'Abbott Elementary' Hair Department Head Moira Frazier and Makeup Department Head Constance Foe | Production Value
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00:00But when we were doing the next episode, Mother Day, I kid you not, everybody was set.
00:09We was literally getting ready to shoot.
00:12The next thing you know, they said, oh, hey, guys, we have a bridal party of, you know,
00:17a bridesmaid of the actual bride and like what?
00:20What was it, Constance?
00:21Nine bridesmaids.
00:22Seven bridesmaids.
00:24So that means we had to put eight people in full glam hair and makeup, like what, 30 minutes
00:31before we shot.
00:32So literally it was all hands on deck.
00:34Like everyone who worked that day had to literally double team.
00:38And that's been like the best.
00:39That's the best thing about working on our show is, you know, we get it done.
00:45Throw anything at us.
00:53Hey, y'all are ruining drag brunch for me.
01:01I'm sorry.
01:02It's just that any second I could find out if Kevin Hart is my dad, it's giving me a
01:05heart attack.
01:06Pun very much intended and pre-planned.
01:08My fingers are crossed, girl, because I can finally put you my idea for Get Hard 2.
01:12Come on, you wouldn't make a sequel to Citizen Kane.
01:15Move over.
01:16There's no seats left anywhere.
01:17Ava, what are you doing here?
01:19My friend Lisa Kondo is the best drag queen here.
01:21Hey, girl.
01:22Hey.
01:23Is your house hot?
01:24Dragging you down.
01:25Still no luck on the field trip, huh?
01:30How am I going to look the children in the eye the rest of the year?
01:32I have failed them.
01:33Jacob, you have no money, no help, and a hard-headed principal.
01:35Cheer up.
01:36It's going to get worse before it gets worse.
01:39I was a marketing manager in Atlanta, and I was over a street team, and I did the girls'
01:45hair and makeup.
01:47I found myself liking that more than being in the office and doing marketing, I guess
01:53you can say.
01:54And I just stepped out on faith, so that's how I fell into makeup.
01:58I went to MKC Beauty Academy out here in Hollywood, and when I graduated, I just hit the ground
02:05running and made a name for myself.
02:08I literally watched my mom grow up doing hair in the salon.
02:12That was my mother owned a salon, and she's a hairstylist, so I'm actually a second-generation
02:17hairstylist.
02:18And as far as my start into the TV and film world, I have been dibbling and dabbling for
02:23years up until recently when I ended up joining the union.
02:29And baby, it ain't an easy ride, I'll tell you that much, but the thing about this whole
02:33journey is not giving up and having perseverance.
02:36One of my first real jobs was I worked for Unsung, and just doing all the things, the
02:42hair and the makeup, and just seeing my work on film, and just branching out.
02:48And in our industry, word of mouth is everything, and so people just started saying, hey, you
02:53should hire C. She does this, she does that.
02:56And from there, I just went along, and I fell in love with film and television, because
03:01I love to see my work on camera.
03:03My first job was in Atlanta, working this show called Vampire Diaries.
03:10When I say a girl was green, I was very green, because I didn't even know what a third was.
03:18And basically, a third is, there's mainly three or four people core to a team.
03:24There's a department head, there's a key hairstylist or makeup artist, and then there's the third,
03:29who basically does any work that kind of trickles down to what the third does.
03:35I did not know what a third was.
03:37I didn't even know I had got a full-time job being a third.
03:41But yeah, that's pretty much how I got my start, and I kind of got the industry bug
03:45just from being on set, being so fascinated working on that show.
03:49I came on to Abbott Elementary, first season, actually.
03:53I came on as an assistant, which is actually a key hairstylist.
03:59And then next thing you know, I was bumped up to department head, and been running the
04:02show ever since.
04:04I was brought in by Mireya.
04:07I've known Mireya for a very long time, and we all just worked together.
04:13And when the opportunity came for me to come as makeup, Mireya ushered me in, told everyone
04:18about me, and I've been there ever since.
04:21Honey, the biggest change was the 8K cameras.
04:24So basically, I mean, I always know that we shoot in very high quality, but coming into
04:34the third season, I was informed that we are shooting in 8K.
04:38So that meant that you couldn't and cannot detect the lace, period.
04:44So that means I had to make sure that every wig that I ventilated was absolutely flawless.
04:50And even with that in mind, every guest cast that came on to our show, I made sure to ventilate
04:56them a custom hairline.
04:58The reason being is because you can't just put a regular lace on people.
05:03And when I say regular lace, I'm talking about like your store-bought film, I mean, not just
05:09film lace, but your store-bought Swiss lace or anything like that.
05:13You actually have to use high quality, and I do use the highest quality.
05:16I use the thinnest lace available on the market.
05:19And I do have a very, very fast turnaround in Hollywood.
05:23I can do it in a day.
05:25Same day hairlines for me.
05:29Just like Mireya, I was told 8K, and again, skincare is everything.
