've just been sitting on all summer. I've been wanting to tell you so much stuff.
There's one in particular I've just been sitting on since June.
Tamara: Okay. Tell me, Tell me.
Stephanie: So Tammie, who we had on in season one, is an incredible hairdresser and gave me the best haircut of my life, I think, that I can recall in my adult life. And that was early in the calendar year in 2022, and I loved it.
It was kind of like a hashtag half mullet cut, so it was really cute. She cut my bangs, super cute. And then my hair length was great, and it just looked super funky and fresh, and I just loved it. Flash forward to June, I was going on a trip and my hair was getting too long, and so I just needed a trim. And as usual, I didn't
book an appointment, and I was scrambling last minute and I went onto the Facebook group for my neighborhood and checked to see if there are any curly hair cutters in the neighborhood. And one was recommended. And I called this hair salon and lo and behold, they have an appointment available tomorrow night.
And I was just delighted. Oh my God. Like the, the li the stars have lined up, Fates are looking out for me, it's meant to be. And the owner of the hair salon said, "Yeah, yeah. I'm booked, but I have my colleague and my colleague is really good with curly hair." Amazing. I'll book it. So as it turns out, it was the exact opposite of that promise.
And what ended up happening was a super junior stylist in training cut my curly hair and used thinning shears on the entire head of hair. And I saw her doing it and thought, that's weird, but I'm not an expert. I'm the kind of person who trusts experts to do what they're supposed to do cuz they're trained and I'm not.
And I thought, that's weird. Intuitively, that feels weird. Intuitively, isn't that going to thin out and totally frizzify my hair.
And so she thinning sheared my entire head. It turned into a giant frizzball. And then she said to me, " Do you want me to put product in your hair or are you good?" And I was. I was like, What? Load it up, load it up. Go get all your curly hair product and throw it in, throw it all in. Do all the layers. Why are you even asking me this? You're supposed to be a curly hair expert. And so it was, it was terrible. It was the, I went from having the best haircut of my life to literally the worst haircut of my life, and I'm not exaggerating on either end of the spectrum.
And the owner saw what was going on and ran over and tried to fix it and, and ended up taking a curling iron and curling ironed every single section on my head into a
curl to smooth it out. It's like when you get a blowout with a flat iron, how it smooths out the follicle. So she did it with a curling iron so that I walked out with sort of clean curls, but of course it looked terrible.
And the second I washed it, it just turned into a frizz ball. And so I've been trying to grow out this monstrosity since June, and I was devastated, honestly. It kind of ruined my summer had I not tried to find the bright side of life because I was so upset. So upset and couldn't tell you because I wanted to talk about it on the show
Tamara: Ah. And I couldn't be there to support you
Stephanie: I know!
Tamara: Through your hair.
Stephanie: it was emotional trauma.
I'm not kidding because my hair is such a huge part of my identity and I ended up wearing it up in a bun and like hair spraying the heck out of it so that the frizz would be manageable. It was the worst. And so the other part of this is I never gave them feedback cuz I didn't know what to do. I, I wasn't sure if I was go, if giving them feedback was going to be picking on them or if it was my fault.
Cause I waited too late to book and it was my fault because I didn't call her out while she was doing the thinning shears thing. I should have just trusted my gut and also I was kind of experiencing hair trauma and I just didn't wanna revisit it,
Tamara: Right.
Stephanie: so I don't know.
Tamara: a good, like, good conversation and question for our listeners too. Like, have you ever had a really bad haircut and did you say anything while they were doing it? Did you know it was gonna be bad? And then afterwards, how did you, like, what did you do about it? So, my own perspective would be that it's, it is not nice to like publicly shame them in social media or give them like horrible reviews, but like, I would definitely, Yeah, and you wouldn't do something like that, but I would definitely tell them like, Listen, if somebody.
Calls you and is looking for a curly hair specialist, don't throw them with a junior in training who doesn't really know curly hair. Like that was sort of their misrepresentation, I
Stephanie: A hundred percent. That's why I was, Yeah. I was more upset about that actually, that I had been kind of blatantly lied to about this person who said, like the owner actually said to me, Yeah, she's amazing with curls,
Tamara: Yeah. Well, and it's possible that the owner, I don't know, had someone else who may have been available and then wasn't, and then tried to do a switcheroo at the last minute, or that maybe this junior stylist in training had done like one trim on somebody with curly hair, and it turned out great. And so the owner actually thought, Oh, she really knows what she's doing?
I don't know, like it could have wound up that way for a variety of reasons, but it's, it's important to share feedback, you know, as we know. And if you do it in a constructive or polite way, then a, there's an option for them to potentially compensate you in some way, even though you, even though you don't wanna go back there for a haircut.
But maybe they, they would give you a gift certificate to shop some of their product and then, you know, alternatively, or also they're hopefully going to get this feedback and like, learn something from it so that they don't make the same mistake again and upset another customer.
Stephanie: Yeah, I, I try not to give feedback unless the person wants to hear the feedback and so I was thinking about reaching out and say, saying, Would you like some feedback on my experience? I think it's too late now. They won't remember. It was so long ago, and I just didn't wanna go there. And frankly, I'm so upset by the lack of integrity by the owner that I didn't even wanna bother.
Like, I don't ever want to go back. Like if the owner said, Yeah, come back, I'll fix it for you. I'm, I'm never going back there. It was so offensive. But anyway, I'm now trying to grow it back out and I went to another hair stylist and they said, What happened to your hair? Who cut your hair? Like, experts knew it was bad.
