A few weeks ago Angela Simmons tweeted a picture of her hair sans weave. This sparked a lot of discussion on BGLH about whether the fro was natural or not. I reached out to Angela to get an answer and was excited to discover that her hair is indeed natural. Check it out.
How long have you been natural? Are you a lifelong natural or is this something that you recently did?
A: I’ve been natural for like 3 years. When I get weaves in I just sew it up and leave it alone.
Why did you decide to stop perming it?
A: I just figured that I didn’t really need it. And I did notice that my hair was way thicker without the perm and it just seemed healthier without it and I just didn’t want to put any more chemicals in it. So I just left it alone.
Angela’s natural hair, blown out
Would you ever consider having it huge and natural out in public?
A: You mean without flat-ironing it? No. [Weaves are] easier for me. I work out alot and I travel a lot. So to have my own hair out is a hassle for me. So I don’t do it.
When you tweeted that picture of your hair did you get any negative reaction?
A: It was pretty good. Nobody was negative. They just didn’t know I had so much hair underneath when I wear weaves.
So your hair grows pretty fast?
A: I guess. If I cut it it would probably grow back pretty quickly.
What are your tips for maintaining your hair, because it looks really healthy and really thick.
A: I just keep it braided up alot. For the most part I stay in the hair salon alot and get my hair done alot so I kind of lean on my hairdressers for that. So for the most part, when I go, I do deep conditioners and sit under a dryer or steamer. But other than that…
But I did something bad not too long ago. My front got all messed up. I had a blonde weave, you know I had that moment where I wanted to go blonde. And I bleached some of my hair and it broke off and that was a bad idea.
Photo Source: NecoleBitchie.com
So I don’t suggest that anyone bleach their hair. Overall my hair’s pretty healthy it’s just the front’s a little messed up so I’ve been doing whatever I can. Oh, and I do suggest Moroccan oil. It’s amazing.
How long do you keep the weaves in at a time?
A: Not that long because I change my hair so much. So, probably a month at the most. But I’m the girl who changes my hair a lot, so.
You have a new fashion line coming out soon.
A: Yeh, I’m really working on my designs and stuff, so not quite yet. I don’t have a date for you guys but I am working on it. That’s why I’m here at New York Fashion Week getting inspiration and all that stuff.
If you could describe the aesthetic of your line, what would it be?
A: It definitely has to represent me and how I dress and my sense of style but I would definitely say it’s Betsey Johnson meeting the Juicy Couture girl. In between that I feel like she’s not catered to, so that’s the girl I wanna find. It’s the girl who’s on her own and living for herself. That’s me.
With your sneaker line, Pastry, you’ve had a lot of success at a very young age. Did you think this was the path you would go down?
A: I’ve always wanted to know what I wanted to do. Since I was 9 I’ve wanted to be a fashion designer. So the path I’m on isn’t much of a shock to myself. I’ve worked pretty diligently to be where I’m at and I’m still working on perfecting my craft and what I do. I’m very excited and happy that everyone’s accepting me and that so many young girls say they have somebody that they can look up to. Now that I realize that I’m such an inspiration for young girls I think it’s amazing.
Thanks for setting the record straight, Angela!
You can find Angela on Twitter.
The comments on this blog are atrocious. This “you can be apart of this club but you can’t” reeks of the paper brown test. How dare you!!! EVERYONE has the right to wear their hair the way they want to wear it. This “you aren’t really natural because you don’t wear an afro or you use heat” bulls**t is so stupid and shows the immaturity and judgmental attitudes of so many women.
Right? I’ve been seeing this more often then I would like. I have to laugh at some of the natural hair police sometimes. I’m finding myself wanting to distance myself from a lot of this.
Back to the actual topic, I think Angela’s hair looks gorgeous! Thanks for the interview BGLH.
I agree. This site is becoming like those chicks over at Nappturality. A site I don’t even bother visiting anymore.
wow…idk i think people need to take a break from discussing natural hair…it’s just constantly so heated….and tiring…wow.
There’s definitely criticism about Angela’s styling, but I don’t think it’s just about Natural’s being territorial. I think her profile, in some ways, contradicts the spirit of BGLH, and it’s not wrong for people to observe that. That said I think we should just take the interview for what it is – a brief spotlight on a tv personality/designer.
