The Colored Museum

A vanity revolves onto the stage. On the vanity are two wigs resting on hair stands. One is an Afro wig, circa 1968, the other is a long, flowing wig. A woman enters, wrapped in towels. She picks up a framed picture and throws it in the trash. She takes one of the towels off her head and is revealed to be bald.

The wig stand holding the Afro wig opens her eyes and begins speaking. She calls to LaWanda, the other wig stand, who then opens her eyes and begins talking back. The wigs criticize the bald woman’s appearance. LaWanda points out that the Woman’s hair has been “fried, dyed, and de-chemicalized […] to death” (19). The wigs comment that all this was done to please an unworthy man in the Woman’s life. Janine argues that the baldness occurred because the Woman changed her hairstyle every time her man changed his ideology. 

LaWanda tells Janine that she overheard that the Woman is on her way out to break up with the man, and the two argue about which of them the Woman will wear to the breakup lunch. After some back and forth between the two wigs, Janine finally addresses the Woman directly.