When Bafta-nominated Snakes And Ladders star Cathy Tyson was young, her mother put Vaseline on her hair to try to make it stay down.

It was an experience common to many mixed race children – especially those born to white mothers and black fathers, who had no idea what to do with their youngsters’ unruly hair.

Writer Sarah Naomi Lee has spent the past eight years collecting similar stories and experiences from black and mixed race volunteers across the country – starting here in Brighton when she launched the first Positive Hair Day project at black hairdressers’ Shae Shae Creations in Queen’s Road back in 2006.

“I’m mixed race and I was talking to Amanda Watson-James, founder of Shae Shae, about the issues I had with my hair,” remembers Lee, who was living in Seven Dials at the time.

“She told me that everyone who came into her salon had the same problems. We created Positive Hair Day for people to share their stories in the basement of Shae Shae.

“The place was packed with customers – for black and mixed race people it’s a massive issue. If you don’t have good hair there is a big stigma attached, which is why a lot of people wear wigs and weaves to disguise their natural hair.”

Stories included the Newhaven teenager who, as the only black teen in the town, had to buy a Bob Marley album and create dreadlocks with beeswax using the image on the cover as a guide.

And Lee believes white mothers dealing with black hair they didn’t know anything about often made the problem worse.

“People try to comb it, which turns black hair into a bird’s nest,” says Lee, who has now turned all the material she and her Positive Hair Day team collected into a stage play.

Snakes And Ladders tells the story of three sisters, reunited for the first time in five years, as one, Sista, prepares to open a new hairdressing salon.

As well as retelling some of the stories she collected, Lee’s play also uses the original audio and photographs from the tales she uncovered in Brighton and beyond.

“I didn’t want to make it into an issue-based play,” says Lee, who received help developing the script through New Writing South’s mentoring programme.

“When plays come from a set of concerns about black and mixed race relationships and identity, it is easy to turn it into something quite polemical and didactic. I wanted to create something that had an arc, so we could focus on the sisters and not the issue.”

Tyson came on board when Lee and director Kerri McLean held auditions for this spring tour of London and the South East, having already tested the piece out at London’s Soho and Brighton’s Nightingale Theatres.

“It’s the first thing she’s been in for six years,” says Lee, whose CV includes two radio plays for the BBC but no stage work up to now.

“She’s come back because she liked the script so much. When we saw her name on the audition list, we couldn’t believe it. She even came in character with severe hair and her own prop Bible because she was so into it.”

Tyson had taken a career break to study English at Brunel University, having starred in ITV’s Band Of Gold and the partially Brighton-set 1986 gangster drama Mona Lisa alongside Bob Hoskins.

For this tour she is joined by Allyson Ava-Brown, Nicola Blackman and Janet Kumah, who have all donated their own hair stories to the project.

“It’s really exciting to be bringing the play to Brighton where it all started,” says Lee, who hopes to take the piece on a national tour once this debut jaunt is finished in May.

“Some of the audience have followed it since 2006, when we had our first Positive Hair Day.

“The story is set in the modern day, although we have lots of nostalgic music and old photos from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. It’s full of the past and memory, which makes it quite accessible.

“It’s about growing up and trying to fit in – arriving at a sense of ourselves. Teenagers want to be like everyone else but also want to be different – it’s a difficult journey we all have to travel.

“Mixed race is the fastest growing black and ethnic group in the country. As a group of people, our stories and experiences need to be reflected and the media needs to catch up.

“Although Snakes And Ladders is about a particular group of people, we can all relate to it – we all have good and bad hair days.”

  • Snakes And Ladders is at Brighton Dome Studio Theatre, New Road, on Saturday, April 19, and Sunday, April 20. Starts 7.30pm, tickets £10/£12. Call 01273 709709
  • Also at The Hawth, Hawth Avenue, Crawley, on Monday, April 21, and Tuesday, April 22. Starts 8pm, tickets £13/£16. Call 01293 553636
  • For more about Snakes And Ladders and the Positive Hair Day project visit www.snakesandladders.eu