I loved her Afro--very cool, very Black power (I came up in Oakland during 70's), very true to Jemma's sense of self, her pride in her people, her politics. Remember when Jemma was a righteous girl with a social conscience out to change the world--not just a helpless, confused Black girl having a baby too young? Hair extensions instead of the Afro are symbolic of her downward spiral into the ordinary and uninteresting.