The “spirit of BGLH” is in its title: “Black Girl with Long Hair: Celebrating the Dopeness of Natural Hair.”
Right now I’m looking at a woman with natural, long, beautiful hair.
So what’s the issue?
the about page of BGLH:
“Black Girl with Long Hair is a website dedicated to the ever-growing community of black, Latina and multi-racial women who choose to wear their hair naturally — with minimal or no use of chemicals, heat, weave or extensions.”
pay attention to the minimal part.Angela is constantly using heat and weaves so she does not fit the BGLH ideal.
And if anything, this re-opens the dialogue about weaves as a protective style.
Naturals continue to turn their nose up at weaves, while they continue to be a proven and effective way to grow hair out.
Online naturals really need to get over themselves. Because we’re talking this ish too far. And I’m all for more and more women accepting who they are naturally… and I definitely believe that we live in a Eurocentric society… but when it gets to the point that we can’t even allow in women who don’t fit our definition of what it is to be natural, then I think we go too far. And I think we already have gone too far.
If you want to spend your afternoon/day/evening raging against this, enjoy.
2nd Rosie, LoL!
Third. It’s exhausting watching her and the similarly named Jazmin hi five each other as they rail against the odd negative comment towards Simmons. Most of the negative, disheartening comments come from those two. It’s wrong to slate Simmons but ok to make ASSumptions about the commenters and readers of BGLH. Good luck with that.
Angela, is that you?
Seriously. Are you her cousin or something. You sure seem so passionate to defend Angela Simmons.
I just wanted to give MY opinion on what natural means:
Having natural hair/being natural when it comes to hair is something that transcends race – this goes for white, black, yellow, brown & everything in between.
When you wear your hair in its NATURAL state (which is where the slang term of just plain ol’ “Natural” originates) – you don’t do ANYTHING to alter the NATURAL TEXTURE/LOOK of your hair – that is, you don’t straighten, bleach, relax, texlax, dye, fry, etc. – *TO ME* it means you leave YOUR hair in its NATURAL STATE. This is why some white women will say, “I’m NATURALLY a brunette but I dye it blonde” or “I’m NATURALLY curly but straighten my hair”. Same thing goes for us! If you’re doing ANYTHING to alter the hair that is GROWING OUT OF YOUR HEAD, your hair is no longer in its natural state. That’s *my* opinion of what natural is.
With that being said, if you wear weaves, you’re not wearing your natural hair out but that doesn’t mean that you’re ALTERING the natural texture or look of your OWN hair – you could just be adding pieces in.
Just my opinion!! Don’t beat me up!!
Why are we making such a big fuss over Angela’s hair? Does it matter whether or not she is natural? Does it matter that she wears weave 24/7? NO and NO. I don’t understand for the life of me why it becomes so vicious when leaving comments. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I think we all should be a little more respectful to others opinions even if we don’t agree. Also, this girl is not trippin off of how natural we are or aren’t. In fact, she could care less. So, why are we supposed to care about what she is doing to the hair on her head?
I would have liked a little more information about how she cares for her hair, since it is a website about hair. But I understand that she is a “celebrity” and having your hair out all the time could cause problems with excessive stying, color, etc. If we were just trying to answer the question about whether that is her natural hair in the first picture, then mission accomplished. In this case, even though people like to hate, Beyonce is natural and should be featured in an interview.
I don’t really see the point of the interview, other than to answer that question and promote her new clothing line. Didn’t really help me with my natural hair goals, since I don’t like to wear weave. I don’t have anything against people who do, but for me it’s not comfortable and I don’t see the point of having nice, healthy hair and never showing it.
BGLH reached out to her– she responded. She didn’t contact natural hair sites wanting to be a natural hair representative. Her interview was plain and boring, but I wasn’t expecting any passion from her regarding natural hair. She wears it covered, which is her business and decision. CurlyNikki had an interview with Toya ( Lil’ Wayne’s ex wife) and it was similar to this. Not everyone had some big ole drawn out process and revelation about natural hair when they stopped perming.
