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Cynthia Erivo Added Micro Braids to Elphaba So That ‘Wicked’ Could Honor Black Women

"Wicked": How Cynthia Erivo Added Micro Braids to Elphaba to honor Black women.

“Wicked” follows Elphaba ( Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande) as college roommates long before Dorothy, Toto and her three pals skipped down the yellow brick road and met the “good” and the “bad” witches. “I asked if we could reimagine that hair as micro braids because I knew you’d still have the movement, and you could still have the length, but there was a texture that was slightly different to what you would normally see on stage, and it was a direct connection between me as a Black woman and Elphaba as a green lady,” Erivo says. Sim Camps posted on social media and explains the look “reflects Elphaba’s journey — strength and vulnerability woven together in a Celtic knot design.

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