When Carri Twigg was a child, her father styled her hair. Every Sunday, he would wash Twigg's mane in the kitchen sink, and every morning before school, he would divide her unruly curls into six slicked-back braids. The neighborhood knew whenever her father went out of town.

Her mother, whom Twigg described as a hippie, left her hair in a teased Afro or a chunky side ponytail most times. Although Black women undergo differing hair journeys, said Twigg, an executive producer of the new six-episode docuseries "The Hair Tales," it is a shared experience, like the hiss of a hot comb or the banter in a beauty salon, that unites them.

"Hair is an external reflection of our interior world," Twigg said.

Hosted by Tracee Ellis Ross, "The Hair Tales," which is showing on Hulu and OWN, seeks to explore those experiences. Guests include Black women from across the worlds of media, entertainment and politics, among them Oprah Winfrey and Issa Rae ("Insecure"), as well as rapper Chika, actress Marsai Martin ("black-ish) and U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), all of whom relate their lifelong journeys to self-acceptance by telling stories about their hair.

Michaela Angela Davis, the series' creator, said she first came up with the idea several years ago after noticing that Black hair was an underexplored subject on TV. An activist, a former editor at Essence and a CNN contributor, she felt drained by all her reporting on Black calamity and death; the experience made her eager, she said, to tell stories of Black joy, resilience and beauty.

In 2016, Davis released a video series, "Hair Tales," in which notable figures such as actress Regina King and Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors shared childhood anecdotes along with a range of their hairstyles. The series caught the attention of Tara Duncan, president of Freeform and Disney's Onyx Collective, and soon the production company Culture House, where Twigg is a founder and the head of development, was on board.

Together, they pitched the idea to stars such as Ross, Winfrey and others, who proved eager to join as well, Davis said. (Ross and Winfrey are among the executive producers.)

"It would behoove America to know about us better," Davis said. "And our hair is a way to get there."

The resulting series expands greatly on the original, offering a wide range of discussions on beauty, styling techniques and the politics of hair, with insights from several scholars.

Black women have long faced hair-based discrimination. Fourteen states have enacted legislation barring such bias (a proposed Minnesota law stalled in the Legislature last session), but laws don't stop people from being critical.

Twigg said people often offer opinions about her curly golden mane. Relatives have encouraged her to get a relaxer. A white co-worker once said it looked as if she had stuck her finger in a light socket.

Twigg hopes this series, produced largely by Black women, will help foster a safer and more liberated environment for Black people.

"It feels really beautiful," Twigg said, "to be adding to the canon of Black women storytelling, to be adding to the canon of how we show up on the screen, to be giving concrete proof to our undeniable interconnectedness."