So I've promised Tammy, I'm committed to driving out to Brantford to get my hair cut cause she's so good and it's worth it. And she's been trying to help me fix it
Tamara: That's another one too. For our listeners, like how far are you willing to drive or travel
to get that right haircut? You
Stephanie: I know
Is 90 minutes too far?
Tamara: I don't think so
I don't think
Stephanie: For a
curly
Tamara: depends like how often you have to go and, What's going on in your life? Like if you can do it, put on a podcast.
It's a road trip.
Stephanie: Yeah, and it totally, and it helps if your hair stylist is a close friend and so it's double duty
Tamara: Yeah. Yeah. She's probably gives you a, a good deal and you're catching up.
Like,
Stephanie: up and
Tamara: it. Sounds worth it in your case for
Stephanie: yep. Totally. What about you? Any hair stories?
Tamara: Well, only that, well a couple things. So this, this spring, summer I started plopping, which was new for me. I don't know if you would consider it full plopping, micro plopping, whatever it is.
But like I've, I've had that, um, diva curl towel for quite a while, like over a year. And then Nubia gave us her microfiber head wrap too. And I, I was kind of not really like using them. I just had them and what I realized is, cuz I, it's been a long journey for me and I used to put my product in really wet and then like, it would be kind of, I would wear the towel around my neck while the curls were kind of dripping onto me and, and then I was like, Okay, maybe I won't have the hair quite as wet so I don't need to go through that.
Then I realized, you know, I can put the, put the product on, make sure it's really wet, nicely wet and saturated so the products evenly distributes on the strands. And then just loosely, I think that's what I was scared of. I was scared if I did this like plopping thing, it would kind of squish everything up into my head so I'm not wrapping it tightly.
It's like I'm loosely putting on kind of a turbine with my head upside down. And then just, Get my coffee ready in the morning, do a few things, and leave it on for, 10 minutes. And then I take off the microfiber and kind of shake it out and it's, it's great. Like, I think it's cut down my drying time and also just made the whole process a little bit easier.
So it's interesting when you hear about one of these techniques or tips that people try. You know, when we started the podcast, we used to. Curl terms and definitions into our social media and such, like you hear about like clipping and this and that and plopping and it's like, what is all this stuff? And do I need to do it?
And it seems like it won't work for me. Or you try it one way and it doesn't really work, but then you play around a little bit. Like I found, oh, this works, This actually like, makes my morning routine a little smoother and easier. Cuts my drying time down a little bit. I'm, I'm using the microfiber towel like so gently on the curls that it doesn't rustle them or disturb them.
It just kind of gently absorbs the excess water. So that was a win. That was a win in my like, new plopping experience.
Stephanie: Why do you think it's called plopping?
Tamara: I don't know. I mean, I guess cuz like you're wearing this thing and it like plops on your head,
Stephanie: Yeah. And so for our listeners, what is plopping?
Tamara: I should give you a proper definition. So plopping is a technique that involves wrapping your hair in a t-shirt or pillowcase to, to enhance your wet curls, minimize frizz, and speed up the overall drying process. So I think that along with, you know, pillowcase, t-shirt, all of those things, a lot of people now use microfiber towels. Um, and the idea being like you're taking.
My interpretation. I mean, everybody might do it slightly differently. Oh, they're saying notice how your wet hair plops against your head when you drop it down.
Stephanie: Oh, that's why it's called Plopping. How your hair plops.
Tamara: Wet hair, plops. It sounds kind of gross. But anyway, plop!, . I think the idea being you're kind of gently drying your hair a little bit without disturbing the curls.
That's the short and the long of it is that you're somehow using the, and I've used the t-shirt too in the past just to kind of, I guess they call it micro plopping when you just use it to kind of scrunch it up and absorb some of the moisture, but not putting it all over your head. So it's, it's cuts down on frizz.
Like, as we know when, if you use a towel to the towel, that's too rough. Or if you dry some your hair too roughly, you're kind of disturbing the curl pattern and resulting in frizz. But some people, you know, wanna speed up drying or, take some of the moisture out once they've done their styling.
Stephanie: Yeah, it's a technique that's always worked for me. I've been using those microfiber towels in the way you described for a couple years, and it's, I love it.
Tamara: yeah.
Stephanie: a great part of my routine.
Tamara: you put it on your head,
Stephanie: Yeah. I put in all the product after I get outta the shower, throw on the microfiber towel on my head. It's soaks up.
I, I probably have it in only for about 10 minutes and then I, if I can, I try to let it air dry as long as possible.
Tamara: yeah, yeah. That's what I've been doing. So, , I don't know why I didn't like, try it sooner, or I was just doing other things. I mean, I feel like a lot of the time when you're getting into like the curly hair journey or you start doing research about how should I be styling my hair? We've talked about this before.
It's like 25 things that you're, you're supposed to be doing. And sometimes it's like my brain can only try one thing at a time. Like one new, one new like technique at a
Stephanie: definitely
Tamara: Yeah.
Stephanie: one thing at a time, see if it works, and then if it doesn't, go back and try something else.
Tamara: yeah. And then there's a couple other things like no crazy curly stories, really of my own experience, except that that one like. I've totally saw that curly haired, cool mom again in one day. And I was like, this is the, the same misconnection like
Stephanie: Yeah.