05:37So we really honed in on the skincare for all of our talent because you can put makeup
05:43on, but if the skin isn't together, it still doesn't look right.
05:46So we made sure that each and every talent had their own specific skincare that we went
05:54with them.
05:55We did like K-Beauty on a couple of folks.
05:57We did Tatcha.
05:58We did Sunday Riley, just the main line on certain talent.
06:03And from there, we applied the makeup to make it flawless because, again, it was 8K camera.
06:08Well, for Janine, Quinta and I had been in conversations about her new look, and usually
06:15Quinta is very, very adamant and very specific when it comes to Janine because Janine is
06:20a whole character within itself.
06:22And we want to make sure that we stay true to that character and true to the characteristics
06:27of that character.
06:28And typical Janine, she doesn't really stray too far away from her look, but doing a part
06:34change is huge for her.
06:36So this season, Quinta wanted a middle part, and that middle part spoke volumes because
06:44anybody who wears a bust down middle part in our culture, that means a lot.
06:51That means you're sexy, you're bold, you're confident, and you've got to remember that
06:56she just had like a little rejection, aka breakup with her boo Gregory or her ex boo.
07:02They weren't even a thing at all.
07:04So because of that, she wanted to step it up.
07:07And not to mention, she just got into this new role with the district.
07:12So hair is everything.
07:13That's the first thing you notice.
07:14And it's the first thing we change when we're trying to find ourselves or even define ourselves.
07:22With her finding herself, you know, she's been around Barbara, she's been around Ava,
07:27and she's looking up YouTube, just trying to find her look.
07:30And we went more with dual tone eyeliners this season instead of her regular browns
07:35and blacks.
07:36Like she's stepping out, she's redefining herself.
07:39She's now at the district.
07:41So we'll do like sapphires and we'll do emeralds and things just to kind of match what she
07:46has going on.
07:47It's like naked eye type of thing.
07:49You're like, what is that?
07:52Once the light hits it, you're like, oh, that's little glimmers of color.
07:56So that was her thing this season.
07:57And we also did lip liners this season instead of just the lip gloss that the regular Janine
08:03would have from season one and season two.
08:06She again is now very cognizant of what she's doing and making a statement.
08:10So the hair was fun to create.
08:13I will have to say that, as you know, in the world of drag queens or in the drag world,
08:22they create their own look.
08:24And it's mainly, mainly based off of a theme, right?
08:28With this, we didn't know what they was going to wear.
08:32And I was just hoping that they was going to wear these wigs that I designed.
08:36So what I ended up doing was I just started creating, literally creating some of the queens
08:43like Miss Shea Coulee and also Simone.
08:46I had hit them up like, girl, what we going to do?
08:50And I was willing to collaborate with them.
08:52And like, I know with Shea Coulee, she was like, well, girl, I want to, I want to, I
08:56love a collab.
08:57Both of them loves collab.
08:58So Shea was like, well, I want a ginger bob.
09:02I said, Seles.
09:03She didn't tell me how to make it, baby, because I came with the heat, okay?
09:08But when she showed me what she was wearing or the idea of that vintage Mugler dress,
09:12I was like, Seles.
09:15With Simone, we were inspired by a 1990s RuPaul.
09:20So obviously we went with that blonde hair and did it like an updo with a bunch of finger
09:25dry waves and a whole bunch of pin curls.
09:29And I gave it a modern twist by adding a bunch of glitter and some glitter bows also to that
09:34too, if you zoom in on it.
09:37It was a vibe.
09:38I actually love creating these looks and we had to do and create these looks in the middle
09:44of filming a whole other episode.
09:45So yeah, it was like, we ain't really had time and we ain't even know what they was
09:49wearing.
09:50So that's why I said, we had to build on the fly and pray that it go with whatever outfit
09:56that these queens are going to end up wearing.
09:58Makeup, we had a very similar situation going on.
10:02Again, we all worked as a team.
10:04I was in constant contact with Maria and vice versa.
10:08Like what are you doing?
10:09What are you thinking about doing?
10:11And when she would show me her vision and what she was building, I was coming up with
10:15vision boards and was like, okay, what do you think about that?
10:18Again, we had no idea what they were wearing.
10:21We contacted queens.
10:23They again wanted to collab.
10:25Everyone was so excited for it.
10:27I brought in Glenn Allen, who is one of local 706 makeup artists, and this was his world.
10:33This is something that he does.
10:34And I wanted the best to come because of course it's Abbott and we produce the best.
10:40So literally every look we came up with, we were talking with the queens and they were
10:45like, oh my God, I love this.
10:46And then when I would talk to Maria, she was like, oh, that's going to go.
10:49And then finally when we were like, oh, we know what they're wearing, everything just
10:52came together and it just was beautiful.
10:55You're going to love the episode.
10:56I enjoy doing all of the characters, but I would have to say Barbara's wig will always
11:03remain iconic.
11:06Her wig will always remain a character within itself.
