Movie about Armstrong's fight for hair braiding to debut Friday

TUPELO – A movie about Melony Armstrong, who battled more than 20 years to get the restrictions lifted on hair braiding, debuts Friday on several platforms.

"Freedom Hair" centers on Tupelo entrepreneur and hair braider Armstrong, who finally got the Mississippi Legislature to lift what were at the time a host of restrictive regulations for those who wanted to braid hair. That bill, passed in 2005, eased the restrictions on teaching hair braiding.

"Over 2 million women have been affected by this legislation," said Kevin Armstrong, Melony Armstrong's husband, noting that the Mississippi law spurred law changes in other states, allowing women to become hair braiders.

A premier screening of the movie will be held Friday at 7 p.m. at Hope Church Tupelo. Light refreshments will be served. The movie also will be available on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.

Written and directed by Oscar nominee Dianne Houston, "Freedom Hair" stars Simona Brown — recognizable for a number of TV and movie roles — as Melony Armstrong. The film runs about 90 minutes.

Armstrong served as an executive producer of the film, which was filmed over five weeks in Georgia.

The movie has won several awards at film festivals across the country. Most recently, it won five awards at FreedomFest in Las Vegas. As part of the Anthem Film Festival, the movie won Best Narrative Feature, Best Original Score, Best Libertarian Hero for Melony Armstrong, and the Anthem Grand Prize.

Armstrong, who owns Naturally Speaking salon on West Main Street, was pleased with the movie. While there was some creative license taken with events, she said the producers and director successfully captured her story.

"I felt really good; I felt proud of the product that was produced," she said. "There are some challenging moments in the movie. There are some personal moments. But overall I'm pretty pleased."