Braids, Connection and Creativity: Behind the Scenes of Doechii's 'The Late Show' Performance

When Doechii approached hair artist Malcolm Marquez with an idea for her performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, she was inspired by a memorable 2016 performance from Solange, where the singer and her dancers were united through their matching outfits. For the Grammy-nominated artist, however, the connection needed to come through something more personal — her hair.

Having worked together for several years, Marquez and Doechii referenced a similar project the hair artist had done in 2019 with Carlotta Guerro for Vogue Italia and he was excited to reinterpret the look using cornrows. The process to pull off the beautiful look was meticulous, to say the least. Marquez and his team worked through several rehearsals in Los Angeles and New York using prototype braids. "We tried various lengths, beaded braids versus not and played with how much movement we could pull off. Doechii even choreographed the whole performance herself." Because it was live television and a one-take performance, the time needed to be spent troubleshooting every detail.

For the stylist, the most important part of this performance was teamwork. Yanna, a hairstylist based in Los Angeles worked on her base stitch braids. From there, they traveled to New York where his team extended Doechii and the dancers' braids 50 more inches. Each braid was then hand-sewn together using a seamless technique. "The tricky part is we only had about an hour to connect them all on show day," recounted Marquez. "Mind you, this was all being done between makeup, fittings, sound-checks, camera blocking and more." Thankfully, his team always pulls through, regardless of the time or pressure applied to them.

"Doechii and I spend a lot of time discussing the meaning behind this performance. For me, it was a connection to source. Source is your spirituality, your ancestors but also yourself. At this point, we're all aware of the value braids carry in the Black community," Marquez told us. "But whether it's hair or music, it's important for Doechii and I to champion Black women through our work, as well as pushing the limits creatively in how that is done. I'd say we did that successfully."

You can watch Doechii's performance of "Boiled Peanuts" and "Denial is a River" below.

 

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