#219- From Wigs to Wow: Embracing Your Authentic Self as a Performer

This week, Salisha shares a powerful realization about hair, identity, and what it really means to show up fully in the audition room.

After taking a commercial class in New York City, a simple question from a casting director shifted the way she saw herself. What started as a conversation about a wig turned into a deeper reflection about confidence, perception, and the subtle ways performers sometimes hide parts of themselves without even realizing it.

In this solo episode, Salisha talks about
• The unspoken politics of hair in audition rooms
• The difference between choosing a look and hiding behind one
• How embracing her natural hair changed her confidence
• Broadway’s evolving relationship with authenticity
• Why being fully yourself can influence how others receive you

This episode is a reminder that sometimes the shift is not about changing your talent. It is about changing how you see yourself.

When you stop hiding and start choosing intentionally, you may realize you were more than enough all along.

CHAPTERS

01:41 Commercial class and unexpected feedback
03:29 The casting director’s honest perspective
05:05 Hiding versus choosing intentionally
05:51 Broadway’s shift toward natural authenticity
08:02 Accepting yourself and being cast as you

@salishathomas @thesalishashow, www.thesalishashow.com

Many thanks to Gotham Network in NYC, TyNia Brandon for writing and laying vocals down for the updated theme song and Big Red Studios for the intro video wherever you watch the latest season of The Salisha Show!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

What we knew that you wanna know you and your favorite rose. Stay true. Go in with the blow. So come on through. Everybody blows on the Selicia Show.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Hello and welcome back to the Silicia Show. I'm your host, Salisha Thomas, and today I want to talk about hair. I want to talk about a little bit of the politics of hair in a professional space, in the audition room, in wherever you're at, where it counts, whatever that means. And also, shout out to Gotham Network and Gotham Production Studios for allowing me to record at this beautiful studio. I'm so grateful. I I But let's take it back to right before the pandemic happened. I took an on-camera commercial class here in New York City. And I'm not gonna say the teacher's name, even though I really do want to give her a shout-out. I don't want to get her canceled. She actually changed my life, but she was worried about getting canceled, which is why the conversation almost didn't happen. And I and I had to pull it out of her. So I was in this class for a few weeks, and enough weeks that I've had some lifelong friendships from that class and also some crazy, some other crazy stories that happened in that class. But one of the things that was my biggest learning moment or opportunity from that, from that class was not just the techniques I learned on screen to for commercial work, but something else. It was my day to present. I was about to sign with a new commercial agency that same day. And so I had a full face of makeup on. My favorite new wig, it was like a little Bob wig, and it looked, it was freshly styled. I looked great. I felt like a million bucks. And it was my turn to present that day. So I'm on camera. It's my turn to present, and I'm going and I'm feeling really good about it. And she stops me. She's like, wait, stop, stop, stop, stop. And I'm like, yeah. Like I'm always open for notes. Like, give me everything. Like, just let me know what you're thinking so I can improve. I don't care. I love criticism. I love constructive criticism. I don't need the peanut gallery out in the world being like, I don't like your dress, but if I'm in a in a class setting or if I'm in a show, please tell me what is not working so that I don't look like a fool when it counts, right? That's where my head goes. She goes, Stop. Uh something is off. I think it's your hair. The room, like the air in the room gets sucked out immediately. Like everyone is like, and I'm like, what do you mean? And she senses uh a shift as well. And she gets very hesitant. She goes, um, I don't know. I I think it's uh like affecting your personality a little bit. I'm like, what do you mean? She doesn't want to say nothing. I can see that she's like very hesitant and nervous that she's already opened up this can of worms. And I said, It's okay. I've paid a lot of money for this class. I want to know everything that you're thinking. I will not get you in trouble. Please, why do you think it's my hair? And so cautiously she proceeds and says, Are you wearing a wig? And I said, Yes. She goes, She's a casting director. She said, When I'm casting, if I'm going in between two talented actors who can both do the job and one is wearing a wig and one is not, I will cast the person without the wig. I said, Go on. She adjusts in her chair a little bit. She said it's an uncomfortable conversation, and I don't want to say the wrong thing. And so by choosing the person who's not wearing a wig, I at least know what we're working with and I can avoid the whole conversation completely. And I said, heard. Heard. That was such a game changer for me because at that point I had already been natural for maybe almost two years, like a over a year and a half. But if you were to look at my Instagram, you wouldn't know that I had been natural for almost two years. Because in all of my photos, I was wearing a wig or was covering my head with a hat. I had not straightened my hair for a huge chunk of time, but I'd never still let anybody see it. And it wasn't until that class where I realized the power in embracing what is on my head to be able to show up to an audition with what I actually look like. Now, with that said, I'm still gonna stand by. Being a black woman, we are so versatile. We can wear our hair however we want to. We can straighten it, we can flat iron it. Permit. We can wear wigs, weaves, lace fronts, we can chop it. There's so many styles that we can do and rock, okay? Doesn't matter what anybody else wants us to do, we can just show up how we want to show up and then look completely different the next day or the next week. There is so much freedom and power in that. And also during like this time of the when this class was happening, Broadway was going through a shift as well. And a lot of people were wearing their natural hair on Broadway. There was a shift in less wigs on stage, and casting was casting more performers who had a look. One of my previous interviews that I've conducted on this show, which was previously called Black Hair in the Big Leagues, I interviewed Britt Mack and Adriana Hicks from Six. They were two of the original ladies from Six, the musical on Broadway here in America. And Britt said, she called it out. She was like, How's somebody gonna have how you gonna have a signature look that's not even yours? I was like, dang, what? Because at the time, my signature look was like one of my favorite wigs that I would wear all the time. But she was right. She was so right. My signature look was not even really who I was. Like that took me aback for a second. And I thought, like, okay, well, wait, who am I? Of course it's okay for me to wear wigs. But what is the intention behind it? Am I wearing wigs to hide, which at the time I was, or am I wearing wigs for fun to mix up what I'm doing, like my my new look? Now when I wear wigs, it's because I want to achieve a certain look. Before when I wore wigs, it's because I did not like what was on my head. Very different energies, very different like backstories, right? And since that commercial class, I've really taken an effort to nurture what is on my head and to figure out a way to like it. Because I did not like it. I hated it. And when you're in transition, which if you don't know what that means, it's like if you're going from one hairstyle to the next, you have to cut your hair in between. It's it can be a hard place to be in, like not recognizing the person who you see in the mirror or not liking what you see or not feeling beautiful. It sucks. It really sucks. It takes a minute to be like, you are beautiful, telling yourself and believing it. I am beautiful, and to really grow into that and love it. And I've taken the last few years to do that work, and I feel that now. I'm like, this is what I actually look like. This is it. This is my hair. And now I love to cut it and I love to try new things, and there's just there's so much tied to our hair and identity, and I'm grateful for that class. I'm grateful for that instructor, that casting director who told me the truth because after that I was able to challenge myself to show up in public with how I actually look. And the day I began to accept who I was, I saw a shift in others and I saw them accept who I was as well. Just gonna leave that out there. I think I went to my first Broadway audition with natural hair right after that, and that's the show that was my next Broadway show. And they liked me for me, for exactly who I was. So I guess that message is you are enough. You are more than enough. You are more than enough. You are more than enough. You are more than enough. You are more than enough. And that's all we got. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Silicia Show. You know where to find me. I'll see you right here, right here, right now, next week, same place, same time. Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you watch or listen to this show, hit subscribe, tell a friend, and leave me a comment or a note. Let me know what you think. And thank you so much for going on this journey with me and supporting. That's a wrap.