Inside Layla Taylor’s Experience As The One Mixed-Race Woman On “Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives”

From the pilot episode, I instantly had questions about Layla’s experience. Why was her hair always straight in these windy, rainy show openers? Although she spent so much time in her costar Jessi Draper Ngatikaura’s salon chair, why was Layla’s long, straight hair always nearly done to perfection whenever the camera panned to her? As a mixed-race girl with curly hair myself, I felt like I instinctively knew the answers to my questions. And knowing that the show centered mostly on white women in Salt Lake City, I wasn’t hopeful that the cultural nuances of Layla’s unique experience as the only woman of color would ever be addressed. But in Season 3 of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Layla begins to tell her story — an all-too-familiar one for many Black women who grew up in predominantly white communities — her way. 

“I kept continuing to go to Jessi, just because I just don’t want to ruffle any feathers. A lot of people assume that all those girls [from the show] did go to JZ, so if we were to switch, people assume that it’s for the worst, and it was a hard situation to navigate.”

When she noticed that she was experiencing balding from the extensions she had installed at Jessi’s salon, JZ Styles, Layla decided it was finally time to take a big step in advocating for herself. “I was going to Jessi for probably around two years, and I was just noticing some issues with my hair,” Layla tells BuzzFeed ahead of the premiere of the third season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. “I was noticing it wasn’t working for my certain hair texture and my certain hair type, but it was hard for me to bring it up.”

In an effort not to hurt her friend, Layla continued to go to Jessi for her hair extensions, because she didn’t “want to ruffle any feathers.” Layla shares, “A lot of people assume that all those girls [on the show] did go to JZ, so if we were to switch, people assume that it’s for the worst, and it was a hard situation to navigate.”