First, she gave us Disco Beyoncé. Then she gave us Cowboy Beyoncé. And now? Get-Ready-With-Me Beyoncé.
On Monday, Beyoncé shared a rare glimpse of her wash day routine in a unpolished video to promote her new hair-care line, shocking many with an in-depth look at her real hair.
In February, she announced the line, Cécred, a collection of eight hair-care products that use luxury ingredients and encourage a ritualistic practice to achieve healthy hair. Inspired from her childhood experience of growing up sweeping inside her mother’s hair salon, Beyoncé said she wanted to bring her mother’s “teachings to life,” according to the brand’s website.
News of the brand was met with excitement from fans, but also skepticism from some who felt as if she lacked credibility: While performing and in public appearances, her hair is almost always tucked away in wigs or supplemented with weave extensions.
Apart from its function as a commercial for the products, the video also appears to be the singer’s way of addressing some of the backlash and doubt she has received.
What happened?
Early Monday morning, a video was posted on Beyoncé’s Instagram profile featuring a close-up of the star’s long, curly hair being washed, conditioned, straightened and styled using Cécred products. In the video, which was shared about two months after the brand’s debut, she said she was finally ready to show how it has helped her hair. (The name of the brand is a portmanteau combining the end of her name with the word “sacred.”)
“It has been such a special experience seeing all of your #cecredwashday rituals all over my timeline,” she wrote in the caption. “I just had to join in with something I had in the archives.”
In the clip, Neal Farinah, Beyoncé’s longtime hairdresser, parts and combs her hair in different directions, showing up close that it is indeed sprouting from her scalp.
“The stigma and misconception is that people who wear wigs don’t have long and healthy hair,” she said in a voice over, adding that the belief was not true.
Why are people obsessed with the length of Beyoncé’s hair?
Beyoncé’s hair has been scrutinized for years. Usually spotted in wigs and braids, the pop star has mostly styled her hair with extensions, as many celebrities do. But her longtime use of weaves has made it hard for some to believe that her hair is as long as it appears in the video.
These claims have driven her fans, her hairstylist and even her mother, Tina Knowles, to attest publicly that Beyoncé is wearing weaves by choice, not out of necessity. In a since-deleted video shared on Instagram in 2019, Knowles combs through her daughter’s dark brown, waist-length hair in an effort to shut down rumors. The video was reposted by Farinah, who captioned the video: “WHAT WEAVE WHAT WIG. YES YES ALL NATURAL.”
And in 2017, Knowles posted a photo on Instagram showing her daughter’s real blond hair in a low ponytail.
“INCHES!!!! So happy my baby’s hair grew back!! She is going to get me,” she joked in the caption.
Wait, do you need to have long hair to have a credible hair-care brand?
While it certainly can help, no. For example, the founder of Sundial Brands, which is the manufacturer behind popular beauty brands like SheaMoisture and Nubian Heritage, is bald.
So why is it so hard to believe Beyoncé has long hair?
There’s a long-standing stereotype that Black women’s natural hair can grow only so long, leading some to believe that Black women wear weaves because they are pretending to have long hair or are assimilating to white beauty standards. In reality, many Black women can grow long and healthy hair just fine, but the stigma persists.
Black women have long been pioneers of hair innovation, leveraging natural textures whose versatility can be used to create practically limitless different hairstyles. Weaves and braids are also protective styles, since Afro-textured hair can take time and attention to style and maintain. Braids and weaves can make visits to the pool or the gym more manageable, for instance, and having a protective style requires a lot less hair products to pack while traveling, saving luggage space. When installed correctly and properly cared for, these styles can result in length retention by reducing daily hair manipulation.
Got it! What did Tina Knowles have to say about these latest developments?
Knowles later reposted a video featuring audio of comedian Katt Williams bragging about his long, natural hair without the use of a perm. The clip, which she shared on her Instagram account with a cheeky caption, included an image of Beyoncé and her natural hair.