By Matthew A. Cherry
A Black dad takes on his daughter's hair for a big day, one stubborn style at a time, while her mom is away.
Zuri loves her hair, and today it has to be perfect. Her mom is away, so it's up to Daddy, armed with a phone tutorial and a lot of determination, to wrangle Zuri's thick, curly hair into the exact style she's picturing. It fights him, puffs up, flops, and defeats him, and he very nearly gives up, but the two of them get there together. And the big day turns out to be Mom finally coming home.
It's a father-daughter love story with Black hair right at the center, and it treats that hair as a crown, worth the effort and worth loving. For a Black child it's a rare and joyful mirror; for everyone else it's a tender window into a dad who shows up and keeps trying. It grew out of an Oscar-winning short film, and Vashti Harrison's art carries all the warmth. Short, funny, and big-hearted.