Tamara: person who like floats around my neighborhood. But I, um, I am, I have been kind of trying to grow my hair a little bit, only because, but keep the bangs shorter and so I haven't gone for a haircut in a long time.
Like I don't think I've gone for a haircut since we ended the last season and I've just been trimming my bangs all by myself, which I'm fairly comfortable with, but I feel like I'm at a point now where I need some cleaning up, but this is an issue for I think all curl, curl types. Like when you have curly hair, you're trying to grow it out a bit, you get a cut, it seems to like spring up and like it's really hard to notice that length or maintain that length.
Stephanie: it's so true. I wouldn't have known had you not said, I wouldn't have known that you haven't had a cut, cuz your length is not that different. But it does look more full and that's because the weight is being sprung.
Tamara: sprung up. . I've also like slowly, I don't know, I'm, I don't know. I still, I trust the experts for sure. And you know, I still go to see Joey and who is not in my neighborhood, in your neighborhood. But, um, yeah, like I've just been more and more DIY and I think I've added a few new layers myself just as I'm chopping away.
I, I don't know if I talked about this, um, last spring on the podcast with like, sometimes like. When I'm doing my makeup, I'll just go in there with the scissors and I'm like, around the face, like, I'm not afraid of, uh, wielding, scissors, hair, scissors anymore. Like, I just think, you know, I had this idea in my head and probably back from when I straightened my hair a lot, that like, hair cutting is like a precision activity.
Well, when it comes to curls, it's not really, it's kind of like Nubia like gardening,
Stephanie: yeah, I think so. I'm not an expert in hair cutting. I think there's definitely technique. I mean, people go to
Tamara: Yes,
Stephanie: all the technique and the shaping and I think also how you snip, Cuz I, when I was during the pandemic cutting my own bangs, I read that you're supposed to snip your bangs vertically
as opposed to horizontally.
But I don't know if that's correct and I don't know if it's more effective. What have you been doing?
Tamara: I don't know if it's like, I, I kind of try and go like vertical or 45 degree angle and cut like in the middle of a curl. Like I, I'll cut when it's pretty much like been styled and then dried or almost dry.
Stephanie: almost dry and then in the middle of a curl. So what does that mean? So in the spring, like you'll cut the middle of the spring.
Tamara: yeah, like, yeah. And I don't know, again, something I saw on YouTube or read online, and then that's just what I've been doing. I don't know if it's the right way, but at some point it's like when the hair's covering my eyes,
Stephanie: Yeah.
Tamara: Decisions have to be made.
Stephanie: Your hair looks super cute and I agree. I mean, curly hair I think is a little bit more forgiving. If you snip the wrong curl, it'll just sort of blend in. But public service announcement. Don't ever use thinning shears. Just use scissor.
Tamara: Just don't do it. Don't do it. And then your, your beautiful haircut that you talked about with Tammy that was kind of like part shag. Part mullet would you say, Did you hear in on like, I don't know if this is like a more of a TikTok thing cause it's not really a brand new hairstyle, but they call like the wolf hairstyle that's very popular right now.
Stephanie: Oh, I haven't heard that.
Tamara: you. Yeah, so I think it is really that like cross between a mullet and a shag and became kind of, they call it wolf cut hairstyle, which is probably just like a new way of talking about a style that's not brand new . But these things come around. And I did see that wolf haircut style like works really well for like curls and waves, so.
Stephanie: Cool.
Tamara: You're on trend. You'll get back, you'll get back to that. It'll, it'll come round. You'll, you'll, your hair will rebound.
Stephanie: I hope so.
But we can post a photo. We'll post a photo and, and you can let me know what you think
Tamara: of the grow out of your bad haircut.
Stephanie: the ultimate haircut that Tammy gave me. It was so good that she used it in a training session.
Tamara: Ooh.
Stephanie: Yeah, she does. She trains like she trains stylists and she loved the cut and she used it in
a presentation. That's how good it was. That's what I mean. It was so good.
Tamara: You can do it. If your hair did it that time, your hair can do it again. It's
Stephanie: It again. It's, yeah, you just gotta grow it all the fuzz and it's, I think I'm pretty close. My hair grows pretty fast. Um, I've been trying some other things too, but I'll tell you about them next time.
Tamara: Do save it. Save it. Save some goodies. Um, so.
Stephanie: You mentioned, whoop, you mentioned, um, you mentioned the wolf haircut and stuff you've been seeing in the news.
I have a couple news stories for you. Do
you wanna shift to the curl desk?
Tamara: Yeah. Boo boo, boo boo, boo boo. That's not really the curl desk theme. Yeah. We, we've talked, we talked about this, I think at the end of last season, a new, a new section of the podcast where we can just talk about curly, uh, curly hair stories in the news.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Tamara: So tell me
Stephanie: Okay. So there's a couple. Do you have any?
Tamara: Um, I, I had saw some and didn't write them down, and now, you know, I think there's a lot of just articles about like best haircut or best products or best shampoos, but like, not as much, um, specific pop culture stuff
Stephanie: Okay. Okay, so I have two. They're both. The good news is in the, the fashion weeks that it just occurred,
Tamara: Yeah.
Stephanie: the spring summer 2023, fashion weeks, fluffy and curly hair was all over the runways.
Tamara: Hmm.
