Sanaa Lathan's Hair Has Grown Like A Weed Three Years After Shaving It Off
Sanaa Lathan’s Hair Has Grown Significantly Since Shaving It Off Three Years Ago — Find Out Why - Page 9
Source: Dominik Bindl / Getty
In 2017, actress Sanaa Lathan chopped off her hair for her role in Netflix’s Nappily Ever After. The moment was captured in the film, with the star taking an electric razor to her strands. Three years later, her hair growth has been pretty astounding.
The 49-year-old took to Instagram on Thursday to share an unfiltered look at her hair now, seemingly blown out and sitting freely on her gorgeous head. She gave the secret to how it’s managed to grow back like a weed in the time since she did the big chop, citing “Protective styles, braids and almost no heat.”
She told Entertainment Weekly after shaving her hair that not only cutting her hair off for the role, but just playing the character of Violet in Nappily Ever After in general changed the way she viewed her own strands.
“I am loving it. Even though I was intellectually aware and knew that my natural hair was on par with any European hair, I still am a victim of the conditioning,” she said in 2018. “There are days — I have a short, what I call #twa tiny, weenie, afro and there are days when I wish I had hair. Then there are days when I’m loving this. It feels so me now. It feels so the new me and I’m still a woman, I still have insecurities and doubts about myself at times, but I definitely feel like me doing what they call ‘the big chop’ has kind of seeped into my outlook on life, my perspective on life in terms of kind of taking more risks and stepping outside whatever boxes I have put myself in or society has put me in. It’s definitely kind of started that conversation for me internally.”
Now Lathan not only has a changed perspective, but she also has big, healthy hair again. Check out the star in the protective styles that gave her hair the space it needed to grow, and in her growing afro, by hitting the flip.
Source: Paras Griffin / Getty
Soon after Lathan cut off her hair for the role, she showed off a crisply shaven head while celebrating the film in Atlanta.
ATLANTA, GA – SEPTEMBER 30: Actress Sanaa Lathan at “Nappily Ever After” wrap party at Suite Lounge on September 30, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
Source: Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty
Less than a year after doing the big chop, Lathan had a pretty adorable TWA afro.
She said shaving her head was “terrifying” but also a gratifying experience.
“My character [Violet] is in crisis, and everything that she thought she knew is unraveling. So the emotions were all over the place for me—because I’m playing Violet, but I’m also shaving my head! It was actually really powerful and kind of weirdly cathartic and freeing,” she told Health magazine in 2018.
BEVERLY HILLS, CA – JUNE 01: Sanaa Lathan attends Step Up’s 14th annual Inspiration Awards at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel on June 1, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Source: Leon Bennett / Getty
At a special screening of Nappily Ever After just a few months later, her TWA wasn’t so teeny anymore. She played with pins to give her growing ‘fro a different look and shape.
She said the response to her having short hair, including a shaved head, was overwhelmingly positive.
“A lot of my exes… so many guys were calling me, saying, ‘I wanna rub your head,’ and I was like, ‘What are you into?'” she joked.
LOS ANGELES, CA – SEPTEMBER 20: Actress Sanaa Lathan attends Special Screening Of Netflix’s “Nappily Ever After” at Harmony Gold on September 20, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Leon Bennett/WireImage)
Source: Rich Polk / Getty
Giving her afro a break, Lathan jumped into protective styles like braids. She sported this fun updo at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2019.
The actress said she cut her hair off at a moment when she was growing weary of dealing with it, so everything worked out.
“It was kind of a perfect time in my life to do it,” she said. “I have a lot of hair, and it’s thick. I was just so over it.”
PARK CITY, UT – JANUARY 25: Sanaa Lathan of ‘Native Son’ attends The IMDb Studio at Acura Festival Village on location at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival – Day 1 on January 25, 2019 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb)
Source: Arnold Turner / Getty
These gorgeous cornrows with a box braids twist at the back were a nice change for the beauty, who wore them in February of 2019.
She said that a film like Nappily Ever After was right on time when it was released in 2018.
“[It feels like this is time] in terms of women of color coming into this amazing renaissance of owning who they are, and owning all of their beauty in whatever shape, size, color it is,” she said. “There’s no more cookie-cutter, like, ‘This is the ideal.'”
WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 22: Sanaa Lathan attends Common’s 5th Annual Toast to the Arts at Ysabel on February 22, 2019 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Arnold Turner/Getty Images for Freedom Road Productions)
Source: Jean Baptiste Lacroix / Getty
By March of 2019, Lathan’s afro was already a formidable one. Her twist-out was seriously popping when she sported this look at a media event for her work on The Twilight Zone reboot.
Though her hair has grown back with a vengeance, Lathan said she enjoyed shaving her head so much in 2017 that she kept it up for months afterward.
“I actually continued shaving my head for four months after we finished the film because it felt so freeing, so good,” she told EW.
HOLLYWOOD, CA – MARCH 24: Sanaa Lathan attends the Paley Center For Media’s 2019 PaleyFest LA – “Star Trek: Discovery” and “The Twilight Zone” held at the Dolby Theater on March 24, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JB Lacroix/Getty Images)
Source: Emma McIntyre / Getty
Lathan traded in braids as a protective style for playful ponytails. She sported this sleek take on the look at the premiere for The Twilight Zone, also in March.
Opting for extensions, Lathan said her work in Nappily Ever After was about loving your natural hair, but also doing what works for your coif without fear of judgment.
“We no longer have to fit into this one little box,” she said. “So the message really is: yes, embrace your natural hair as beautiful, but you can do whatever you want.”
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 26: Sanaa Lathan attends CBS All Access new series “The Twilight Zone” premiere at the Harmony Gold Preview House and Theater on March 26, 2019 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)
Source: Santiago Felipe / Getty
Another play on the pony, Lathan tried some modern twists on for size during a visit to the SiriusXM studios in April of 2019.
For the record, Lathan told ELLE magazine that she initially wasn’t planning on cutting off her hair for the movie, but had a change of heart.
“Because I helped develop the script, at first I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll just get a really expensive prosthetic,'” she said. “And then, the more I started working on the character, the more I thought, ‘I have to really do it.’ Because if I didn’t do it as the actress, it’s in a way undercutting the message of the movie.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 02: Sanaa Lathan visits SiriusXM Studios on April 02, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Santiago Felipe/Getty Images)
Source: Roy Rochlin / Getty
By June, Lathan was having fun with some length, trying out styles like these cute coils.
The star has remarked on the ordeal her head has been through when it comes to maintaining different looks for her work in film and on TV. Going without hair was a nice break for her.
“After being in the business for 20 years, always having to worry about wigs and weaves. A lot of times you’re doing it for characters. You’re also doing it for protective styles, because you can’t be on set every day getting heat put on. Our hair will fall out.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 02: Sanaa Lathan attends the screening of “The Twilight Zone” during the 2019 Split Screens TV Festival at IFC Center on June 2, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
Source: Presley Ann / Getty
Embracing her own shorter hair, surprisingly, was celebrated when Lathan moved on to other projects. When she worked on Showtime’s The Affair, she was “shocked” to find that everyone was for her decision to sport her natural hair.
“I brought a wig, like a beautiful, long, silky wig. My hair was newly really short. It wasn’t bald, but it was the lowest it could be. And I knew in my mind, ‘You know, this character could be either of these women. But, the bolder choice is my own hair.’ I just needed a little bit of reassurance,” she said.
