Source: StyleBlazerc.com

From BlackVoices

Channeling Nicki Minaj is no longer reserved for Halloween.

Elle magazine’s latest cover girl has launched a new digital program on her beauty site called ”Minaj à Moi” that allows fans to instantly “Minaj-ify their look.” Translation: wear cotton candy-colored wigs and lipstick colors.

Nicki rips another page out of Barbie’s book with a makeover tool that features her signature hairstyles, fake eyelashes, puckered pouts, sunglasses, hoop earrings and a nameplate necklace, of course.

Read more on BlackVoices.com.

Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP

Besides stirring up emotions on R&B Divas with her blunt style, Syleena Johnson has been building her business brand. Add her to the list of celebrities with hair product lines. Johnson has just announced her hair extension and wig line. The ”True Diva Collection by Syleena Johnson” hair will hit stores in Spring 2013, and sold exclusively at Renown Premium Hair.

According to a press release, the line will feature wefted hair for weaving and U-Part, lace-front wigs. The hair is full-cuticle and can be washed, blow dried, curled, flat ironed, and colored. Johnson herself is a fan of extensions and says she wears them for protective styling, versatility, and convenience.

It was actually while wearing Renown Premium Hair that Johnson approached company founder and former celebrity publicist, Toi Troutman. Johnson had perfect timing. According to Troutman, the brand was looking to create a celebrity line. “[W]hen she reached out to us, we knew that she would be perfect for it,” said Troutman in a press statement.  “Syleena Johnson fully embodies our brand. Definitely a true diva, Syleena has sophistication, beauty, talent and class, yet she manages to keep her personality and image relatable to every woman.”

Johnson seems eager to get the line launched. “My True Diva Collection is not only quality hair but its affordable, and accessible to anyone who is looking for amazing hair that will last,” Johnson said in the press release.

Johnson, who is in the studio working on ”Chapter VI: Couple’s Therapy,” has other business ventures as well. She recently launched her own fitness brand, SheLean, with a workout DVD. A “Mommy’s Got Soul” DVD, featuring her own original music, to soon follow.

Source: The Jasmine Brand

“No matter what people say, we’ve got it going on!” I’m sure that’s what Kim and this group of…individuals surrounding her were thinking when they started snapping pics in Trio Nightclub in Miami over the weekend. But there was too much exposed boob (hence the heart), two-toned wigs, sequins, fishnet, beads and lashes to take all this seriously. The beloved MC, or femcee, hit up the night club in her brightest catsuit and put on her fiercest face for the cameras. All of these colorfully adorned people decided to jump in the pic and spread their love. While I can’t work with most of this, I will say that I would let some of these folks tutor me in proper fake eyelash installation. Work it honey!!!! So how would you caption this rainbow-colored photo?

iStock photo

A few months back, I wrote an article about women changing hairstyles impulsively. The point in this argument was that sometimes, women want a change so bad that they will resort to drastic changes in hairstyle to appease their need for something different. Their friends may know that it’s a bad move, but will let them fall into that trap anyway. Some women have success with a completely new hairstyle, while others fail. While the post was written in 25% jest, I started to wonder whether a woman’s hair played a major factor in the courting process for men. Do men really scrutinize and judge women’s hair?

First of all, men front a lot when it comes to the importance of women’s hair. We chime in on Twitter, Facebook, and any other social media outlet with our jokes on weaves, yet we will not hesitate to holla at a woman who’s Hot with “fake hair”. Trust me when I say that I have never heard a man say “I took this woman out, and she was feeling me. We were ready to get it on, but I couldn’t go through with it, man. She had a weave! I was turned off, yo!” Yes, men have preferences, but few will let those type of superficial barriers stop them from approaching a woman, dating them, even marrying them! As men, we have much more going on in our lives to be concerned with whether a woman’s hair is in a certain style. Here are some key points that smart men have already figured out:

More Women Wear Fake Hair Than Ever

If Beyonce can rock a weave and box braids from the 90s, and still command a level of attention from men that’s off the charts, then you know that other women will attempt to wear it with no issue. It actually blew my mind when I found out that black women weren’t the only women wearing weaves and wigs! Women will do different things to their hair over time, and if it’s an official hair-do, you shouldn’t be able to tell unless you touch it. My personal issue is when you have the type of hair that gives me the urge to buy a token and wait for the 6:45 train. Raggedy hair is a complete turn-off. I wouldn’t expect to be appealing to a woman with no haircut and unkept facial hair resembling a bum, so i don’t expect women to do that either. Women are way more particular about their looks than men, so if you are going to rock a weave, rock it right!

