Coco Gauff had powerful words for those who had negative critiques of her natural hair in her latest Miu Miu social campaign.
After the young tennis champion posted a paid ad for her collaboration with the legendary fashion designer on Apr. 2, the internet was ablaze with commentary on how her hair was styled. People chimed in calling it “unkempt,” and seemed to assume that it had been purposely mishandled by a beauty team who was not familiar with 4C hair. However, others saw nothing wrong with it and applauded her for just being herself in a campaign.
Coco very graciously let the haters know that she makes no apologies for who she is—from head to toe. She also made it clear that she’s more concerned with keeping her hair healthy than living up to unfair and anti-Black standards.
“To all the young Black girls out there who have kinky hair like me, do what you want to do with your hair,” the two-time Grand Slam champion said. “I personally don’t like to slick back my hair super-sleek, because it does damage my hair. I do play tennis, so most of the time when I’m wearing it in a bun, I choose to allow my hair to be and to present in its 4C self, because I do have 4C hair. … I don’t want it to be super-slicked-back, because it’s just not good for my hair.”
She also made sure to talk directly to other Black women who may find themselves defending however they decide to wear their crowns.
“If you want to straighten your hair, permanently straighten your hair, perm your hair,” she said. “If you want to wear your hair afro, wear your hair afro. If you want to wear braids, wear braids. If you want to wear cornrows, wear cornrows. If you want to slick back your hair to the Gods, slick it back; if you don’t and you just wanna put it in a bun, put it in the bun. Black women are beautiful. Black hair texture — kinky, Afro hair texture — is beautiful.”
It’s a shame that a young woman as decorated as Coco would have to issue a statement about something as frivolous as her hair when she’s busy breaking records, making history and being one of the most inspirational Black women in sports. Maybe one day we can all move past harmful conversations about hair texture and styles in our community, once and for all.
For now, we’re happy to have Black women like Coco who, by being confident in themselves and their Blackness, motivate others to do the same.