Stephanie: And, um, like so many different fashion designers, so Fendi, all the models at Fendi in Milan were given out a shaggy fluffed out texture
Tamara: Oh, cool.
I have to
Stephanie: at Tom Ford in New York.
It was inspired by full-bodied eighties perms.
Woo, so exciting. Altuzara the models on the runway were given loose, worn and waves and, um, Ula Johnson, I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right. Do you know that label,
that
designer?
Tamara: I think that sounds right to me, but
Stephanie: Okay. So in New York, natural hair was encouraged to do its thing, like it was textured and like extra.
So it was just across the runways around the world. Lots of designers were just owning this awesome textured, full-bodied permed curly hair.
Tamara: Yeah. Nice.
Stephanie: Super nice.
Tamara: Yeah. Love seeing it. Love seeing
Stephanie: Love seeing it too. And, uh, I have another Curl Desk news app, alert, News alert, blah, blah, blah,
blah. Uh, hilariously a home in St. John's, Newfoundland was going to be in the background of a scene being filmed for the TV show, Hudson and Rex.
Tamara: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: And rather than it just looking like a plain house, the set designers and producers thought, Well, let's turn the, the facade of this house into something that looks like a business.
And there's they had, there's a door and a window. So they painted the door trim and the window trim this bright pink, and they put a window decal on the front of the window. And the idea was to make it look like a business. So that the scene, it just looked like there was a business in the background and they wanted to create it into a beauty parlor.
And so the name that they used on the decal was curl up and dye. And the dye is like hair dye, d y e. Curl Up and Dye. Super cute and hilarious. And the funniest part about this is that a neighbor thought that the homeowner was creating a business and narced on them and called the municipality and filed a complaint that there was an illegal business opening without proper permits.
So the homeowner got a cease and desist letter from the municipality saying that they were in violation of a whole bunch of things, like they didn't have permits and stuff like that. And so the homeowner, it like, it's hilarious. The homeowner was just trying to be a good Samaritan in helping out this show and ended up getting a letter from the government saying, You're not allowed to operate a business
Tamara: Called Curl Up and Dye.
Stephanie: Called Curl Up and Dye. And so she posted it on social and it just totally went viral cuz it's hilarious. And then the government was like, Oh, , sorry, the file's now been closed, you're good.
Tamara: Oh my God.
Stephanie: But they said, But you have to take the label off your window . And so made it across the news. Like I found this article in a few, few different news outlets, but the one I'm I'm referencing is from City News.
Pretty funny.
Tamara: Oh my God. Yeah. Send it to me so I can post it for our
Stephanie: Yep, for sure.
Tamara: and stuff like that. Yeah, that's funny. That's a good one. Okay, so we have some interviews coming down the pipe in a couple of next episodes with some awesome, interesting people, women,
Stephanie: Technically down the pike,
Tamara: Pike,
Stephanie: Not Pipe.
Pike.
Tamara: and what
Stephanie: I'm telling you. Only cuz I know you're a,
Tamara: I do, I like etymology.
Stephanie: Ooh, good use of the word ology.
Tamara: versus Pike. Coming down the pike or pipe, the idiom, meaning soon to happen, was originally coming down the pike, not coming down the pipe. But both forms are now widely used and understood. So it sounds like it definitely started as pike, but I think of a pike as a, um, a move you do in swimming, in gymnastics
when you're like, reach your toes.
Stephanie: yeah, I think the original was turnpike coming down the turnpike, and then people misunderstood, and now it's like pipe. It's like how people say flush it out instead of flesh it out. It's actually supposed to
Tamara: Yes,
Stephanie: be flesh.
Tamara: Yes, Right. Flesh it out. I knew that one because when you flush something out, you're like making a beefier bigger. You could flush something out if it's clogged, but like you could flush out a spy
Stephanie: Yeah. But you can flesh out an idea.
Tamara: Yes,
Stephanie: Yep,
Tamara: Okay. Have
you been keeping up with your Wordle
Stephanie: I know, actually I haven't, but like welcome to Curly Linguistics Corner
Tamara: Curly language corner
Stephanie: There you go.
Tamara: like, what's slopping? Uh, anyway. Okay, Thank you. So we have some experts coming today. We're gonna hit you with some mini bios just to get back into the spirit of celebrating interesting people with curly hair, which is really one of the reasons we started the podcast was because we love stories, we're interested in, people, we're interested in culture, and, uh, so yeah.
So that's what we're gonna do today.
Stephanie: Coollio. Do you wanna go first?
Tamara: All right, so I'm gonna start with Quinta Brunson. Do you know Quinta Brunson?
Stephanie: Tell me
Tamara: Okay. So she is an American writer, producer, actress, and comedian. Uh, she was born in 1989, and she is most well known for, Abbott Elementary.
Have you seen that show?
Stephanie: no.
Tamara: were nominated for quite a few Emmy's last year, and it's a, you know, a fairly new show that launched during the pandemic in 2021. I'm just so charmed by this woman. She, she reminds me like there's just something about her that is, I mean, she's got good comic timing and she's great in Abbott Elementary.
In any case, I'll tell you a little bit more about her and, and Abbott Elementary too is like a super fun show that will make you laugh and reminds me a little bit about that. Um, that Australian comedian who produced that show that you told me about, that we then were
Stephanie: Rose Meteo
Rose Matafeo?
Tamara: Yeah, Like there's something Yeah, yeah.
From New Zealand.
