When Nikiya Mathis began styling her friend's hair shortly after graduating from New York University with a Master of Fine Arts, she never imagined her talent would one day turn into an actual gig. “I went to school to be an actress, not a hairstylist,” she tells Marie Claire. “Styling hair just happened for me because no one on set could style Black hair. My friends knew me as the girl who could cornrow and create wigs, next thing I knew I was styling wigs on Broadway.”
Mathis is referring to crafting original braided wig styles for JaJa's African Hair Braiding, otherwise known as the world premiere for Ghanaian-American playwright Jocelyn Bioh. The 90-minute show welcomes viewers into Jaja’s bustling Harlem hair braiding shop on a sweltering hot summer day. Inside the small salon, West African immigrant hair braiders create braided styles (box braids, micro-braids, a braided bob, cornrows, even Beyonce-inspired floor-length braids) on neighborhood women who either drop in unexpectedly or arrive for their appointments.
