Yes, ‘Dolapo Is Fine,’ Okay?

 

Dolapo is Fine film poster. 

A film focused on the hairstyles of Black girls/women will never become old. It remains a constant critique in all societies what the Black female equation will do with the top of her head. When Black men make films about it (for example Chris Rock’s comedic documentary Good Hair offers more questions than answers about what is “good hair”), it feels more disingenuous punchline to an unsatisfactory joke at the expense of humiliating Black girls/women than a healing opportunity for the community. 

Dolapo (Doyin Ajiboye) waiting for her big interview. 

Enter the wonderfully executed short film Dolapo is Fine, a familiar story written by Joan Iyiola and Chibundu Onuzo and directed by Ethosheia Hylton. 

Dolapo (Doyin Ajiboye) fluffs up her hair as Imogen (Katie Friedli Walton) waits in the sidelines. 

Dolapo (Doyin Ajiboye) looking at her reflection for a moment. 

Dolapo is a bright, intelligent student at a London based private boarding school. Her classmates are mostly white including her close friend Imogen. The future seems bright for a girl hoping to intern at a bank. Unfortunately, Dolapo’s choice to flaunt her natural hair discourages Daisy, the mentor whose own name is shortened to appease her corporate bosses. Daisy’s straight, long-haired wig represents power and confidence— inspiring Dolapo to mirror the older, experienced woman. 

Daisy (Joan Iyiola— also the film’s co-screenwriter) advices Dolapo to remake herself to fit a more professional demeanor specifically her hair and name aka her whole identity. 

The glaring fact that Daisy blasts Dolapo’s hair as the reason she would not do well in the professional realm is a sad consequence of globalized mental conditioning. It is always Black girls and women choosing to wear their hair out from which it grows naturally facing ugly blowback. A fellow Black woman Daisy— who looks at Dolapo’s Afro in undisguised hatred— tells Dolapo that her white friends think it’s cute speaks volumes. 

Dolapo preparing her hair for Wigageddon. 

According to Imogen, her curls are a struggle too. Yet the struggle is not as viciously inherent as Dolapo.  When the Black Girl Magic natural hair resurgence began years ago, it was co-opted by girls and women with Imogen’s specific curl pattern, putting them well ahead in the forefront of the 4C types who were simply celebrating the kinky, coarse, thick hair that is not as prevalent and preferred as white and biracial women’s. In magazines such as Glamour and Cosmopolitan, Sarah Jessica Parker and Nicole Kidman are talking about embracing their natural curls, but Black women have to hide behind wigs and lace fronts and remain silent about hair struggles to predominately white interviewers. 

Dolapo tries to put on a good front, but not only is the wig an itchy menace, she has nightmares about whose hair it could possibly be. 

Dolapo takes a stance towards the ever curious Imogen whose hands dangerously reach out to touch Dolapo’s hair as though she’s at a petting zoo. 

Dolapo buys a wig and protects her Afro underneath it. During a video call with her parents, they are pleased by Dolapo’s transformation, believing she looks like a model/beauty queen. This further demonstrates the devastating hold straight hair has on Black girls and women— that this still means beautiful, acceptable in every part of the world. When Dolapo goes to school sporting her new look, walking with an elevated air, everyone stares at her in a stupor, as though she’s someone they’ve never seen before. Dolly is what she prefers to be called, a slick shortening of her name (which originally is not too short) that sounds hip. However, the first successful cloning of the sheep Dolly comes to mind. Dolapo wants to emulate not only Daisy, but the many Black girls/women who have conformed to the European standards of beauty over their own nature. 

Dolapo is fine just the way she is. 

Winner of the HBO Short Film Award and other honors and an impressive roster of being selected in various film festivals, Dolapo Is Fine is a well-deserving watch with a refreshing cast led by Doyin Ajiboye’s incredible performance. In fifteen riveting minutes, anyone can understand Dolapo’s identity dilemma and root for her to win against an unsettling injustice made by colonialism.