Hair Love
Dir: Matthew A. Cherry & Everett Downing Jr

Hair Love is an adorable animated short film about a father who has to unexpectedly step in for the mother to do his daughter, Zuri’s hair before a big event, what sounds like an easy task, is anything but as these locks have a mind of their own.

Hair Love simply is adorable, a very sweet watch which is currently featured on the Animated Short Academy Awards shortlist, and I sincerely hope that it does earn at least a nomination. The relationship between father and daughter here is incredibly touching, as the father has to venture completely out of his comfort zone to help his daughter.

This story, as stated by the director himself, was born out of seeing a lack of representation in mainstream animated projects and also wanting to promote ‘hair love’ amongst young men and women of colour. And it is their hope that it will inspire.

I love to see projects inspired by an own persons struggles, everybody deserves representation in all types of mainstream media, but it is truly inspiring when someone takes a difficulty or bias of their own and uses a creative outlet to display it.

Hair Love itself was an incredibly well created piece, technically the animation was really nice and reminiscent of a Pixar short with excellent technical execution.

I would definitely recommend Hair Love, it entertains, informs and inspires all in one sweet, short piece.

When "Zuri" wakes up in the morning and removes her night cap, her hair - well it's big, very very big! She has faith though that her mum will come and groom it back into stylish and gorgeous shape. Ha! Not today. It's dad who has to sort things out - and he'd rather face Mike Tyson in a boxing ring than try to get to grips with this particular challenge! With her throwing a strop and dad well and truly out of his depth - we have a conundrum! Maybe one of mum's training videos might prove useful? Let's see! I'm not sure hairdressers around the world will appreciate what follows but it is quite a nicely, simply, animated story that raises a smile at the end.