Stephanie: Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Tamara: Do you Sure people from Australia get upset when you compare them to New Zealanders and vice versa?
Um, in any case? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. So, uh, Brunson gained prominence for her self-produced Instagram series Girl who has never been on a nice date. Uh, she went on to produce an act in content for Buzzfeed video and develop some streaming series with them.
She also, acted and did voice work for the first season of the HBO Sketch comedy series, a Black Lady sketch show. So I think that's, uh, one of the ways she kind of broke out too, doing stuff with hbo and then other opportunities came along. So she's the creator, executive producer, writer, and star of the ABC comedy, Abbott Elementary. I think like one of the reasons I I love her is because she is one of those people who are, you know, she's, she's multi-talented, right? She can, she can do all these different things and you know, she's an artist and creator more than just, you know, an actress. So at the 74th primetime Emmy's, she became the first black woman to be nominated three times in the comedy category because she received nominations for outstanding writing, which she won.
Outstanding comedy series cuz she's a producer and also outstanding lead actress in a comedy series. And she did not, she was snubbed for lead actress, but I don't know if I would, some people were upset, they felt she was snubbed, but Jean Smart won for hacks and that's an incredible show. And Jean Smart's a, an incredible actress.
So, you know, I'm sure that, um, and, you know, Abbott elementary's continuing, so they'll probably get nominated again because they, And, and how important are these? I know we talk a lot about, you know, award shows and the Oscars and the Emmy's and this and that, and it's like, at the same time, maybe that's not the be all and end all.
It's nice to get the recognition, but as we know, you know, representation's not great always in those, in those shows. And those, those voting pool, what's the, what's the word I'm trying to look for? Like in the voter makeup?
Stephanie: yeah. Oh, definitely. They're not equitable. They have a lot of work to do, but in the meantime, the viewership of these award shows is going, They're going down the toilet, so. in a short while, no one's gonna care. There's gonna be other ways to get this recognition.
Tamara: Yeah. Yeah, I mean I guess for us it's like hey, it's exciting when there's something you watch or something you're a fan of. And maybe that's also cuz we're like Gen X I don't know if young people care about this, but I get excited when someone, when maybe it's just that, like, if I like someone and I think they've done a great job and then they get their, their accolades, it's like, yeah, well deserved.
So she um, she was also placed on the time 100 most influential people of 2022 list. And she was this week, well in Curl News, um, there were a lot of beautiful curls on the red carpet of the new Black Panther, sequel. So they had their premiere in, uh, in LA and she was invited and she
Stephanie: Is she in the movie?
Tamara: I don't think she's in the movie. I think it's just like, there's a lot of pride in like the black community about like Black Panther cuz it's amazing and a lot of people were friends with Chadwick Boseman, so it's emotional. And so I think there was just like, the best and brightest of Hollywood who, especially BIPOC, like were on that red carpet and then everybody who's in the movie.
Um, so she, um, yeah, she's just amazing. So check out, Abbott Elementary for sure. She, um, just to give you like a little bit of background on her, she really, she started her career not unlike Justin Bieber, I guess as like online, right? Like she developed her audience and came to prominence with comedic videos on Instagram.
Like almost 10 years ago, right? In 2014. So, you know, it's interesting how now she's with a major TV network, you know, ABC and interesting that her career really started on Instagram and then Buzzfeed. So she, her series went viral and that grew her digital fan base. And off you are to the races. It's kind of like the millennial story, right?
Um, and her videos focused on problems experienced by 20 somethings. So that's maybe what makes me think of Rose Mattafeo
Stephanie: Yeah. That's great.
Tamara: Um, I'm just gonna give you one little last nugget, Uh, so Abbott Elementary, uh, is a single camera pilot, kind of in the style of the office. Uh, was picked up in May, 2021. She's the writer, co-executive producer, and she stars with Sherryl Lee Ralph and a bunch of other super talented people. Sherryl Lee Ralph did win an Emmy last year for her supporting role in the show and it's received critical acclaim.
It's gotten 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And, um, she's received a lot of praise for bringing a fresh approach to network television. Cuz to be honest, I don't watch a lot of network television anymore. Most of it's like all streaming. So it's kind of funny when you find something it's like, this is really good and, and how do we watch regular TV anymore?
It's like, I need to call my husband and get him to like figure out the, uh, the stuff. So it takes place in. In a school and it's kind of in a inner city, and they're, she try, she's trying her best to like, make it a better place for, for kids to learn and just the students and the teachers who, who work in this, uh, in this school.
But it's a great show with a great cast. So that is Quinta Brunson. I'm sure she's just at the, um, you know, beginning, well not the beginning of her career, but like the beginning of kind of more well notoriety and, more people know about her. And in August she just signed a multi-year overall deal with Warner Brothers.
so that's the studio that produces her show. So I, I'm sure there will be much more. And if you hadn't heard of her before now, you will hear more of her going forward.
Stephanie: Yeah, it's great. It's nice when there's creativity and something breaks through. That's different and she's getting the credit she deserves. That's awesome.
Tamara: Yeah, and she's super cute and her hair is super cute, and it's nice to see how they style it in the show.
Stephanie: Very cool. I'll check it out. Nice bio.
Tamara: Thanks,
Stephanie: My mini bio is about Cole Walliser. He is a video director originally from British Columbia, Can Canata and he got on my radar through Instagram. I think he actually showed up in my explore page, uh, and I was, I saw something he did and I thought it was cool, and I started following him and he's got the most incredible hair. Have you ever seen a glam bot?