If Your Hair Isn’t Complementary To You, Men May Not Find You Attractive

You would think this point is simple, but it’s completely overlooked. When men say they don’t like a particular hairstyle, what gets lost in the translation is that they don’t like that particular hairstyle on you! Women have to be real about how hair looks on them. All women aren’t built for short hair, natural hair, blonde (!!) hair, etc. Men may not come out and say that your hair doesn’t work, because that’s just doing too much. If we want to just have a physical relationship with you, then most won’t care. If they face the reality that you will be around for a long time, then the hair and other factors will be more heavily scrutinized.

Men Who Superficially React To Hair Shouldn’t Matter To You

I won’t act as if I’m naive. There are groups of men who only want a woman with long flowing natural hair. It’s one of the measures of popular beauty out there, and you can see it in all areas of life. Natural hair (afros, curls, etc) are beautiful also. I still swoon at seeing all the natural sistas that were on shows like A Different World. I wouldn’t let a weave stop me from approaching a woman, but many men won’t even give a woman a chance if they don’t fit the hair quota. You can’t get past that, so you shouldn’t try. The way I see it, those men aren’t for you, and there are plenty of men who won’t be as superficial. There’s nothing wrong with preferences, but glorifying one set of women over another because of their hair only, is disheartening. However, those men have the right to do it, and you have the right to take your womanly goodness elsewhere.

Do I like women with long hair? Yup? Do I like women with short hair? It depends on how they look with it. Do I like women with wigs? That isn’t a relative? Umm.. next question. My point is that although I do have preferences, I prefer women overall. It isn’t my place to demand what a woman does with her hair, but I won’t let it become a dealbreaker. That doesn’t mean that I enjoy women with ratty hair either. Men who let the insignificant things deter them from a chance at a woman with overall redeeming qualities means more for the smarter dudes. If I were a woman, I wouldn’t sweat it either way.

How important is a womans hair to men? Is it a deal breaker? Ladies any stories of men who passed you by because of your hair quality?

Vaughn Streetz

Twitter: @Streetztalk

Image: PRNewsFoto/LUXHAIR

Almost every day, when TV personality Sherri Shepherd steps up to the table to join the other women of The View, it is inevitable  someone will say something about Sherri’s hair. Whether good or bad, Shepherd is constantly making a hair statement with the wigs she wears.

Now, the actress  has announced her own line of wigs through a partnership with Aderans Hair– LUXHAIR NOW by Sherri Shepherd – that includes a full wardrobe of hairstyles.

“Wigs have always been a part of my life and have become a staple accessory in my closet. I can remember being a little girl and hearing all the commotion in my house from my mom, aunts and grandmother when picking out their wigs for the day. It was such a good time for them and part of their everyday beauty routine,” said Shepherd in a press statement.

The line includes 12 wig and extension styles, ranging from short to long to curly, and 18 color options, including jet black, deep red and silver grey. According to the company, each piece is hand-woven and treated with a unique texturized styleable Keralon that is supposed to make “each synthetic fiber and strand as style friendly and durable as natural hair.” Some pieces will have soft lace fronts. Shepherd’s wigs cost between $69 and $99 and will be available starting this month at Wigs.com, independent wig and beauty supply channels, Web retailers, catalog and shopping TV.

The Florida Courier reports that wigs and weaves are the moneymakers in the beauty industry: “According to the Black Owned Beauty Supply Association, the Black hair care and cosmetic industry is a $9 billion industry and it serves millions of African-Americans.” Yet, says the article, African Americans don’t have much ownership in the industry. Well, add Shepherd to the list of African-American celebrities with their own wig lines. Some of the others include: Vivica A. Fox, Elise Neal, and Iman.

Montgomery Frazier, ”The Image Guru,” feels the Shepherd collection has a good chance at success because there is a great demand, especially in the ethnic community. “I think that most ladies of color, who do not opt for extensions or weaves, or lengthy hair straightening processes, see wigs as a quick, versatile alternative for a multitude of styles that give them all the personalities they desire and compliment all their outfits appropriately,” he says.

And because Shepherd is a celebrity she has an edge in promoting her line—by wearing it on television daily. Concludes Frazier, “Look at women like Cher  and Lady Gaga —icons.  They’ve been known as much for their hairstyles as… their fashions.”

In Part II of our interview, Trina Braxton explains why you won’t be seeing her sons on “Braxton Family Values,” why she hates the word “weave” and what she likes to watch when she’s filming her own show.

