Sheryl Underwood apologizes for her natural hair diss
After offending legions of natural hair aficionados, a comedienne is backing away from her comments and issuing an apology. Sheryl Underwood made headlines earlier this week when an old episode of the “The Talk” surfaced showing her blasting natural hair.
“Why would you save Afro hair?” said Underwood when discussing model Heidi Klum saving her biracial children’s hair. “You don’t never see us at the hair shop saying, ‘Look what I need is curly, beady, nappy hair. It just seems nasty,” she added.
Underwood later added that her co-host’s white children probably had some “beautiful, long, silky, stuff.”
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According to Underwood who recently sat down for an interview with natural hair blogger CurlyNikki, her comments on the daytime talk show were misconstrued. Instead of blasting natural hair, she was actually attempting to shun the act of saving hair from haircuts.
“The discussion was about cutting and saving hair. I didn’t speak about Heidi Klum or her children’s hair,” said Underwood. “I stated that the act of saving hair was ‘nasty’. Cutting and saving what I consider as dead… it’s like saving fingernails. People are accusing me of calling natural hair ‘nasty’. I did not say that.”
“I want to apologize at my recent attempt at humor that missed the target and hit my people squarely in the heart. To all of you, I say I am very sorry for my failed attempt at humor surrounding something that’s very sensitive to us: our hair. I could use this time to try to explain the intent on what I said, but misunderstanding aside, the way the joke came out offended my people and my community which was not my intent.”
Do you accept Underwood’s “heartfelt” apology? Or did she take her love for “beautiful, long, silky stuff” too far?
-danielle canada