Tamara: Um, I, I know a fem bot
Stephanie: So not related at all. A glam bot is a high speed camera that fixes onto a robotic arm and it's used to capture slow motion. And the glam bot was created by entertainment brand E!, You know, e exclamation mark,
Tamara: Okay. Yeah, Yeah.
Stephanie: red carpet sort of
thing. And so they, they created the glam bot and they sort of own this thing on the red carpet.
And you'll see it at all the award shows. Oh, good tieback,
or it's cuz it's used at the Oscars and the Golden Globes and the Grammys, blah, blah, blah. And so you, you see a celebrity on the red carpet doing motion. You know, sometimes it's just like looking over their shoulder or floofing a skirt or you know a lot of the celebrities wear these incredible dresses and sometimes there's movement in dresses or in the skirt part.
And, um, Cole Walliser is the man behind the camera and interacts with the celebrity to sort of figure out, okay, what little movement are we gonna do? And the glam bot captures that moment in a super cool way. And so then when you're watching it, like it's the, it's, you do it really fast, like you flick your skirt, but it slow mos it and it sort of does this really cool immersive, lens to it.
It's super freaking cool. And
Tamara: sounds perfect for the hair toss.
Stephanie: yeah, actually I would love to see Cool Walliser do a hair to glam bot, you know what we should tag them. We should tag him into this and see if he'll do it. So, yeah, he's the man behind the glam bot. He, he grew up, in BC. He grew up skateboarding and snowboarding.
He became a hip hop and break dance instructor. He's used to DJ, but he loved being behind a video camera and started to film dancers. And ultimately this led his way to working with several folks in the industry. He started working with Miley Cyrus in an online dance battle. He did some work with Pink for her concerts as well as a documentary about her life on the road.
He did some work with Cover Girl. This is all from his website. Um, so giving credit to colewalliser.com. Um, and, uh, started working with Cher and Britney Spears and Selena Gomez and so many more. And then eventually in 2016, he got hired by E! to run the glam bot and. Then the following year he started filming behind the scenes and posting those to social.
And so that's how I first found him, cuz I saw behind the scenes video of him running the glam bot on a red carpet. And um, so these behind the scenes videos that he posts are super duper popular and it just exploded. And he's still running the glambots all these years later. And his hair is incredible.
His hair is incredible.
It's super curly and long. It's down past his shoulders.
It's fun. It's free. So Cole is c o l e, Walliser
Tamara: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: Wall. I s e r.
Tamara: Okay. Oh, look at him.
He's a handsome guy.
Stephanie: Yeah. The hair is amazing. His hair is
Tamara: got amazing, he's got amazing hair. Wow. And also, you know, not many people can pull off a man bun, but he looks kind of cute with his man bun.
Stephanie: I agree.
Tamara: maybe because he's a handsome guy.
Stephanie: With a super cool job.
Tamara: Yeah. Wow. There. What a, what a, that's a great, CND.
Stephanie: Right?
Tamara: Thank you. Thank you for sharing. Now I have to follow him on Instagram.
Stephanie: You're
Tamara: I
Stephanie: welcome. You're welcome. Tamara
Tamara: and uh, I'm sure he doesn't. It's, you know, when we talk about some of these people, they're not always like, it's not about like their hair, they're just people in, you know, the curly haired community who have interesting lives, interesting careers, interesting stories to tell.
But you'd be like, Hey, Cole , featured you on a curly hair podcast. Like, do you wanna share styling tips with us? Like, what do
Stephanie: Yeah. Or I, I want to see, I like your idea. Let's ask him if he has a glam bot of him flipping his hair,
Tamara: Yes. How could you not? He will. Okay. We'll tag him. We'll ask him. And if he does this, it's gonna be epic. Wow.
Stephanie: Come on. We're, we're all curly haired people and we're all Canadians. There's something to that.
Tamara: he's gotta say yes, I am going to try and do a little honor for Sandy Pittana.
Stephanie: Okay.
Tamara: She was a Canadian fashion icon who I was lucky to know.
I'm sure you, you know her too. I don't know if you ever had a chance to meet her, but I'm sure you would've seen her on TV at some point because her career spanned, like she was a guest expert on the Cityline for over 30 years, and she passed away this past April. So it was, you know, very sad, after a long battle with cancer.
Um, she was born September 28th, 1954. She passed away April 14th, 2022. she was at home with her family. Uh, and her husband and she worked with medical clinicians, uh, for assistance assisted dying. What did they call it?
Stephanie: Yeah. Um, made
Tamara: Made?
Stephanie: like a MA service, medical assisted dying.
Tamara: Yes. Which, you know what I, I've got it. Like, it takes courage to do that.
And I think that, she wanted to, she, she always had a strong point of view and, you know, it's, it's makes sense that she would've decided, this is how I wanna do it with my friends and family, at home in a situation that I've chosen. So after a long battle with cancer, She made that choice and she sadly missed by, you know, her, her husband, their daughters, her grandchildren, her, her sister, friend, all these people.
But she was an amazing force. And when you think, when I think about the Canadian media landscape, you know, and I think about style and fashion and hair, I think Sandy and she had, she had the most beautiful smile of really vivacious personality. She was great on tv and she had this head of beautiful blonde curls.