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We see them on TV, and on the movie screen. We hear them on the radio. We follow them on Twitter. Our fave celebs are creating all kinds of buzz and blazing trails in everything they do. These business-savvy celebs have launched some lucrative ventures worth checking out. Take a look…

straightfromthea.com

Jennifer Hudson

It seems that just about everything JHud touches turns to gold. First, it was her Oscar-worthy role in Dreamgirls. Then it was her Grammy-award winning debut album. Now it is Weight Watchers. JHud wowed us with her phenomenal weight loss reveal last year, and now she hopes to influence people in her native Chicago to do the same. JHud became the first celebrity to have a Weight Watchers center when she opened the Jennifer Hudson Weight Watchers Center in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood last fall.

What’s next for JHud? A launch of her new clothing line, the Jennifer Hudson Collection on QVC this fall, as well as recurring role on the hit NBC show Smash, where she’ll take on the role of Broadway star Veronica Moore.

realityunscripted.com

Surprisingly, the reality star has decided to whip off her wig, revealing her natural hair on her new spinoff show, “Dont Be Tardy For The Wedding.”  With her decision to not use any hair enhancers, she has boosted ratings, caused much media buzz, and got us wondering who else should whip off their wigs and help us solve the mystery of what lies beneath.

Source: Xojane.com

After reading Wendy Williams’ comments on why black women will never go for any kind of surgery and her subsequent explanation of wearing wigs, part of me didn’t know whether I wanted to smack Wendy or slap her a high-five. In her mini-rant, she makes a couple of decent points about some women’s aversion to fake hair, plastic surgery, and the like, but the underlying hypocrisy and her obvious issue with women who are actually comfortable walking around in the skin and hair they were born with, left me leaning more on the smack side

As part of XO Jane’s Makeunder series, Wendy Williams was toned down from fitted dresses and stilettos to a white crew neck and jeans to talk about what beauty is to her and be candid about the plastic surgeries she’s undergone and her own mane regimen but then she threw black women under the bus a little when she was asked why people are so judgmental about plastic surgery. She told the site:

“They are jealous. Because if I said to that person, ‘I got the doctor and I’m going to pay for it. Choose three things you want to do,’ believe me, they would get it done. They are very jealous and scared. Scared of what their other friends would say, or to break out of the box and be different. And being black? Ugh, please. My people will not go for any kind of surgery. We are supposed to be natural. Ugh, whatever.”

Then hen the interviewer asked Wendy whether she feels the same is true when it comes to hair, she said this:

“Its like a 50/50 thing with women. Some woman prefer natural and then the other 50 percent prefer something fake going on. And for me, fake includes a color. Blonde is not natural in most of our background’s rainbow.

“Full blown wigs are looked at as the worst, in terms of hair type fakery. Getting pieces is the first line of acceptability. Then getting a full weave is a second line of acceptability. Then a wig is something that is acceptable for your old aunt, but not for a modern girl. If you do wear a wig, everybody wants you to take off the wig and show your hair. That’s what Tyra did on her show years ago. She did it because she was running out of ideas trying to shock her audience. They always ask me that, too.

“The reason I wear the wigs is because my hair is naturally thin. And I have thyroid disease which I was diagnosed with 12 years ago. And thyroid disease thins your natural hair and your eyebrows. It thins all of the hair on your body, along with giving you the eye pop and the scary stare. That’s why I wear wigs. Because the hair I would want is just not what is growing out of my head. If I was a librarian with a smaller personality, then I would keep the hair that I have.”

Did she just backtrack there? Wendy wears wigs because of thyroid disease? Sounds like she’s saying she’d rock her natural hair otherwise (maybe not in texture but at least free of extensions). It’s interesting she feels the need to explain that when she’s such a proponent of so-called fake beauty. I also think it’s funny she’s disgusted that black women prefer “natural beauty”—although I can’t say I ever knew that. I mean she can’t be talking about the largest consumers of hair weave, probably around the entire globe, can she? I personally never saw black women as a whole being against plastic surgery, what I did observe was women of color being more comfortable with their features and not feeling the need to go under the knife and “correct” things the way white women do (as much). Plus, we have to shout out those black women don’t crack genetics that don’t make botox such a necessity, as least quite as early. Truthfully I didn’t see the need to even make a distinction between black women and the rest of the world anyway. We’re hardly without physical image issues, I’ve just always looked at hair and skin tone as the main struggles we battle and there’s nothing going under the knife can do about either one of those. That’s why the weave is bought and sewn in and bleaching creams are still lucrative products.