11:08And to be quite frankly honest, all of their wigs are characters.
11:12And I say that because I designed their wigs to go with their personality and how they
11:17move. Like, for example, Ava's character, Ava always talk with her head and she always
11:23doing a lot of this. So because of that, her hair has to move and it has to move freely.
11:28And we don't do stiff wigs here on Abbott Elementary, if you know what I mean.
11:34As far as Barbara's concerned, Barbara is the only one that has to have, she's the pillar
11:39of this show as far as her character.
11:41Everybody got that strong aunt or that strong grandma who's the pillar of the family
11:46that makes sure everyone sticks together.
11:48She's the one who's more so the pillar for Abbott Elementary.
11:53Melissa is like that girl.
11:55She got that fiery red ginger spice hair and that color designed by Dustin Osborne.
12:03He does such a beautiful, flawless job bringing out that color in her because that color
12:08brings her personality out too.
12:10I can't see her in nothing else.
12:11I can't see her in a black wig.
12:14As far as Janine is concerned, I love the fact that this season we are seeing more defined
12:20curls with Janine.
12:21We're seeing her step outside of her comfort zone.
12:24We're going with a middle part.
12:25And then when she's at the school, she's going back to the old Janine, but it's a little
12:29bit more polished.
12:30Jacob, we got to keep him with a tight taper face so that he remains relatable to the children
12:35that he's actually teaching.
12:38And Tyler, actually his barber takes care of him.
12:41So when he come to our show, honey, we just, we send him on his way.
12:46Make sure he's good and flawless.
12:48Instead, even though Stan don't got no hair, we still give him that five-star treatment
12:56because what we do is anytime he has a little stubble, we always clean him up.
13:00So yeah.
13:02For makeup, again, everyone is their own character and everyone is iconic.
13:09With Barbara, she has her signature look.
13:12She has her mobs and movatoes on her eyes with that signature black line.
13:18And she always has a deep berry lip because she's like the mother.
13:24Everyone goes to her.
13:25We're going to listen to what she says.
13:28And right now, Patrick is doing her Patrick Johnson.
13:31But even with Ava, Ava steps in the room and she commands attention and her look is flawless.
13:38Like from the red lip to just that, just flawless skin that Naima Jamal gives her.
13:45Because this season we toned down just a little bit because she wants to be taken more seriously
13:50because she did go to school and she's now, oh, I'm a principal type of thing.
13:54So I mean, even with Janine, her look is iconic because everyone relates to her.
14:01Everyone sees themselves in her.
14:04Everyone is like, oh, I can actually do that for the people who don't really do makeup,
14:08but they're following her and they're like, okay, Janine can do it.
14:11I can do it too.
14:12You're seeing these characters come out a little more this season and I love every bit
14:18of it.
14:19Everything is done with intention and to be quite frankly honest, it has to be done with
14:23perfection because the camera picks up everything.
14:27And I love the way that this season we tell the story through hair because for some people,
14:32AK cameras might be a challenge for them because a lot of people are not necessarily making
14:38wigs from scratch.
14:40And I will have to say, I take pride in that.
14:42I take pride in the fact that I can build a wig from start to finish in seven days.
14:48And I do that because I know the demands of Hollywood and how everything is very, very,
14:53very fast.
14:54And because it's fast, it has to be flawless.
14:56You can't build a wig in seven days and then expect it to stay together.
15:00But mines do.
15:02Mines don't shed.
15:05And it don't break apart.
15:07But the biggest challenge I feel like is just for me, always stand on top of my gang, always
15:15stand on top of my toes and be prepared for anything that they throw at us.
15:20And I have to give a huge shout out to our third hairstylist, Christina Joseph.
15:27She's actually was one of the big pivotal people in this season, aside from myself and
15:33my key Dustin Osborne.
15:34But Christina really helped manage the BG because baby, when we got a hundred or more
15:40or a hundred and plus BG, you have to be able to have a very, very organized system so that
15:46your show runs flawlessly and nothing is behind.
15:50And I really have to thank God for her, Dustin, and even all of us for even coming together
15:56to create this system and following through with it to where we don't ever miss a beat.
16:01Like we're done early.
16:02We're done before the time we say we were going to be done.
16:04I say 30 minutes, we get it done in 20.
16:09It's the support we get as department heads that allow us to be able to do what we do
16:15and be able to do it in a timely fashion.
16:18And my team right now consists of Jen Bennett, who's my key, my third, who is Naima Jamal
16:24and the fourth, who is Patrick Johnson.
16:26Like again, we all sit down, we talk, we tackle the day because if all of us are together,
16:31we can tackle anything.
16:33I got to give a big thank you to Quinta Brunson for giving me and Constance the platform and
16:43also the creative ability to really let our imaginations go.
16:49I love the fact that I'm able to use my imagination and it just really helps bring the character
16:55out because my main thing has always been telling the story through hair.
17:00And I just love that I'm able to have the freedom to do so.