And what's interesting to me too, because she was super into fashion,
very knowledgeable, she. She lived when she was younger in London and Paris. Um, I think she was originally a, a buyer with a large department store. So she, she really understood the ins and outs of kind of the fashion industry. She wasn't just a stylist.
Um, and, her fashion sense, like she, she tried out all the trends. She definitely had her own style. She wasn't bossed around by the trends, but when it comes to her hair, she was one of those people with a signature look. So in the nineties when like, grunge was big and flat irons were big and it was like, ha like I remember, like a time where it was like, what's the hottest flat iron you can get?
And this was a thing, it was like, there's something new that's come out that's even hotter than , than any other heat styling device before that to like, flatten out our hair in the fastest amount of time. And she never, she never did that. So like when straight hair was a trend, no, she, she always had her signature blonde mop of curls, and it was beautiful.
and, and she was just such a stylish woman. She, she made fashion fun for people and she, she branched out into, like, she did, um, segments for Cityline that showed home decor too, because she, she loved design, she loved cooking. She was just an art artistic person. and she loved her family. So, you know, I wanted to just try and pay tribute because, you know, I think she, she left a lasting impression on, of course, all her friends, family, colleagues, but Canadians too.
and there is a tribute video that Cityline has up for her as well. but when I thought about like the opportunity to just mention her on this show, I think that there's some great nuggets of fashion wisdom that, that she's shared, um, on TV over the years and, and she was just such a, a warm and loving and fun person.
So she's dearly missed. If you didn't know about Sandy, Check out, I'll post the video on our Facebook, the Cityline video that just shows a little bit about her over the years on TV. And a very cute little segment too that they included where she goes backstage at Disney World into like Minnie Mouse's, closet and sees all of Minnie Mouse's, different outfits.
she left a, a big legacy behind her and, um, definitely a curl next door worth mentioning.
Stephanie: Definitely. Thanks for sharing that.
Tamara: It's my pleasure.
Stephanie: I wanted to tell you about Brandee Younger.
Brandee Younger is a musician. She was born in 1983 and she plays the harp,
Tamara: Oh,
Stephanie: the harp,
Tamara: the harp.
Stephanie: the
Tamara: So she
Stephanie: I'm realizing now I, I wanna look into harp transportation. When I was in junior high and had to pick an instrument. School ba like school, music class. I chose the drums because I'd only have to lug around a pair of drumsticks.
Tamara: Seriously.
Stephanie: seriously, cuz I took the school bus and I didn't wanna lug an instrument around all the time.
So I just had to throw a pair of drumsticks in my backpack. And, um, I always thought I was so clever cuz the, the drums were in the classroom so I didn't have to carry them around. And, uh, I, I just, yeah, it's making me think, you know, if you're gonna choose a harp and she, like how do you transport your harp?
It's,
that's a commitment.
commitment.
Tamara: Like, it seems like such an old instrument for like, not an old person. Like it's, it's cool to see somebody young who, like, I just Googled her and there's some like really fun pictures of
her popping up online. She's pretty gorgeous. Um, so someone young and millennial, like she's around the same age as Quinta Brunson, right?
Uh, being like, I'm gonna play the harp, but like, does she tell me about her? Does she modernize it a bit or something?
Stephanie: So, um, Brandee Younger leads her own ensemble. She also performs as a soloist. She's also worked alongside other musicians. She has a lot of different idols and points of inspiration. She grew up in New York and she earned her undergraduate degrees in harp performance. That's an undergrad harp and music business from, the University of Hartford.
She learned the harp at Hartford , and she also is a Canadian connection. Actually. She's the cousin of Jordan Younger, who used to play for the CFL but now is a coach in the CFL, the Canadian Football League.
Tamara: Hmm.
Stephanie: Brandy Younger's music runs across jazz, soul, hip hop, and R&B, and she's performed alongside several noteworthy musicians in all of those genres.
In 2022, she was nominated for a Grammy award for best instrumental composition for her original piece called Beautiful Is Black. And in April, 2019, her composition Hortense was featured in Beyonce's documentary Homecoming. In 2020 she was awarded Player of the Year in Instruments Rare in Jazz by the Jazz Journalists Association, which I get like you don't often hear harp in jazz.
It's pretty cool. And uh, the first album of her is, uh, The Brandee Younger Quartet is entitled Soul Awakening. And. It's considered the birth of her signature sound. And it's thought to be a really wonderful reemergence of the harp in popular music. And it was really well received. And I came across a nice quote from NPR stating in terms of both production value and musical substance, it feels like an artifact of our moment.
Celestial groove forward unabashed about its alchemies of style. So I think that's a really great way to describe it cuz she has this crossover sort of approach. so really beautiful music and uh, one to watch Brandee Younger.
Tamara: Wow. I love these photos of her online
Stephanie: yes. There's some stunning photos. Whenever I go to the symphony, I always just stare at the harp. It's such a beautiful instrument. The construction, the lines, the
Tamara: bent wood.
It must be
Stephanie: so expensive
bent wood I, it's just incredible.
Tamara: to buy a harp.
Stephanie: I can't even imagine that's, I'm gonna Google that right now.
Tamara: Google it because on her website on, and Brandee Harper too, she's on, uh, she's on Twitter and whatever, or maybe other social too as Harpista. But her harp, like this black and gold giant harp on her. Well, every harp maybe is big, but, Or you can have an auto harp as my mother did when I was a kid, which is like a mini little tiny harp.
