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Abbott Elementary Lead Hair Designer On Preserving Natural Hair & Styling For Personality

Abbott Elementary Lead Hair Designer On Preserving Natural Hair & Styling For Personality

Summary

  • The hairstyles of the characters in Abbott Elementary are specifically chosen to reflect their personalities, with Janine’s curly hair representing her self-contained nature and Barbara’s classic bob reflecting her wisdom and elegance.
  • Ava’s ever-changing hairstyles symbolize her ability to adapt and explore different looks, while Melissa’s fiery red hair matches her fiery personality.
  • Moira Frazier, the show’s lead hair designer, prioritizes the health of Black actors’ natural hair and created a haircare product to keep their hair moisturized and protected. Collaboration with creator Quinta Brunson ensures that the hairstyles align with the characters’ backstories and the overall vision of the show.

Abbott Elementary is a mockumentary-style sitcom that follows a dedicated group of teachers at a Philadelphia public school. With the odds stacked against them, these teachers work hard to bring the best educational experience possible to their students. This strange work family takes care of one another just as they do their students, and the audience is invited to laugh as they grow as people and educators.

Abbott Elementary was created by Quinta Brunson, who is also the executive producer and star of the series. Abbott Elementary also features a powerhouse cast, including Tyler James Williams, Janelle James, Lisa Ann Walter, Chris Perfetti, William Stanford Davis, and Sheryl Lee Ralph. Given the majority Black cast, hair is naturally a big concern on set — especially in an industry where Black performers have felt their voices went unheard in that department. That’s why Abbott Elementary has award-winning Hair Department Head Moira Frazier, whose 20-plus years of experience in the beauty industry includes her natural hair product line Fingaz Beauty.

spoke with Moira Frazier about her work as the lead hair designer on Abbott Elementary. She broke down how Janine, Barbra, Ava, and Melissa’s hairstyles speak to their personalities as characters. Frazier also discussed the importance of preserving the health of Black actors’ natural hair and collaborating with Brunson to achieve the best possible results. Note: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, and the show covered here would not exist without the labor of the writers and actors in both unions.

Moira Frazier Talks Abbott Elementary

I love Abbott Elementary. The show is phenomenal. Can you talk about how the hairstyles for each of the characters helped portray each of the characters’ personalities?

Moira Frazier: Oh, my gosh. As you all know, hair tells a story. Because hair tells a story, everyone’s hairstyle is specific to them. Let’s take Janine for example. Janine’s hairstyle played by Quinta Brunson. She wears her hair pretty much the same, but she’s very to herself with her look. And we all love a good curl.

We all love a good curl pattern. But with Janine, she’s never really stepped outside of herself, outside of just her curly hair because that’s what fits her. I know in the beginning of her character development, we didn’t want to stray too far from that look because if she was to come in with blonde hair, that’s not Janine. It doesn’t speak to her. The importance of showing her personality through her curls and through that curly texture, it just brings out her character all the way around. Just because curly hair… Even though it may seem to be less manageable, there is a specific process. There are specific steps. The washing, the deep conditioning, the twisting at night for the curls, all of that is a specific process.

For Janine to come out with, let’s say, a Halle Berry haircut with blonde hair? That’s completely out of the norm for her. And if she did come out with something like that, it’s because she’s trying to find herself and try something new. But that’s why that hairstyle speaks to her. And we all know somebody that’s hair like that and may have similar personalities like Janine’s.

Moving on to Barbara. Barbara got that honey, that church lady bob, look. Okay, we all know that grandma in church or I don’t want to say grandmother, but we all know that older lady or seasoned, mature woman.

Yeah, the distinguished woman.

Moira Frazier: Yes. Distinguished, who you can grab so much inspiration from. Because now we are living in a day and time where people are… Let’s go on the internet and do all this and Google this, Google that. But when you have a living legend like Sheryl Lee Ralph that you can glean wisdom from, it emulates so well through Barbara Howard. And the hairstyle just speaks for itself and it goes with her personality. It is very together. Barbara Howard is not going to come to work with a bust down middle part and long hair like Ava.

