Actress Keke Palmer is an undercover natural! The 19-year-old actress and singer, known for her leading roles in Akeelah and the Bee and Madea’s Family Reunion took to Twitter yesterday to reveal the fro she’s been hiding beneath some slick weaves. Keke posted the photo with the caption “My hair!”, and was met with generally positive comments from her fans!
Angela Simmons and Rapper Lil Mama did the same thing in 2011 and 2012 respectively, but weren’t met with such positive feedback.
Ladies, what do you think?
I liked the face. I thought it was just silly until I started reading comments about people saying it was because she didn’t like her hair. If she thought it was that bad she wouldn’t have posted it online. Idk I thought it was funny. Why so serious guys?
No offense, but that’s not the point. I don’t think it’s such a big deal except for the fact that by making the face she is 1. making a statement about how she feels about the hair 2. in publishing it on IG, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t think “it was that bad”.. she is probably a bold person who doesn’t care (there could be a million reasons,.. like she wants to make other people with “African hair types” that she is “normal too”.. whatever)… >> 3(!) BY making that face she is promoting the attitude that natural hair is undesirable (or harder/worse to “maintain”)… >>> 4. THAT does not promote assimilation, but furthers the general attitude of our (American, or Western) culture is a white culture, that anything that is “different” darker (or lighter) than the norm is out of place, that anything TOO curly or frizzy or wavy is, again, undesirable. Disregarding the fact that she’s just 19 (which btw I am too) and cute and sweet, talented, smart (these are my impressions), she is a celebrity. She has the power to help change. Anything celebrity published leaves a great statement, because they are people who are 5. just like us.. and what WE do matters!
I think you’re looking way too hard into this. She’s just making a silly face and posting a photo of her hair.
OR maybe she’s just a young adult & takes stupid silly photo’s like the rest of teens/young adults these days on FB/instagram/twitter.
I agree with that other commenter, you’re looking way into it. For all you know she’s making that face in a sense of “my hair isn’t styled yet, bad hair day.” I mean can’t we naturals have a bad hair day just like everyone else? Or what…? I consider it a bad hair day if I stretched out my hair so much that I lost a curl pattern and I have no time to rectify it. I mean we naturals have amazing curl patterns and its great to show that off. Don’t automatically judge her as a self-hating natural.
Young people are not the only ones who makes these faces. I make faces like this whether my hair is in braids, straightened or natural. I will not completely tell my age but I do have a 20 year old daughter. We go to Xmas balls in our pretty dresses & make faces because it’s just fun. Of course we do take politically correct pictures because my husband is an NCO in the Army. We like to mix up our hair styles to suit our lifestyles. When it’s school time because of hectic schedules we rock weaves & braids. When we have time, we go natural. Every once in a blue moon, we put a relaxer in our hair, which is every few years. We like to change up our looks. It’s not that serious. People are taking what celebrities are doing too personal. Who really cares? They have stylist, people tugging & pulling at them all the time telling them what to do that is politically correct for their careers. When they do little things “out of character” we judge them harshly.
Note: For those who do not really know this, a lot of white people wear wigs & weaves too. Wigs, weaves and braids are not just a black thing. Yes I am black but when I saw some stuff that were in these white girls heads, I nearly fell out. Clip ons, weaves, & wigs, some of them even had extensions braided into their heads just to sew the weave in. Now when they took the make up off, I felt as if I were in the room with a bunch of scary ghosts. They always told me how beautiful I was & how I didn’t have to wear make up. I only wear make up to fancy events like the Xmas ball. Other than that I do not wear make up at all.
At the end of the day, love how you look in whatever style you decide to wear your hair in whether it is a weave, natural, relaxed, braided, or wig. Believe it or not, celebrities do not have choices on how they wear their hair. They have to portray an image to the world so when I see them rebel & show a natural, fun picture of themselves, I love it. It is their only time to really be free of the glitz & glamour. It’s their time to be themselves. Let’s stop judging them & love the fact that they had a rebellious, selfish moment of who they really are.