I stopped perming 8 years ago because I didn’t see the point of having a perm. But there were barely forums then, definitely no blogs and YT videos to ask about hair types or product reviews. I never wore a weave and had synthetic twists once my whole life, but that is me. People are exposed to more options now, but you can’t toss everyone in some big “enlightened” box that you made up.
I definitely agree with everything you said.
LMAO I’m sensing some extreme naturals in this piece. My advice sometimes natural hair isn’t a BIG DEAL to other people. Let them be.
Great job Angela,,,
And what are the rules in the natural community? Are you guys serious? Rules…smdh.
I bet Angela has more hair than half of yall belittling her..lol
No one has belittled her. There are more complaints about the chat being dull than her hair choice. A small minority deem her unnatural. There aren’t that many people commenting here and lately the interviews don’t get many responses. People seem to be seeing things that aren’t here and the main rebuttals to the few extreme natural views are tinged with such nastiness. Even if someone is rocking a Caesar, they can still comment on a head of hair posted on here. Some will love it, some won’t. That’s life. Your comment seeks to belittle and insult a lot more than the expected cries of ‘she’s not natural.’ Some of us have been reading this since day dot and love the inspirational spirit it possesses. It’s perfectly ok to say that this interview left us feeling flat, just as it is for you to say you loved it.
Number one annoyance on the natural community: those of any persuasion that try to silence debate rather than offer their own tempered view. Insults just make people switch off.
You’re kidding right? Her interview was a whole mess of um…whatever..yeah…ok. And I’m tired of friends and stans hijacking reply boards to spin drama.
Celebs want free publicity they have to come correct. Don’t accept an interview for a natural hair site if you don’t have anything to say about natural hair. Don’t promote your clothing line if you don’t have anything to say about clothes. She got called out, the end.
@extreme side eye
I know for people living in the Color Purple saying someone’s hair is longer than somebody else’s means something, but grownups in the 21st century ain’t really trippin’ on that.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion. :) And I stand by mine, even if it is not popular.
I am truly impressed by her length retention. Whatever means it took to get there good for her. Maybe some of you guys can take some advice for her instead of moaning about “not retaining length”.
My post was dedicated to the people trying to define what “natural” is/isn’t.
Number one annoyance in the “natural hair community”…people trying to broadcast their perception of natural hair onto others.
Nice way to try to redeem the first ;) A whole lot of people here retain length and have a lot of advice about it, take a look around sometime. Maybe some would’ve liked information from Angela but she didn’t have any.
Number one annoyance, passive-aggressive quoting.
I agree with Char re: yours and the other BGLH commenter critics on here. It’s all so spiteful, passive aggressive and baseless. Your opinions are not so much unpopular. Your points of which there are few, are delivered in such a sledgehammer fashion. I think it’s completely passive aggressive of you to throw general insults at BGLH commenters and only now get to the crux of what your argument was and who it was aimed at. It came off as though you were tarring all readers with the same brush in quite and immature fashion i.e ‘you’re all baldheaded’. Most of the interviews on here carry tons of hair advice as do the comments section when topics about hair care arise. I wonder how much you detractors really post and read here when you make such fatuous and facile statements. Furthermore, Simmons is not asking for unsolicited advice of any kind so wouldn’t us offering it be, as you put it, broadcasting our perception of natural hair onto others? Some of you need to choose what you want out of BGLHONLINE. Do you want to engage in rational debate within a supportive, inspiring space for naturals or just continue to infect it with your overwhelming negative energy? That’s what you do when you fail to offer a rational counter argument directly to those you disagree with instead choosing to resort to petty, misinformed insults.
“I know for people living in the Color Purple saying someone’s hair is longer than somebody else’s means something, but grownups in the 21st century ain’t really trippin’ on that.”
LOL!
That is all.
“I bet Angela has more hair than half of yall belittling her”
^5 :)
*Opens door, looks around, shakes my head, backs out and closes the door.*
lol, you and me both…
exactly! lol
Sorry if I’m coming off like a hater but, I still don’t think that’s her natural hair. Unless the fro and blowout aren’t from the same time, her blown out hair should be much longer than the picked out hair but, it’s only a few inches different.
*Stop it*
Yes, you are coming off as a hater….