Honey, we switched all the looks for Ava this season because a character like Ava, you got to keep the audience guessing. You got to keep the audience on their toes. And the thing with hair for Ava’s character is hair changes your mood. Okay? I’m curly today, but if I feel like being straight tomorrow or if I feel like having a Farrah Fawcett hairstyle or going like the whole fro, I can do that.

And Ava represents every woman out there who has the ability to change and change that hairstyle. And switch a wig like she switch her shirts in her wardrobe. And that’s the fun part about Ava. Melissa Schemmenti, her… I’m just going down the line. I’m flying.

No, you’re good. I love it.

Moira Frazier: Melissa Schemmenti, her hair speak… Well, the color specifically because Dustin Osborne, who’s my key hairstylist and also colorist on our show, worked together with Lisa Walters to get this hair color just right for her. And the color speaks to her personality; that fiery red hairstyle. That firecracker hairstyle just speaks to her spicy personality. Don’t play with Ms. Schemmenti, honey, ‘cause she might grab a bat on you! Or whatever the case may be. But it gives… Even with how her hair is styled throughout this whole season, because there’s moments where we see her in an updo ponytail when she’s at home and relaxed.

But when she’s at work, she means business. That’s why we never really put her in straight hair. We always put her in hair that speaks to her personality. It speaks to her confidence. When you see her, you already know she means business.

You have so much fire. You should be on the show. I feel like you should be a character on the show. Can you talk about the importance of black women being able to not only understand their hair, but keep it healthy?

Moira Frazier: It is definitely a priority because we as black women, especially on shows like Abbott or any other show that any actor in Hollywood or Atlanta or wherever the place works in our industry, are constantly in and out of wigs depending on their character. And for me, I created a product, Moisturelized, and that basically helps keep their hair moisturized. I always use products that are basically specific to the actor or actress that’s in my chair or in my trailer that’s being serviced by any one of my team.

All of us come from the salon world. As a licensed cosmetologist, we understand the importance of healthy hair. And a lot of times with these schedules of these actors, if they’re shooting in Brazil, they may or may not be able to bring their normal hairstylist with them. It’s up to us in this industry to make sure that we bring that knowledge and that practice to the trailer so that they can be able to have their hair fully taken care of. So that they can grow and not take out no edges and not be bald.

But all of that learning and training and figuring things out and doing it quick now because we got to get them ready for the show and ready for their scenes. But yes, those are all important and we bring that skill level, especially on Abbot. That is haircare is our first and foremost primary… Like that’s our motto.

Something you mentioned, which is stunning to me, is that you have more than a hundred wigs ready on set to go all the time.

Moira Frazier: Yes, you have to. You have to. I had an incident once where I had all the wigs and all the textures, but there was one specific texture that our creator and showrunner Quinta Brunson wanted for her sister’s character, the actress Ayo [Edibiri]. And I didn’t have it on hand, but I had it in bundles. Bundles meaning the hair extensions on the track. I kid you not, she came in at five in the morning when she had to be on set by seven. She already was in makeup for about 45 minutes or so. I kid you not. I went in that trailer, my trailer, pulled out my sewing machine and made her a wig on the spot.

I had to make it, color it, all of that in under two hours and get it approved by Quinta. And after she saw it, she was like, “Yes, that’s it. That’s the one.” And that’s how we came up with that character. So a lot of my wigs that are already on the show, the hundred plus, that plus sign comes from when I have to do it on the spot and make something on the spot. But that comes from years of experience and all that other good stuff that I apply on set because you never know.

Speaking of Quinta, can you talk about working with her as a collaborator? Because she seems so welcoming and inviting. I’d like to say that there have to be bits of her real personality in her character.

Moira Frazier: Quinta is my homegirl. She the homie. I low-key feel like her honorary big sis. But she is such an amazing person and I love the fact that when we are collaborating on hairstyles, I always, nine times out of 10, we’re always on the same page. She’ll say, “Okay, well this is the character that we’re writing for this episode.” And I’ll be like, “Okay, well give me a little backstory about her. What is this person’s backstory? What does she look like? Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.”

