The two biracial stars spoke about the challenges facing natural hair in Hollywood during their Tuesday interview on the Duchess of Sussex’s “Archetypes” podcast, which she hosted with the pop queen.
“People were calling ‘girl next door,'” Carey remembered in reference to her “Dreamlover” music video from 1993. given that my ethnic ambiguity contributed to it and the curls, as well as my appearance.
The 53-year-old Grammy Award winner added, “So here is the thing: They do not realize how to do my hair because if it were a white hairdresser who had never worked with natural curls, they would want to do something different. My hair would protest, saying, “You’re not doing that!”
Carey claimed that even if she were given a hairdresser who only dealt with natural hair, “it would be too much stuff and excessive weight.”
When stylists attempted to “slick those roots down,” Markle, 41, claimed she also had her hair “clobbered” by “so much heavy hair grease” in the past.
These issues went beyond employment for both women; Carey recalled that coming up with a white mother and a black father, “nobody understood how to style [her] hair, even as a young child.”
The “Obsessed” singer continued, “I think occasionally, if it’s the other side around, you have the advantage of somebody who has worked with natural curls.”
Markle’s maternal grandmother Jeannette was responsible for styling her hair when she was younger. Markle has called her own hair “very curly and so, so dense,” and she notably pleased Sussex followers by showcasing her textured look during a facetime conversation.
I would clasp my small hands on both sides of the sink as she instructed, “Just hang on to the sink,” the duchess recalled. “You cannot afford to be soft-headed.”
Commonalities like this are what drew Markle to Carey in the first place.
