Actress Nike Imoru is suing Harvard University’s American Repertory Theater for improper hair styling during a 2025 production. She says that it left her with permanent hair loss and lasting scalp damage. In the complaint, she accuses the theater of racial discrimination. She also says the theater did not protect her despite safeguards in her contract..
Imoru, 60, is a British-Nigerian actor and casting director. She was cast in a 2025 staging of The Odyssey at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.).
She wore knotless silver box braids when she came to rehearsals. But, the production’s costume designer asked her to switch to tightly braided cornrows to fit the visual concept for her role in the Greek chorus. Imoru agreed.
Court papers filed in Middlesex Superior Court state that instead of using the theater’s qualified in-house hair and wig designer, A.R.T. directed her to a backstage employee who worked as a dresser. The lawsuit says that employee had not been retained as a licensed or qualified hair technician.
“Between the tension and the extension hair, it caused a damage so that the corkscrew style extension continued to twist,” said Nike Imoru. In just days, she said, she was left with nonscarring alopecia and 90% hair loss. https://t.co/Q5uveFzwYC
— NBC10 Boston (@NBC10Boston) February 20, 2026
On Jan. 21, 2025, the employee braided synthetic hair into Imoru’s natural hair. The complaint describes intense pain. She experienced red welts and cornrows pulled tight against the scalp after the session.
It was redone weeks later. She spent five hours in a chair.
When it was finished, Imoru said she “immediately understood that something was very wrong.” She reported not being able to sleep lying down because of the pain. The next day, she emailed about tightness and a twisting sensation in her scalp.
The lawsuit alleges the stylist acknowledged using the wrong type of synthetic extension, hair meant for twisting, not braiding, which tangled into Imoru’s natural hair.
The cornrows were removed that same day. The filing claims the removal process ripped out strands of her natural hair and drastically thinned it.
Imoru sought urgent care. A provider diagnosed “traumatic loss of hair.” She later consulted a dermatologist who recommended Keralase treatments. The treatments were painful, with a burned-skin smell during sessions. By mid-March, days before the show closed, Imoru shaved her head.
A scalp biopsy conducted after she returned to Washington indicated measurable follicle loss caused by trauma consistent with traction alopecia. She estimates she has lost about 90 percent of her hair.
“The damage is indescribable. It is cataclysmic,” she said in a statement shared with People Magazine. “I was in such profound shock that I lost a sense of who I was.”
Nike Imoru, a Black actor and casting director, sued the American Repertory Theater on Thursday, alleging race discrimination after she was permanently injured during rehearsals for a production.
Claire A. Michal and @vijeyasingam report.https://t.co/DHV2yledao
— The Harvard Crimson (@thecrimson) February 23, 2026
Imoru is claiming $1,125,000 in damages, including $1 million for emotional distress. It also lists lost wages, future medical expenses and treatment costs.
The complaint argues the theater violated the CROWN Act, legislation enacted in Massachusetts in 2022 prohibiting race-based discrimination tied to natural hair and protective styles, as well as provisions in the Actors’ Equity Association contract requiring licensed hair professionals for performers.
The filing references A.R.T.’s past public commitments to anti-racism efforts, including statements made after criticism surrounding its 2014 production of Witness Uganda (later retitled Invisible Thread). Diane Paulus, the theater’s artistic director at the time, , publicly apologized.
During the same production, a white actor was treated very differently. The lawsuit states he needed a hair color change. The powers-that-be gave him a salon consultation and styling by the in-house hair designer.
Imoru says she wore a hairpiece for most performances of The Odyssey. She missed some daytime shows because of pain and lack of sleep.
“I have lost all confidence in my ability to go on stage,” she said.
Imoru was recently nominated for an award for her work on the Oscar-nominated film Train Dreams. On social media, she wrote that she was “truly seen.”
