Netflix’s ‘Self Made’ is a Wash Day Must Watch

MADAM CJ WALKER When I was younger, I learned two things about Madam CJ Walker. One, she was the first female millionaire and two, that she had invented the hot comb. The second isn’t true, which is good. If it were, I’d have some serious traumatic feelings that would connect Madam to the top of my left ear on an Easter Sunday. Luckily this series isn’t built on my memories. Self Made is based on the biography On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam CJ Walker. The book was written by her great-great-granddaughter A’Lelia Bundles and was named one of New York Times’ notable books of the year. Netflix’s four-part limited series Self Made is an adaptation of the biography of said millionaire Madam CJ Walker. The series stars Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer as Sarah Breedlove, aka Madam CJ Walker; Blair Underwood as her husband C.J. Walker, Tiffany Haddish as her daughter Leila, Carmen Ejogo as Walker’s business rival Addie Monroe, Garrett Morris as Walker’s father-in-law, Kevin Carroll as her longtime lawyer Ransom, and Bill Bellamy as Ransom’s cousin Sweetness. The series weaves the story of Madam CJ Walker’s entrepreneurship in black hair care with drama, social change, stunning period pieces, and casual nod to queer Black women in the 20th century. With a rather contemporary soundtrack and some playful inner monologue, Self Made can leave you with a “hip-hopera” taste in your mouth after the first episode.

Drama & Hair Trauma Sarah Breedlove was down on her l…