‘The Piano Lesson’ Hair Designer on Finding the Perfect Wig for Erykah Badu

variety.com:

Laura Sirikul When “The Piano Lesson’s” hair designer Andrea Mona Bowman was first told she was tasked to create a wig for singer Erykah Badu, she was elated.

She immediately began designing what would be fitting for the Queen of Soul’s cameo as Lucille, the rousing bandleader at a jazz club, in Malcolm Washington’s film adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play. “I was so excited because she’s an icon to me,” Bowman, the head of the hair department, tells Variety. “I just love everything about her style.” But there was a slight problem.

Due to Badu’s touring schedule, she was available for only one day to shoot. There would be no time for a prior hair fitting, which meant Bowman had to have several wigs ready in hopes that one would work. “I had to prepare all these wigs but, by her having a red-yellow undertone, I didn’t know the level of the natural color of the wigs — if it had too much dark pigment or if it was too red,” Bowman explains. “So I set out a spread of wigs.” On the day of Badu’s arrival, Bowman quickly began fitting the wigs she had prepared, but nothing stood out. “We were able to fit some, but I didn’t like how the color looked on her skin.

Being in a jazz joint, the lighting plays a little bit different. So when she got in the light in the trailer, it didn’t read.