Thankfully, we’re living in an era where the resurgence and pride in natural hair is becoming more common and celebrated every day. Unfortunately, there are still those people out there who refuse to let your natural hair be great—and singer Halsey is the latest to be attacked.
Twenty-four-year-old singer Halsey, who’s biracial, proudly posted a picture on her Instagram account that showcased her naturally curly hair, which looked like a medium-sized Afro. And while you would think that her fans and others who saw the photo would praise her for her journey, that’s not what happened at all.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmUQZjPHbdG/?taken-by=iamhalsey
Instead, Halsey (real name Ashley Frangipane,) was met with a barrage of criticism from online trolls who made fun of her hair and said that it looked like a wig. Before we expand on this further, it should be noted that when a black or biracial person doesn’t have a looser curl pattern to their natural hair, they are met with unwarranted criticism and side-eyes. In Halsey’s case, she appears to be proud of growing her hair out after wearing wigs for some time and the online haters took her joyous moment and reduced to something negative because her curl pattern isn’t one that they prefer.
Refusing to let the hurtful comments slide, Halsey took to Twitter to address the trolls head-on. She confirmed that she had indeed been growing out her hair for a year while wearing wigs and she was upset at the comments.
If you’ve ever grown out your hair, especially after cutting it all off or very short, then you know how much pride you have when you finally achieve growth. Halsey explained that after enduring some color damage from dyeing her hair blonde, her curly hair suffered. “Still trying to get everything healthy again. I was blonde a few months ago and an inexperienced colorist fried my head,” she wrote in response to a fan. “It’s s [sic] journey but I reaaaaaallly don’t wanna have to chop again.”
Halsey isn’t new to tackling natural hair controversy, back in April she blasted hotels that don’t offer hair products for customers of color. At the time she wrote on social media, “I can’t use this perfumed watered-down white people shampoo,” she added, “How can u have lived ur entire life without knowing that people of color and white people require different hair care products.
Always willing to address her racial identity and refusing to stay silent on criticism, Halsey followed up her initial natural hair photo with one of her as a baby with a head full of curls, she captioned it simply, “stay mad.” Kudos girl, we definitely feel you.
