Butterflies and braids: How Black hairstylists brought characters to life on Disney’s ‘Saturdays’

• Black actors and actresses have long expressed discontent with the way their hair is styled and treated on set, including the lack of hairstylists who can do their hair.
• Rukey Styles, a Chicago hairstylist, recently served as head of the hair department on “Saturdays,” one of Disney’s newest shows.
• On set, she was able to experiment with jewels, clips, shapes and other factors when styling Black hair.

Black entertainers have talked about it for years: They arrived to a film or TV production set only to be told the hairstylist is at a loss and doesn’t know what to do with their curly, textured locks.

One Chicago hairstylist, Rukey Styles, thinks part of the responsibility in eliminating these experiences lies with hairstylists themselves.

Rukey has worked on productions such as “Divergent” and Disney’s “Sneakerella,” for which she was nominated for an Emmy.

Most recently, she served as head of the hair department on “Saturdays,” a Disney show that premiered in March starring Golden Brooks and Omar Gooding. The show focuses on three best friends who frequent a local skating rink and form a skate crew.

Rukey, leader of the show’s hair department, said more actors are speaking up for themselves on set and hairstylists need to know how to do all types of hair.

“Be as well-rounded an artist as possible,” she told USA TODAY. “There’s straight Black hair and there’s very tight, coily Black hair. There’s curly Black hair. Work with all types of Black hair so you’re equipped to work with any hair that sits in your chair.”

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To prepare for her new role as head of the hair department on “Saturdays,” Rukey first read the script and got to know the characters.

Before she starts any production, she reaches out to the actors to ask about their likes, dislikes and thoughts they have about their characters as well.

On “Saturdays,” Rukey said she took into account the characters’ personalities as well as their hair textures. 

The character Ari, played by Peyton Basnight, loves butterflies, Rukey said. So Basnight, a 16-year-old actress, donned butterfly locs on “Saturdays.”

Basnight, a North Carolina native, is multiracial and said she has family members who are Black, Indigenous, Chinese, Native American and more.

Basnight said she hasn’t permanently straightened her hair with chemicals, but she does flatiron it sometimes. 

“I grew up with white girls with straight hair that wore their hair to school wet,” she said. “I’d never seen anyone in braids until I moved to Georgia. That was really interesting, to experience that.”