Natural Hair on The Red Carpet! What Does It Mean?

All this talk about natural hair on the red carpet!  I love it!  I call it strong hair!  It has a strong presence and it says, this is the real me, like it or lump it!  I know she didn’t go natural for this reason, but Viola couldn’t have planned a better marketing campaign.  The press can’t seem to get enough of talking about her in that now famous L.A.Times spread, or on the red carpet sporting that cinnamon red hair and that emerald green Vera Wang dress.

I have been asked by a number of people and interviewed by Gerit Quealy in her “Over 40″ article, if I thought that after the Vogue spread, that Viola would be brave enough to walk the red carpet with her kinky tresses.  I knew without a doubt that she would.  When you make that kind of move, a month before the biggest gala on the planet, you don’t get cold feet and revert back to the tried and true.  Heck no!  You keep it moving forward with the new you!

As I have mentioned before, going natural begins as an internal process, even if it’s unconscious.  Something in the heart, the mind or the soul is stirring and is calling out for a new expression, on being in touch with what’s real for you at that time.  A friend asked what would make a woman like Viola reinvent herself.  This is an especially interesting question given the industry that she’s in.  We’re talking about Hollywood here, that illusive place where many sisters, no matter how talented and no matter how hard they try to fit into the mold by sporting straight and long tresses, they are hard pressed to be gainfully employed on a regular basis, or at all.   I believe that Viola was just plane ole tired of playing a roll that was not the real her, even when she was off set.  And when you are true to yourself in this way, it attracts people for all the right reasons.  All of us have an internal compass that resonates with others when they are true to themselves, unless of course we have issues…  But that’s another conversation for another time.

Viola wanted to ‘come out’, to come from under the wigs, the constructed persona, to her true self in her day to day life.  How long can you hold down a lie about who you really are, how you really look, what comes naturally to you?  Some can do it for a life time, but with others,  the heart just cries out for true expression.  Not to mention she had her husband encouraging her.  Got to love that man, because obviously, he really loves her as he encouraged her to do what she was longing to do, to be her real self.

Now when Esperaza Spaulding appeared on the red carpet with her big ‘Fro we weren’t that surprise because this is how she’s been rocking her hair all along and accepted her Grammy Award for Best New Artist,  in that fashion.

But when she took to the stage with that angelic voice, the soft, white Grecian style gown and that gigantic Afro, it was dazzling!  Esperanza is young, a musician, has a strong jazz repertoire – in other words, we expect her to be outside the mold, defining for herself her own image, sharing her true expression.  But to see her in the setting of the Oscars, just made my heart swell with joy and pride for that innate ability of youth to walk to the beat of their own drummer.

Here at Khamit Kinks, we are grateful to these two sisters for stepping up and stepping out in the tradition of their ancestors, wearing hair that  speaks to the cultural heritage.  These women are artists and as such it is their prerogative to change.  Life changes  and needs change and so they may do so too (regarding their hair) in the near or far future.  Only time will tell.  But for this 2012 Award season, personally, I was delighted at seeing them in their natural glory.  How about you?