Stephanie: Oh, but what makes it auto?
Tamara: I don't know, It's not automatic, it's not electric, It's just called an auto harp, which is a type of, sort of mini harp. And there are some keys too. It's like it the, um, you'll have to google auto harp and see a picture of one. But like, cuz my mother was a storyteller, so she combined auto harp playing into.
Stories , and this is why I am the way I
Stephanie: No, it's amazing. That's amazing. But it was just a little handheld one, or did it sit on the floor?
Tamara: No, it's small enough to like just have it in your lap and basically it's shaped like a heart, a harp, but it's kind of small and it's got like wood and then it's got all of these different strings, so you can strum it and you can also press down on some keys that sort of like a piano, like mute certain, I guess you're muting certain strings so that then when you strum it, some of those are, um, I don't know, I'm, I'm having a hard time describing
Stephanie: No, I think you're
Tamara: it.
Google it
Stephanie: Yeah. That's super
Tamara: like you can't see through the strings. They're like against kind of a wood backboard somehow.
Stephanie: Um, and to answer your question, I just looked it up so you can get a, a beginner harp for a few hundred bucks, but they all, there's also harps for $20,000, which is more in the camp, uh, instinctually. I thought that it would be,
Tamara: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: figure instrument. And I'm sure if you're a professional, you have top
Tamara: Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, it must be, it's like the, the Harpists of the world in the double bassists. Like
Stephanie: Oh,
Tamara: I always wonder about getting those things around. And then also if you're traveling, like how do you know it's not gonna get damaged? And like, how do they, it must have a lot of insurance on
Stephanie: I think so. I think so. I always, I always cringe. I mean, I always wonder about that because, you know, musicians and, you know, symphony, like, especially a harpist, you're often a guest. You're, you know, sometimes you're part of the symphony, but sometimes you're a travel traveling harpist. And I would like, I don't know about a double bassist.
I think you're probably part of a symphony. but yeah, like you travel and you must cringe because if you, if something happened and your harp or your instrument, I, I mean, didn't arrive.
Tamara: Yeah.
Stephanie: You're in big trouble. But I think there's stories about that. I, I feel like maybe we even covered one where that happened and someone
showed
up, something got lost and the people on the other end scrambled to find the instrument, like find to borrow an instrument on their behalf.
But it's, I mean, this is your lifeblood. If your instrument doesn't show up and you're using a loaner, I mean, you're never gonna be a hundred percent on it. Cuz there's, there's, they're organic, I mean, they're, they're gonna be different. You haven't, you haven't imprinted
Tamara: Yeah. And you hear, I, I mean I feel like you hear a lot about like musicians losing guitars and stuff like that when they're traveling and, Yeah. Anyway, Noah, just as a, as a way to tie things in a neat little bow, cuz you talked about picking your drumsticks, Noah, It, my son is just, joining the, the, he had the option to choose strings or band
to, to participate
in af now. Yeah.
Stephanie: Okay. Why are
Tamara: Like he could, well I don't know, they were, when I was a kid. I
mean, maybe, maybe it's, um, maybe it's all together. But anyway, he has chosen the violin, which I played the violin when I
Stephanie: did you?
Tamara: So I don't, I'm not like, it's not like I'm still in good shape, but I remember how to hold it properly and.
Tune it a little bit and stuff like that. So he's take take following in my footsteps a little bit. And you know, it's not, I was also, but I was thinking, I was like, don't pick the cello. It's just gonna be so big in our house. You know, Like it's easy to travel around with the violin. It's pretty compact.
Stephanie: That's really cool. I'm.
Tamara: Well,
Stephanie: I'm excited for him. I, I have a little music nerd moment that has nothing to do with cur curly hair, but I think it's just funny. You know how the organ and the harpsicord and the piano are all played the same, They're all the same notes. The sheet music is the same. They're all in the note of like, you know, c blah, blah, blah.
But a piano is considered a percussion instrument. And yeah, because it hits cuz when you, when you look at the, the inner workings of a piano, it's like a, a hammer. So that's considered percussion and organ is considered a wind instrument cuz of all the pipes and it's wind.
Um, that makes, it, makes the sounds and a harpsicord is considered a string instrument.
Because it's plucking.
Isn't that
Tamara: I don't really, I don't really know how a harpsicord works, I guess.
Stephanie: A harpsicord looks, it's almost like a harp and a piano had a baby. It looks, it looks like a piano. Like there it's, you know, you sit at it and there's a keyboard and then there's like all the strings similarly to in a piano, but it's a plucking mechanism instead of a hammer mechanism.
Tamara: Well, folks, you learn something new on Curl Next Door every time. Whether it is the etymology of coming down the turnpike or the difference between a piano, a harpsicord, and a an organ . Or maybe you just came here because you wanted to figure out how to finally plop your hair.
Come here for all the reasons. Stay, we're gonna have some expert advice and, and cool people on the show soon. So we're so excited to be back. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for being patient while we were away.
Bye!
Stephanie: Bye bye.
Tamara: Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to Curl Next Door Podcast, wherever you pod, and follow us on social in between episodes. We're @CurlNextDoorPodcast on Facebook and Instagram and @CurlNextDoorPod on Twitter.
Stephanie: Do you have a curly hair story you want to tell us?
Shoot us an email at curlnextdoorpodcast@gmail.com
Until next time curlfriends!