Host Wendy Williams is notorious for keeping it all the way real with her show’s guests, no matter who they are. So when a guest tried it earlier this week Williams quickly set the record straight.
During a segment called Get The Look, where celebrity beauty trends are shown on real people, a white female hairstylist told the audience about a little trick she likes to use on her clients to slick their hair down à la Arianna Grande style. The trick she was referring to is something Black women have been using for decades, laying their baby hairs with gel and a toothbrush.
As if she had just created something new, the out of touch stylist went on to say she had thought of this genius hack because her husband was a dentist.
Of course, Williams wanted no part of this cultural appropriative mess.
After a deep sigh, she went on to tell the woman that “we know about the baby hairs, get ‘em on down.” Williams then grabbed the toothbrush and showed the white woman what our aunts, cousins and godmothers have been doing forever.
As painful as this segment was to watch, it wasn’t the first time a seemingly innocent hair tutorial went totally left field for the Black model involved. Back in 2016, a 60-second summer hair tutorial for the Today Show went viral after the Black model’s hair was left looking extremely questionable. While the stylist involved, blogger Deepica Mutyala, has since publicly apologized we can’t help but wonder why this continues to happen to Black models.
Much like the Today Show, the expert in question was not a Black woman yet was styling Black hair without adequate experience or knowledge of the intricacies of our culture and textures.
As Black women’s hair continues to be given the mainstream love it deserves it’s high time those hired to do our hair reciprocate that care and respect the culture.
