Try doing a Google search for gold medal winning gymnast Gabby Douglas and the first suggestion that comes up is “Gabby Douglas hair”. Turns out while Douglas was jumping and tumbling her way to Olympic gold she made quite a fuss with the simple way she styled her hair. Since she is a gymnast Douglas chose to pull her hair back in a loose bun with pins that would make it easier for her to complete her complicated routines in the individual and team competitions. As any athlete will attest having hair in your eyes while competing is distracting and many choose to go with less than fabulous styles simply for practical reasons.
Well, Douglas’ choice just wasn’t good enough for many in the social media world since Twitter blew up with countless tweets about how unkempt her hair looked and how it was in need of a “hair intervention” and that the 16-year old needed to “better represent black women”. Never mind the fact Douglas was on her way to winning not one but two Gold medals, a certain segment of the population were more concerned with her looks. While many commentators and athletes including tennis champ Serena Williams rushed to Gabby’s defense the issue of black women and their natural hair bubbled up to a boiling point and this poor gymnast who should have been basking in a major accomplishment found herself defending her hair style.
Gymnastics does involve style points but it is for landings and execution, not hair. To think Douglas should have been thinking about her hair before going out in front of a television audience of millions, not to mention the harsh judges, instead of focusing on her routine is insane. And isn’t in interesting that those that would criticize a 16-year old competing in the Olympics were conspicuously absent from the medal stand. Gabby’s mom was one of the many who defended Gabby and as we were all told by our moms, if you don’t have anything nice to say better to not say anything at all. But Gabby, if you do want to style your hair contact The Beauty Bar!