Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is not playing with us, per usual.
In February, the Queen Bey’s new hair care line Cécred was launched to the world. The lineup consists of eight cruelty-free products, rooted in the belief that hair is sacred and designed with all hair types and textures in mind. With shampoos to a hair treatment mask, prices range from $30 to $52. The brand also has a cosmetic bag, a ritual shaking vessel, and product kits and bundles. The packaging for Cécred is like sculptures, beautiful enough to display on your vanity.
I saw a lot of people on social media hesitant to support the new line, as they claim Beyoncé has never shown us her real hair. Well, to shut us all down, Bey calmly strolled onto these Internet streets, and made an Instagram video, with voiceover, showing her real hair — parting it from root to tip and giving us all scalp.
In the video, she says “The stigma and misconception is that people that wear wigs don’t have long and healthy hair. And that’s some bullsh*t.” In other words, she’s not baldheaded; stay out of her business and have a nice day.
Beyoncé rarely speaks to us directly or shares much of her private life. Rightfully so, as she is one of the most bonafide superstars in the world and wants to maintain her privacy. At the end of the day, she really owes us nothing. But the fact that she gave us a little something speaks volumes.
We can go back throughout Beyoncé’s career and look at old pictures of her hairstyles, and know what album it was. The bump in the front: I Am…Sasha Fierce. Cornrows down her back: Lemonade. Now that we’re in the Cowboy Carter era, she’s giving us big, blonde, Dolly Parton-like wigs.
We love to see content from Bey and then we move on with our day being better for it. Yet this time, the internet just wouldn’t rest. People decided to get on this internet and talk about how Beyoncé is lying; she’s scamming; she’s hiding her actual hair.
I am a Beyoncé fan and have been for a very long time, but this is not about defending her. It’s really about allowing Black women to create content without accusations that they are not being truthful — regardless of what it is.
Beyoncé has been in this game for longer than some of her fans have been alive. She has proven time and time again that she’s “that girl” and then some. Do we really think that she would be lying about her hair for this long? She shouldn’t have had to part her hair 20 different ways to prove to us that her hair is real, only for people to continue to believe she’s doing something weird. But here we are.
The truth is there are other Black women celebrities who have hair care lines such as Tracee Ellis Ross, Kelis, Taraji P. Henson, and Tabitha Brown. They haven’t received similar backlash because they are more visible and accessible to us. They make a concerted effort to do social media content, in-store events to meet and greet, and more importantly, we see them use their products regularly. We feel like we know them. We see it with our own eyes, and we believe them.
As much as we love Bey, she’s not able to do those things because of her massive popularity. So there is always an issue of trust when it comes to her selling products outside of music. Like with Ivy Park, Bey didn’t do the greatest job of convincing the masses that she actually wore the clothes in her every day life. We knew when the line dropped, and we saw her wear the clothes in ads. But we didn’t see her wearing them anywhere else. Unfortunately, actual sales didn’t meet Adidas’ projections, so the two parted ways in 2023.
But like it or not, Beyoncé lacks a strong personal brand compared to that of Rhianna with Fenty. We actually believe Rhianna uses her products; we see her wearing her makeup; we see her wearing lingerie from Savage X Fenty. It’s the same thing with Tabitha Brown. She can sell her seasonings, because we constantly see her cooking and using them. The food looks amazing and we actually see her eat it. These things build trust and they matter to us, if we’re going to spend our coins.
Two things can be true at the same time. First, Beyoncé has the unmitigated right to create what she wants and sell it to us how she wants to. Secondly, questioning her credibility is valid. I believe the Instagram video was mainly about marketing Cécred but it also accomplished shutting the skeptics down — at least most of them.
What we know for sure is that Beyoncé is going to keep creating, glowing, and growing, and we will continue to watch with joy.
