I’ve loved Jill Scott since I discovered her my freshman year of college… and I felt unjustifiably disappointed when she relaxed several months ago. But it’s totally not fair to expect celebs to subscribe to the individual and static standard of beauty that we feel is appropriate, and Jill Scott said as much in an interview with Afrobella;
Afrobella: …to so many people, they look at your and they brand you as an icon that speaks to their particular experience. So to so many women, you’re considered a natural hair icon, or plus size icon and now you’re in a period in your life where you’re changing. How is that, and how do you feel about being seen that way by women and how do you feel about your hair and your beauty and your evolution that we’re all getting to see right now?
Jill Scott: Well I think that change is good, and its necessary. Typically when I go through something, I’ll always cut my hair off. And I’ll wear wigs, and I’ll wear weaves and I’ll wear pieces because I like fashion. I like style and its fun to me. I’m very much a girl and I don’t know. I wont say worried…I’m interested to see how people look at me as someone who’s lost 60 [lbs] and working on 20 more. I’m interested to see if they’ll still feel connected to me or not. I don’t know. I wasn’t trying to be the spokesperson of natural hair. I just like my hair. I like how it feels, I like how I look. I enjoy my culture and my heritage. I see my mother and my father in my hair and I enjoy that. But at the same time I’ve been natural for 20 years and it was time to change. And when I get bored of this, I’ll cut my hair off again.
Click here for the full interview. What are your thoughts ladies? Do we put too much stock into what natural celebs choose to do with their hair?
I love me some Jill…I’ll start there. But um…I didn’t always feel like she looked all that hot just because she was natural. She is no more her hair than we are. I’m Googling the I Have a Dream speech now but I thought it said we should be judged by the content of our character. OAN I heard snippets of her soon to be released songs and trust me, the girl aint going mainstream….Jilly from Philly still got it. She changed her hair, not her soul.
I find it strange that black women have developed some form of ADD when it comes to our hair. Not just flittering back and forth between relaxers but constantly needing to style, comb and manipulate our hair to look different all the time (sometimes this is clearly the reason some of us hardly have any hair). Other groups may dye/cut whatever to their hair but they mostly make changes that don’t involve having to cut EVERYTHING off just to get a new look. She tries to justify with the ‘i’ve been natural 20 yrs thing’ but I feel like being natural for your whole life should be a more regular occurence amongst black women, not like ‘well i’ve done my time natural time to go back to the creamy crack’. I mean why change your own hair so drastically when you’re mostly going to be wearing wigs/weaves in it anyway?
I totally agree!
I hope Jill gets bored again too. :-)
But seriously, I love Jill Scott, and her music and I always will. I must say however, that she, and another young lady, YaYa Dacosta, (ANTM Cycle 3 runner up), were my two natural hair inspirations. In 2009, I cut my relaxer out, and never looked back.
But like someone mentioned earlier, Jill has got to do JILL no matter what anyone else thinks. That’s the bottom line.
Jill, Keep on doin’ what you’re doin’, GIRL, ’cause you’re doin’ it WELL!.
I just saw her here in Chicago. Looks like the natural hair is back…
I agree with Jill, we all have our own personal journeys and mine and is not yours. I cut my butt-length locs off to my shoulders over the summer and this woman on my job almost had a coronary over MY HAIR! I’m about to cut the rest off this very weekend and I know I will hear about it, but it’s just time for a change FOR ME. I hate natural hair Nazis who look down on women who choose to relax, wear weaves, wigs or whatever they choose to do with their hair. It’s called individuality…embrace it and stop judging others.
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I dislike it whe we put celebs in a particular box cause the moment they decide to switch and jazz something up some fans say they sold out or crucify them for it. They are allowed to do so just like us. I’m not going to dislike or be upset if a celeb changed their appearance, its their actions that I look at not the appearance.
I meant to put when not whe. Apologies for that not proof reading.