Maybe Wendy was speaking more to the policing of other women’s beauty choices when she made her comments but they came off as pretty defensive to me, as if people should applaud her for going under the knife whenever she chooses and wearing overpowering and terribly groomed weaves every day. I also couldn’t help but remember the comment she made about Viola Davis and her natural hair that didn’t belong on the red carpet and feel some sort of way about her plastic surgeries and her wigs being a little bit deeper than thyroid disease and having cash to blow.

At the end of the day, I don’t think worrying about who has or hasn’t had plastic surgery is at the top of black women’s concerns but when it comes to why they don’t do it, I think the reasons that are a bit deeper than what Wendy would let on. As most studies show, we have healthier body images all around; but there’s also the issue of cost and a lot of black women simply not having discretionary cash to blow on a cosmetic procedure; there’s also distrust of medical professionals. If we won’t see a doctor about our reproductive or mental health, I don’t think we’ll be lined up to have someone cut us open for an optional surgery. Plus there are issues of scarring and contouring and keloids that just aren’t worth the risk for many of us. If getting chopped and screwed is Wendy’s forte I don’t think anyone is really mad at her. But she also shouldn’t be mad at black women who don’t want to do the same.

What do you think about Wendy’s comments? Is she right about black women and their feelings about plastic surgery?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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By Lauren McBride

I was out wig shopping with a good friend over the holidays when I saw it. Like a heroine meeting her doppelganger nemesis in a Hitchcock thriller, I had finally come face to face with my hair.  An exact replica of my very own tresses was right before my eyes being modeled on a lifeless mannequin bust. It was a surreal experience to say the least.

My friend and I were perhaps the most unlikely pair of wig shoppers ever.  My friend has a beautiful head of hair. She describes her hair as an “afro puff” texture and it is well past her shoulders. My own hair is also long, notoriously thick and curly. I was not actually looking for a wig (likely story!), but my friend was. She was looking for a change, but did not want to damage her natural hair. In this case though, the wig is less about getting better hair, and more about the convenience; the ability to throw on a new head of hair and assume a whole new identity. For me it was a research mission, and what I learned is why I have been asked on more than one occasion if I am wearing a wig.

I work with young people in Philadelphia and my students are the ones who most often presume my hair to be fake. While I consider it flattering, I never fully understood how this was even a question.  I was confused because it could be on a day where my hair was looking completely average, messy even. My thought is, if I’m going to wear some fake hair, it’s going to be FABULOUS. After visiting a wig shop, I’ve realized there are so many choices out there, from fabulously coiffed wigs like I had anticipated, to everyday bad hair day wigs. I imagine the spectrum helps keep the wig game convincing. Now that I know how to spot a wig, I’ve noticed that wearing a mediocre wig is actually quite a normal occurrence in my environment. Not to mention that wig shops are everywhere in this city! I would say in some neighborhoods, it would be easier to find a wig than say, a decent cup of coffee.

The wig shopping experience brought up all kinds of memories about my own hair. I am mixed, black and white, and I have always been really self-conscious about my hair and how it’s perceived. I something like corkscrew curls. As a kid this caused huge problems. “It hurts to be beautiful” is what my mother would chant as she struggled through my hair, armed with a fine-tooth comb and a bottle of No More Tangles. Things got worse as I got older and my hair grew even curlier.  I cut my hair short when I was 10 and I became “that girl who stuck her finger in the electric socket.” Although there were always those who told me my hair was great, somehow the negative comments were the ones that always stuck.

Black kids would say:
“Oh my gosh look at that white girl with a Jherri Curl!”

White kids would say:
“Hey, that girl looks just like Slash!”

Let’s face it, Slash has always had great hair, but that does not feel like a compliment to an insecure biracial 12 year-old girl. These comments were innocent, but each one made me feel even more out of place than I already felt. I started to believe that maybe my hair in fact was not fit for public consumption.

Luckily, I grew up and eventually snapped out of it. I got some great hair products and I learned to love what is growing out of my head. I am now complimented on my hair much more than I was ever taunted before.  Some even consider me an expert at caring for curly hair. It has actually been suggested to me that I turn my knowledge and ability of dealing with curly hair into a professional endeavor! I think folks like Ms Jessie’s and the Mixed Chics have that covered. To me it is just a skill, a very necessary skill. Times have changed and natural hair of all textures is far more accepted today than when I was growing up. I now remember how many times–countless times–I was told “You’re beautiful Lauren, people would kill for your hair.” Well, people are not killing for it, but now they certainly are paying for it.

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