The makeover episodes of America’s Next Top Model are notorious for drama but one model’s complaint was deeper than vanity.

Caribbean’s Next Top Model contestant Gabriela Bernard was vocal with her disapproval when host Wendy Fitzwilliam asked stylists to relax her hair for the makeover.

The clip was filmed in 2017 and aired in February but received renewed attention after it appeared on Facebook on last Monday.

Bernard begged the hairdressers to keep her hair natural.

“Please do not relax my hair because I had it relaxed for fifteen years and my brand is about embracing your natural beauty,” she pleaded.

She even suggested a texturizer as a compromise.

“I’m ok with texturizing my hair once my curls stay intact. You need to understand my hair is my identity,” she said.

During the elimination ceremony, Fitzwilliam reprimanded Bernard for her conduct, calling her “naughty” and “unprofessional.”

Bernard apologized for her actions but reiterated her reasons for resisting the chemicals.

“We live in a world where the media tells us that we need to have straight hair to be accepted,” Bernard stated.

Fitzwilliam said she understood but felt Bernard was too inexperienced to make a stand.

“However, as a young and upcoming model, as a young and upcoming attorney facing the judges and senior counsel, you have to be professional,” she said.

“Shutting down my salon, creating that mayhem, when there were so many other young women to get done and to look fabulous as well, it’s a loud non-starter.”

After she was given an ultimatum, Bernard’s hair was relaxed and she went on to place third in the competition. She appeared excited after she got the new hairdo but claims she was acting for the cameras.

“I de­cid­ed to fake it. No, I re­al­ly didn’t think I looked like Wendy, but it was a good line to say. No, I didn’t love the hair … I took all my at­ti­tude and swal­lowed it. I wasn’t me. I wasn’t tru­ly me, and I cried about it every sin­gle night un­til I got it chopped off two months lat­er,” Bernard said, according to The Trinidad and Tobago Guardian.

The Trinidad native said she remained because of the sacrifices she made to join the show.

“I had a conversation with myself and I said if I go home what am I going home to? Because I left my job to go on the show. I put in my application the Thursday and by the following Thursday I was flying out. I told myself that I had already reached this far and this was something that I wanted so much,” Bernard told Daily Express.

Fitzwilliam, a former Miss Universe, was criticized for pressuring the young model to confirm. She has not spoken publicly about the clip.

Bernard turned her experience into an opportunity. She made a documentary, Black Hair, that premiered at the 2018 Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival.

“It will help to spread my mes­sage and in­spire oth­ers as I talk open­ly about re­cov­er­ing from this cheap re­al­i­ty show stunt, racial episodes in my past, and be­ing un­apolo­get­i­cal­ly black in a so­ci­ety that has Eu­ro­cen­tric stan­dards and ex­pec­ta­tions,” she said.

Her hair is back to its original state.

“Monday actually marks the one-year anniversary that I cut my hair and to me it’s growing beautifully,” she said.

Now, check these out:

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Black Hair Policies At Work And School: Something Needs To Change, And It’s Not What’s On Top Of My Head

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Black hairCaribbean's Next Top ModelGabriella BernardWendy Fitzwilliam