And I’m just piggybacking off of an incident from season one where we had the artsy teacher. And one of the things that she said during that season was, “Hey, I want her to look like kind of Zoe Kravitz, but not really Zoe Kravitz. But kind of like that boho, but not really boho.” And I was like, “Girl, okay, well show me what she looked like and then we’ll find that inspiration.” And I kid you not, I pulled up a picture, she said, “That is the look that I’m looking for.” And I said, “Wah da.” We’re always on the same page.

Even with the characters that come in for the season, we’re always on the same page. And it’s such fun creating, collaborating with her because she gives me the freedom to really create. And a lot of times when you’re working different projects, sometimes it is built off that relationship that you have with the person’s vision that they trust you enough to bring that vision to life. And I can’t thank her enough for just trusting me for that. And here we are now.

Can you talk about your signature and distinct technique for interweaving and infusing your client’s natural hairs with their extensions to create this seamless look?

Moira Frazier: So first of all, I can make all my wigs as you see here. This is a full lace wig, by the way. I can make this full lace wig in eight days. The back took me four days. And just because I’ve been really busy working and creating other things, the front will take me about three to four days to create. So it’s about a good eight days to create a full lace wig. If I’m doing a front to where I’m customizing that hairline to that actor’s hairline, that’ll take me a good day if that give or take some hours. But I usually do a really, really fast turnaround. My biggest motto has always been, the more you work, the faster you’ll get.

And a lot of my techniques definitely come through my expertise of wig making and making those wigs to look like it’s coming right at the scalp. I do use a lot of my own personal products, which is my less like melting spray. It’s a quick way to get clients, or not clients. It’s a quick way to get the actors in and out of their character without damaging their hair. We only use water to remove. So it lasts all day. Literally lasts all day, and then we just remove it with water at the end of the day and they still have their edges.

That’s a unique technique, using water only to remove wigs, which helps natural hair growth. Can you talk about that and why that’s important?

Moira Frazier: I mean, obviously if there’s a scene where we have to use glue. We just have to use glue, and we do go and follow safety protocols when it comes to removing glues. That’s why you need to license people. You need your cosmetology license. But as far as the product that I have, the lace lock melting spray is quick to put on, quick to take off because of the water. That’s all you need. And it’s just a high holding spray that literally makes the lace disappear on camera. We shoot in 4K.

My thing this whole season was to make sure, okay, you don’t want the glue to seep through. It needs to be met. And it needs to match the actor’s skin tone to a point where you’re not going to be able to see anything. And if you ventilate the wig right, you ain’t going to see nothing anyway. So that’s the best thing in the highlight of this whole Abbott Elementary with our expertise that comes into play. So yeah.

What’s been the most challenging look to come up with for Abbott Elementary? I would assume the Halloween episode where Janelle had the Storm wig.

Moira Frazier: I really wanted to go bigger. I wanted to go bigger during that episode because I actually put three wigs together on that episode. Three wigs stacked on top of each other. But for this, I think we only ended up doing… Yeah, we went from three wigs stacked on top to two wigs stacked on top to one wig, which just still was great. But there was a technique that I did use for that, and it’s an old school technique. One of the hood beauty salon techniques, because like I say, I come from the salon world.

So one of those techniques, back in the day, we used to call it invisible part techniques where you cut because it is a synthetic wig. And that was a last minute decision for us to not… For me to not have the quick turnaround time to ventilate a whole hairline because we weren’t really sure the direction that we were going. Technically, we were supposed to do a bunch of different looks for that episode.

But to make a long story short, I took a weft, cut the weft off and just literally glued it onto the scalp to emulate her hairline. And we had to do that for every episode. And I’ll say… Let me put it out there. That was the episode that I got COVID.

