Is Natural Hair Formal? According to Wendy Williams, No, It’s Not

That’s probably why I was so sad, but not surprised to hear that Wendy Williams wasn’t so much of a fan of Davis’ look. While conversing about the fashion’s from last night’s Oscar’s on her show today with a fashion critic, Wendy turned to her audience and tried to let her natural viewers know she meant no harm, but that in the end, she doesn’t want to see a “Room 222” look on the red carpet.

WTF?

There isn’t any video from the exchange yet, but there’s already a big response to it. From YouTube videos about Wendy’s comments, to emails sent to us by our readers who were appalled by it. After doing some research on the show, Room 222 was a show from the late ’60s and early ’70s about a history class taught by a black man. Still lost? Yeah, I was too. Coincidentally, the teacher, Pete Dixon, had a short afro, and the only other black female character I saw had a small curly style that later became a larger curly ‘fro style. I’m hoping Williams wasn’t saying Davis resembled the male teacher with her natural hair, or maybe she was saying the natural look was out of touch as a ’70s thing, but either way, the reference to the show was random and pretty unnecessary. No matter what she was trying to say, she gave off the impression that natural isn’t acceptable around the grown and classy on the red carpet.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. As someone with her own television show and the power to do good things with her influence, it always boggles me how Wendy spends a lot of the time being negative. Her opinion isn’t one that had to be muted by any means, but she could have easily said, “I wasn’t really feeling the look, but I’m happy Viola is comfortable in her skin. I just couldn’t have done it.” But no, she chose to take a dig at her look and give the impression that yes, being natural and yourself in all facets isn’t welcomed on Hollywood’s biggest night. I guess if you left it up to Wendy, we would all be rocking heavy wigs and struggling to keep our heads up on the red carpet.

While many women are making the transition to natural hair (as always do what works for YOU though), it doesn’t mean every woman who does it is 100 percent comfortable embracing their natural strands the minute they expose them to the world. It often takes time, months, if not years sometimes to get used to your own hair, how it feels and how it looks so that you don’t worry about what other people think your hair should look like. So while a woman is publicly in the process of doing that, it sucks to know that a fellow black woman whose words are pretty influential for some reason, felt the need to make her the butt of a lame joke. Don’t get me wrong, to say that on national television in front of an audience of women, many of who were probably natural, isn’t the worst thing ever done by any means, but it is pretty freaking sad. Even by Wendy’s standards.

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