Live Beauty Expert Debacle Highlights the Importance of Understanding the Nuances of Natural Hair

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Dianne Austin

Dianne is the co-founder of Natural Haircare News and Coils To Locs.com. She's been blogging about natural hair ever since she made the decision to break free of the creamy crack in 2012.

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LEFT: Before Makeover - RIGHT: After. You be the judge...

Left: Before – Right: After
You be the judge…

If you missed the live on national TV hair makeover on the Today Show of a black model with natural hair, you’ll want to check out the video link below.

In a segment on easy summer 60 seconds or less hairstyles, the Today Show’s resident beauty expert, Deepica Mutyala unintentionally butchered a natural model’s hair – and on live television no less!

As much as we like to espouse the “we are all the same” philosophy in the U.S., we are not all alike and that is what makes us unique. We are a country with such rich cultural diversity and this is equally true when it comes to our hair, which spans the spectrum of straight to kinky/coily. Many black people have these different textures all on the same head! Stylists – and particularly stylists with a national platform – need to understand and be able to work with all hair types; especially in a situation where you are promoting a style that is supposed to compliment women with textured hair.

As you’ll see in the video and in the picture above, the model who is beautiful in her own right, looked a lot better before the stylist got her hands in her hair. The goal of the segment was to create “easy, effortless” hairstyles with the mention from the stylist that “it is not that trendy to be that perfect” when it comes to effortless hairstyles. When it came to the model, Malyia McNaughton’s natural hair transformation, the end result was far from trendy or perfect.

To the stylist’s credit, she apologized via social media and vowed to gain a better understanding:

You can see the full video here.

Author: Dianne Shaddock

“Changing attitudes about natural hair” is what we do at Natural Haircare News. Through informative articles, podcasts and videos, we go beyond just sharing the latest advice and tips on kinky, curly, wavy haircare – We shake things up and focus on the realities of wearing our hair natural.