My team had to hold it down that whole episode, but they had all the wigs that I created. So I got to remember… I got to ask my key how many wigs we had ‘cause I know we had over a hundred wigs for that episode. Everyone was in a wig every night. Even the kids. I think we did a Beyonce wig for one of the little girls. So yeah, it was an intense episode. I once again got to give a shout-out to my team, Dustin Osborne, Christina Joseph. They held it down and all the day players and all the barbers that came in from my union 706, they held us down.

There’s that episode where Janine goes out to the club during Christmas break and she straightens her hair. Honestly, she almost looks like a different person when her hair’s straightened like that. Can you talk about the challenges maybe of shaping a style according to somebody’s face?

Moira Frazier: It always comes down and boils down to the technique and understanding facial structures. That’s what you are trained to do when you’re a licensed cosmetologist. I’m going to throw that out. But you have to, when you are a licensed professional, you understand facial structures. You understand face framing and the framing of your client and the framing of the actor that’s sitting there and how that accentuates her face.

Does she have a oval-shaped face? Does she have a diamond shaped face? You’re using all of those skills that you may have learned in beauty school and you’re bringing that into your actual profession. And by doing that and creating this look for Quinta, we did those soft layers so that she can emulate her touching into her softness of the character. This is her chance to let her hair down and maybe grab a bull or maybe grab a little boyfriend along the way.

And then she went to Gregory. All of those things. And even the way Gregory looks at her. It’s like, “Oh my god.” You know what I’m saying? Of course you’re noticing the hair ‘cause you’re always seeing her in the curly. So I have to do something a little different where it’s straight with some layers and a little bump and curl. That’s a big step for her. And it emulated so well on screen. And Quinta, bomb actress obviously, but she delivered and carried every look throughout this season.

Yeah, she’s fantastic. Can you talk about your process? Do you get the script and read it, and at that point, are you already mapping out what you’re going to do with each person’s look? Do you talk to the actor about the look that you want to apply?

Moira Frazier: Right. It always starts with pen and paper, first and foremost. I read the script, break down that episode. And when I’m breaking down that episode of breaking down that character. I’ll actually go to the writers first and I’ll ask them, “What were you thinking when you wrote this about this character?” Just to kind of get in the mind frame of what particular, what they’re looking for. Because if I know what kind of mind frame they’re going to be in, then I’m going to know how to apply whatever hairstyle that I’m going to do.

And I’ll pick the hairstyle and then consult with the actors. Like, “Okay, this is what we’re thinking. This is what I like.” And obviously, because they trust me, there literally is no back and forth. This, “Why don’t I do this?” But when the actors, when they’re excited about a look… I think there was one episode, the Christmas episode where the club episode Janelle did suggest, “I want to do a half up, half down hairstyle. Like, “Yes, girl, let’s do that. Let’s do that. I like that.” So when those things come into play, it can be a collaborative effort across the board.

But it’s me trying to break down the psyche of that character. That’s first and foremost across the board for me. That’s what I always do. I always break down the character. There was an episode of, you got to catch the finale when they had the sleepover. And I was like, “Y’all, let’s be real. I remember when I was growing up, my mama didn’t let me go to no sleepover, a school sleep over without a scarf or a bonnet or something. ‘Cause she spent that time putting my hair together. She not about to let me go to a sleepover without no scarf.”

So when I talked to one of the writers, which was Brittany Nichols, I asked her, I’m like, “Okay, let’s talk about this. Where do you see them having the durags and the bonnets? And where do you see them winding down with that?” And that’s how we really incorporating and I saw comments online when everybody was finally a show where they’re showing the real us, our culture and how we do. You know what I’m saying? So that was good.

That’s incredible. Now, can you talk about doing scalp massages for the actors to help generate and circulate blood flow and promote growth?

Moira Frazier: What we do is we do have a little scout massager. We started implementing it on some of the actors or actresses that want it. But we do have that available and we’re really going to have more stuff available next season. More of those treatments available. We go a little outside of what our normal job description is to make sure that they’re comfortable. But once again, that comes into having knowledge about hair growth.

