The trailer is here for Nappily Ever After, a rom-com based on hair

Director Haifaa Al-Mansour’s new Netflix film, Nappily Ever After, will confront an important (but all too often underrepresented) issue: hair. Based on Trisha R Thomas’ best-selling novel from the year 2000, the rom-com will see Sanaa Lathan play an advertising executive who alters her social identity by shaving her head and letting her hair grow naturally after years of relaxing it straight.

“My hair was like a second job,” she says in a new trailer, released August 2. “Now I’m forced to focus on myself. I wonder who I’ll be?”

The resonance of this sentiment in the black community is evident in the social media response to the trailer, with one Twitter user emphasising the importance of such representation for young black girls, and others sharing their personal experiences.

y’all better hype the FUCK out of #NappilyEverAfter hair is so important and crucial to black women and their appearance and we’re constantly shamed no matter what way we chose to wear our hair this is a show black people, especially young black girls NEED
— 𝒶𝓃𝒶𝓎𝒶 (@vntageharry) August 5, 2018

I had a perm from age 4 to 16. I cut all my hair off 2 summers ago. After getting it to regrow through braids I finally saw my natural hair for the first time at the age of 18. It’s been a journey ever since. This type of representation matters. #NappilyEverAfter https://t.co/99kcsg1hfj
— Hannah Lee (@Hannah_kat_lee) August 5, 2018