WOW….um ok. The interview was boring but she does have pretty hair. I find it odd that with all the resources she has she does not know much about her hair. I would think that she has advantages that most of us do not have but to just be like “they do my hair….HEY! listen to my clothing line ideas” was just weird to me. I guess I am too involved with my hair, LOL! I dont blame the site for the interview and to be honest I didnt see anyone doing that. As far as the weave issue goes, I can understand because she is so busy with her career she does not have time to do her hair. I am not against weaves but could not imagine wearing them all the time. Nice girl, boring empty responses. Sorry.
I agree JP23. It was like we would have gotten better answers from one of her hairstylists because she personally knows nothing about her own hair. Alot of people have this problem not just weave wearers and permies but people who are natural who constantly go to the salon too. They depend on stylists to do their hair and when they get a stylist who doesn’t know what they are doing their hair suffers.
I don’t really care one way or the other about her wearing her hair in a weave 98% of the time — do you boo boo … DO YOU (Kevin Hart anyone?). My main reaction to the interview was just kind of disappointed that she basically didn’t have much of anything to say. She actually ended one of her answers with “yeah, so.” I just kind of got the sense that even though she’s had great success in growing and retaining her hair without chemicals — it wasn’t really HER success, its more of her stylists’. I wanted to her from HER how she learned from/about her hair but I don’t really think she knows. Am I judging her for that? No. It doesn’t have any negative bearing on my opinion of her — I still like her. Its just, I thought we’d have something in common and we don’t. Oh well.
Diversity is what makes the world go round. Each and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, you all have to agree to disagree. Going back to the topic in question i too found her comments/answers uninspiring. Can’t fault her hair though. However, i’m not someone who has ever hidden my hair under a weave so i find it a bit shocking that someone would rather wear a weave than have their own hair on show. I understand protective styling but this is extreme to me.
Okay, I don’t really care about her wearing weave or being natural or not, but honestly, as I read the interview, she did come off as uninterested and dry…. I’m not hating and I think that Angela is a cool chick, but honestly, it seemed like she was bored with this interview, and thats just what I took from reading her words.
As far as covering her natural hair with weave all the time… We can have these discussions a million times. While I believe there are some naturals who choose to wear weave as a protective style and to switch things up, it is undeniable that there are women who are weave dependent, and though their hair may be natural and not chemically altered, they can’t see themselves without the weave. Basically, I gather that women like that have yet to fully accept their natural hair. If a person wears weave constantly, I don’t think there’s any other way to explain that.
Love angela style… I must agree the interview was boring! lol…but she doesnt take care of her own hair, so atleast she was honest! lol
She does not sound very bright.
No need to throw so much shade at the girl. She has never claimed to identify with the natural community, nor has she ever worn her hair picked out.
“She has never claimed to identify with the natural community…”
then why is her interview on a natural hair blog??
I think her natural hair is beautiful. But she doesn’t really fall in the same category as most of us. All that “spending a lot of time in the salon,” “letting the hairdressers take care of it,” and wearing weaves all the time and never wearing her natural hair out without it being flat ironed, doesn’t sound like she’s embracing her natural hair. Sounds like any of us that had relaxers and went to the salon all the time and had to have our hair straight. If you always hide your natural curl pattern, whether its with relaxers, weaves, wigs, hats ALL THE TIME how natural are you really? If your ashamed, then why bother? Just my opinion!
shame she views her natural hair as a “hassle.”
since she doesn’t do it, i wonder if it’s actually her hairdresser who finds it to be a hassle. lol.
I didn’t find the interview interesting, but this is a large community with lots of resources for those of us who don’t or can’t wear certain protective styles all the time. Take me, for instance: my second BC was in April and I now have maybe 5 or 6 inches of growth, which isn’t enough for me to do a lot of cute protective styles, so I tend to wear twist-outs when I’m not working from home. I was a braids and cornrows queen for years, but I’ve sworn off them because they’ve wreaked almost irreparable havoc with my edges, and weaves wrecked my hair, period. So this particular interview doesn’t help me. It is, however, interesting to know what other naturals are doing, so I don’t find the interview as objectionable as some commenters. (And yes, I do believe she’s natural; natural hair is natural hair, even if there are motivational/psychological nuances.)
As a side note, can we please not call other commenters? (See Jasmine’s comment above.) Everyone’s allowed opinions and preferences.