The more insults I hear about Jay Z's hair, the more I like his freeform locks
From the Team Natural movement to the Crown Act, let black people enjoy their hair
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I wasn’t crazy about Shawn “Jay Z” Carter’s locks. I can admit that. But I’m also not married to him, don’t have kids with him, don’t know him nor am I his stylist. So what he does with his hair does not affect my bills, my family, my friends, my workday or even my dog. It’s just hair growing from his head. Still, there was a charisma about him when he had his hair cut into a low-top fade. With freeform locks, too much attention is on his hair instead of the charm.
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But the flurry of insults thrown at him in these Tiffany ads for wearing his hair in locks is making me change my mind. Not only is it dope to see an African-American man and African-American woman as the face of Tiffany, but it’s also an African-American married couple who are both legends in hip-hop and R&B. I cannot think of a more perfect couple who could represent both music genres and fashion at the same time than these two. (Remy Ma and Papoose lean more toward hip-hop solely, but I wouldn’t be mad if they got the opportunity either. Kendrick Lamar certainly did his thing while wearing a Jesus crown.)
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It’s bothering me to see black people (specifically black women) like @marsha401pebbles saying, “Is this woman really ok with that man's head like that.” User @mirrah_namya stated, “We gonna just filter him out look like broccoli.” And user @crystalsbestlife said, “Judging from his hair, she's even dumber than we first thought.” To no one’s surprise, their own go-to hair is long, straight and looks like weave.
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After having a conversation with a biracial co-worker from a prior job — one of which was half Jamaican — who said locks are just “dirty hair,” I am no longer surprised when I hear self-hating descriptions like this from black people. I shook my head and grumbled when Olympian Gabriel Douglas was bullied for her ponytail just as much actress Keke Palmer’s cornrows. This need to police natural black hair is horrendous. This brainwashing mentality from black (wo)men that “white is right/straight is the way to find a mate” is something that’ll have to be deprogrammed from this crew after centuries of programming. How do you help someone who hates their own natural appearance?
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Still, I’m gritting my teeth harder at the number of white people further doing the programming, specifically from users like @mhfjsm saying “I need the kind of mirror that he has in his house that makes that head look good. Give me some scissors please!” Then there’s @emilyelbaum saying, “You’d think with all of that money he’d get a proper haircut! Lol.” But @jkan_dy saying “His hair looks RIDICULOUS!!!” with a bunch of clown faces and “I guarantee you it smells disgusting” was what really pissed me off. These kind of insults directed at natural black hair is exactly why black people fought so hard for the CROWN Act.
Recommended Read: “Should The CROWN Act include white people with locks? ~ My mixed opinions regarding white people with "natural black" hairstyles”
After leaving multiple comments challenging the idea of black beauty and telling people to stay in their own lane and stop insulting him (or naturally textured hair), I challenged the last lady and told her she looks like the type who doesn’t wash her hands after she uses the bathroom. Why? I wanted her to see how it feels for someone to accuse you of looking dirty or smelly without a shred of proof. The only observation they have is you look different than them. And for all we know, the billionaire rapper smells as good as his bank account looks.
The response I got from the last Instagram user was about as predictable as I expected: I was called “uneducated,” “racist,” “childish,” accused of “attacking” her, “triggered” and told to go into a “padded room”— all for doing the exact same thing she did. I accused her hands (not even her hair or body) of not being clean. The irony here is I was called racist for something that historically has been a form of racism that has made black women and men conform the hair growing from their head (me included because I have a relaxer regardless of absolutely refusing to ever wear a weave), and somehow users like the ones insulting Jay Z still don’t see themselves as racist or self-hating. (Ironically, that same user turned out to be an anti-vaxxer who said Fauci was a liar about coronavirus, so I may have been more on the money about hand hygiene when I originally was just trying to prove a point.)
Still, my issue is the ridicule overall from all of these users and those who agree with them. The one lesson I didn’t expect to learn was this: I now like and respect Jay Z’s Basquiat hairdo more because he’s basically giving a middle finger to every white and black person who has an issue with black people embracing their natural and Afrocentric features.
No matter how much this crew hates his hair, he’s still on the cover of this Tiffany ad with his wife Beyonce. He still made a $302 million deal from selling TIDAL to the former owner of Twitter. He still made a $640 million deal from selling Ace of Spades to LVMH.
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Stellar Pizza still got a $16.5 million Series A financing round from Jay Z’s venture capital firm Marcy Venture Partners for the tech advancement in a robotic pizza truck. He still invested $19 million in marijuana software company Flowhub.
And my personal favorite is him working with Oprah Winfrey and investing $200 million into Oatly, a Swedish food company that produces milk and ice cream alternatives to dairy products from oats.
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And the best part about it is he made all these money moves and did it with that hair — and with all these people griping about not liking it. These idiotic opinions have not stopped one moment of his day — freeform locks and all. Now I’m able to see the charm through each and every strand. Freeform. Free mind. Financial freedom. I love to see it.
Did you enjoy this post? You’re also welcome to check out my Substack columns “Black Girl In a Doggone World,” “BlackTechLogy,” “Homegrown Tales,” “I Do See Color,” “One Black Woman’s Vote” and “Window Shopping” too. Subscribe to this newsletter for the weekly posts every Wednesday.
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