With continuous 24/7 footage and only just over an hour of screen time per episode, plenty of Love Island content this season never made it to air.
One example was a conversation between fan favourite Cynthia Taylu and co-star Phoebe Thompson, in which the contestants spoke about their cultural heritage and connection with hair.
âMe and Cynthia actually had a conversation about black womenâs hair in the villa but they obviously didnât air that,â Phoebe told HuffPost Australia.
The 28-year-old, whose father is Jamaican and mother is English and German, said she spoke about her hair journey with Cynthia, who was born in Liberia, west Africa.
âMy hair is naturally really curly. When I was younger I relaxed my hair and I even said when I was in there [the villa], Iâd love to shave my head and grow my natural hair out,â she said.
âBut I think itâs also really important to not judge a woman or specifically black women on how they want to style their hair. If you want it to be natural, then absolutely.
âA girl should never be ashamed of her natural hair but then also you shouldnât shun black women or say that they donât like who they are because they want to have straight hair or wear a weave. Itâs really just up to the person and what they want to do.â
Cynthiaâs the first black contestant to appear on the Australian version of Love Island.
The 23-year-old model from Brisbane has been vocal about the challenges sheâs faced with her Afro-textured hair, admitting showing her natural hair leaves her feeling âvulnerableâ as âitâs letting the world know who I really am, and stripping off the layers is confronting.â
Cynthia arrived at the Fiji filming location sporting shiny brown locks with a bold front fringe â a very different look to her naturally curly black hair which sheâs presented in a previous blog post.
âGrowing up in Australia, I always envied my Caucasian friendsâ hair â the texture, the length, and the ease of maintaining their hair,â she wrote for Ascension magazine in 2017.
Cynthia initially came to Australia at age seven with her biological father before moving in with her aunt, and it was during her schooling when she experimented more with her hair. She wore her hair braided with extensions or clip-ins up until high school, before wearing a âfull set of weaveâ or ârelaxingâ her natural hair, which involves chemical straightening.
âExtensions were always the easier option, and from a young age I associated long hair with beauty. I couldnât see the beauty of my natural hair; it was like a rebellious child I could never quite tame,â she wrote.
This Thursday marks the Love Island Australia finale, and the remaining couples in the villa are Cynthia Taylu and Aaron Shaw, Anna McEvoy and Josh Packham, and Cartier Surjan and Matt Zukowski.
Love Island Australiaâs finale week continues on Wednesday and Thursday on Channel Nine.