Nell Irvin Painter (yes, that’s her real name) changed her hair as well as her understanding when she got her MFA: “I could just feel that in art school, in that world, my natural hair seemed kind of 20th century. It was akin to my great handicap, which was my 20th century eyes. I really had to bring my eyes into the 21th century, which was a long-running process that is still going on. So I changed and the way I look changed.”