Its a growing trend. Black women are realizing that they are being cast in bad light for never showing their real hair in a time when black women appear to be obessesed with straight flowing tresses & never a curly/kinky hairstyle can you find on a red carpet. They want to show their support and pride they have abt their hair in a small way BUT if they were really proud of their hair, we’d see them out n about with their real tresses. Its a long journey i think before black women with kinky, coily hair will feel like they can or WANT to show their natural hair. Nothing wrong with a straigtening your hair but when thats ALL we see…well it does send a message and now celebs are trying to show they arent what we think. I like her pic, it shouldnt be a big deal but again…it is bc our hair isnt truly embraced in mainstream without boxing us into some ridiculous india arie, eraku badu type of “mother earth” category jbc we wear our natural hair.I never realized how disturbing our hair is to white folks..its kinda funny and yet disturbingly indicative of their mentality. And their mentality has rubbed off many black women bc we are uncomfortable, disturbed or even revolted by our own natural hair. I think we are turning a corner but its still a whiles away. The other sad side is even when some celebs come out with hair pics, haters are the first to jump up n claim “thats not their real hair!”. That saddens me too. The benefit of lying abt the kinky, curly nature of your hair? I dont see the payoff.Its not like Hollywood is chasing us down to show our hair in its natural state so why would anyone bother to lie about it? You dont gain notoriety for wearing your natural hair UNDER a weave/wig 24/7. Whats so great about that?
Full and lovely hair!
sigh. on the one hand i am thrilled to see more and more young black women “revealing” their natural hair. (i would like to see vanessa williams’ hair! the beauty queen not the other one. now THAT would be a major statement to the hollywood crowd.) recently, at a book signing for tanarive due at a local college here in atlanta, the majority of black girls in the audience wore natural hair of all lengths, textures and styles. that was refreshing to see, the hair as well as so many in college! on the other hand all the talk about our hair, which is the only human hair of its kind on the planet, is quite distressing. even when the talk is positive, it still strikes me as a defensive reaction to the common and global belief that our hair (and darker skin colors) determine anything about us other than african origin. i think we will know we are no longer racially obsessed and suppressed, or post racially repressed, i.e. living almost entirely entranced with white (eurasian) values concerning the female form and ideas about beauty, when all of these site and all of these discussions about our hair have so long been discontinued that no one remembers what the fuss was all about. imagine a time when hair has no meaning at all. none. imagine that!
But why is her face so pale…..thats the only thing i could consentrate on…
And one thing i wish is to see these celebs hair styled…..not fresh out of a weave >_>
Pretty girl though
All these comments shows how deep the issues surrounding natural hair are.Until we change our mind and how we view our hair things will not change.
Gen 1:31 “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good”….
Psalms 139:14 “I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.”
Eph 4:23 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.
*Eph 4:23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind
ilove this young lady very much but i know thats not her hair too different texture i can see from the side and the make believe part i can see the different. still love her
I love that you post theses celebs with their natural hair. It shows that they go through the same things that we – and our daughters go through daily. Bravo to them for not being afraid to post the pics too!
Why is she scrunching her mouth. She should be smiling!
She’s making that face because her hair is hard to manage when it’s like that & she can hardly comb through it. She only wanted to take a silly pic, being that most of her pics are her out on public or on the red carpet & she looks really extravagant in most of them. I hate that people blow harmless, fun pics like this out of proportion.
At first I actually felt that she was somehow communicating the words “PRIDE” by making that face…not disgust.
whether you wear weaves regularly or your natural hair out all the time, we all have days where we feel like this about our hair. it’s just a face. and even if she doesn’t like her hair like that, that’s her prerogative. if you love your natural hair, then yell it to the sky, but don’t criticize someone if they don’t. besides, i’d say she likes her hair since she posted the pic to begin with.
people are making WAY too big a deal about the facial expression.. she’s being silly, and what she IS: a kid, so leave her alone, and stop over analyzing this!
I wish there were more black women celebrities like janelle monae and eryka badu who weren’t afraid to wear their natural hair! It’s so inspiring to see them embracing all parts of their blackness instead of showing young black girls that they need straight hair via perms or weaves in order to be pretty or desirable