Hair

Hair is symbolic of identity. The ways in which characters seek out, change, and interact with hairstyles is indicative of how they feel about themselves. The most prominent example of this is Jen Fiorenza’s hairstyle, which is known alternately as the Claw and It, and is representative of the powerful identity Jen projects onto the team. When her mother begins to secretly add bleach to Jen’s hair lightener, causing her hair to begin falling out, Jen begins to lose her sense of identity within the team and acts desperately to save it, declaring, “I will do everything humanly possible and then some to fix It or die trying” (298). Another team member, AJ Johnson, struggles with others’ perceptions of her after she gets box braids and multiple people at majority-white Danvers High tell her that she looks like Darcel, a dancer on the show Solid...