And we stimulate their scalp. We stimulate their follicles. I’ll do a deep massage. We do take care of their coloring and we maintain their coloring things on set and all of that. So it’s literally like a little mini salon. It’s like… Yes, it’s a mini salon on set.

And we take care of them and we try to get them ready. Some of us do them personally outside of the show. And sometimes if we’re not booked for that, just depending on how busy our lives are, we try to make them as ready for their hairstylists that they go to outside of the show as well. So it is a collaborative effort across the board.

One thing that I want to talk about too is your use of color without a lot of ammonia. Because I know that that’s such a big thing that some people are allergic to, and it isn’t super healthy.

Moira Frazier: I do use an ammonia-free product on one of our actresses. I cannot disclose the name. But one of them girls, I do an ammonia-free coloring process on them. You’ve got to remember, when you’re undergoing a color process, everyone takes different things. Everyone’s hair stands different things. For my particular hair texture, I can’t go platinum blonde and not expect my hair to feel like cotton. You know what I’m saying? Regardless of how many products I put on top of it, I can’t do that because my hair has a little porosity.

But there’s other people who can do it because their hair has high porosity and retains moisture. But when you get those actors that whose hair may not retain a lot of moisture or their hair may go through vigorous amount of things, whether they’ve been to this stylist, that stylist. Or they might’ve been in a pinch and had to do something themselves or using the wrong product for so many years.

What I normally do is I try to go the safest way to get them their result. So if we’re trying to, let’s per se freshen up a color, I want to go with the safest product, which usually is an ammonia free product. And we go with the lowest volume so that they can maintain their hair’s integrity while we’re rebuilding it. Because believe it or not, wigs, braids, all of those things are protective hairstyles. And when they’re in my chair while we’re on set, I usually braid them down.

And they’ll keep those braids for a week depending on if they have different schedules or anything like that. But if they’re after… Let’s say they had to film today and then afterwards they have to go to a premiere somewhere or they have to get ready. Then I’ll make sure that their hair is still moisturized and prepped for whatever style that they need. So yes.

You also use your own brand of shampoos and wig bath bombs to help hydrate the hair so it doesn’t strip the color and adds moisture to the hair. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Moira Frazier: My daughter gave me the wig bath bomb idea. She’s this big TikTok or YouTuber — kids, they love TikTok. They love YouTube. She’ll watch videos. And back [in] maybe 2018 or 2019, she was like, “Mom, you should do a bath bomb.” For wigs, I always soak the wigs first to make sure you get all the residue and stuff off. But I needed to create a bath bomb that was going to soak the wigs, but not strip the color. Or soak the wigs, but still moisturize and infuse moisture into the wigs.

All of our wigs on the show, when time permits itself, we do do a wig bath bomb to where we give them all wig baths. They’ll sit in the bath bomb for a good 15, 20 minutes, and all you need is one shampoo after that. One shampoo, just one, which is my product too. But one shampoo and then you follow up a conditioner and you’re done.

Well, let’s talk about your product for a second because is this available to the public?

Moira Frazier: It is available to the public. I got to make the bath bombs, but it’s available to the public. My conditioners, I do make all of my moisturized cream. These are handmade. I only use raw ingredients such as shea butter, mango butter, kokum butter, all those things, shampoos and conditioners are made. And I also just incorporated an ingredient called Chebe oil. And Chebe is a very, very popular product that everybody’s doing. That everybody done got hip to Chebe now. So everybody adding Chebe.

But I actually make the oil and you have to ferment that oil for about a good three or four days. And once you ferment that oil, then I usually add that to my products and add it to the hair growth oil as well. And it does promote massive hair growth.

You’re like a hair designer and scientist. This is crazy.

Moira Frazier: Yeah, I got to be!

About Abbott Elementary

A group of dedicated, passionate teachers — and a slightly tone-deaf principal — find themselves thrown together in a Philadelphia public school where, despite the odds stacked against them, they are determined to help their students succeed in life.

The first 2 seasons of Abbott Elementary are available on Hulu now.

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