Solange calls out a UK magazine for Photoshopping her braids out of the cover
If there's anything the beauty industry, the media, basically everywhere constantly fails at, it's celebrating one's own natural look.
The London Evening Standard magazine has done just that this week, with their cover photo of Solange Knowles. In the original picture, Knowles wore an elaborate braid above her head and the publication decided to Photoshop it out.
For an artist who has a song titled "Don't Touch My Hair," this obviously upset her.
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A post shared by Evening Standard Magazine (@eveningstandardmagazine) on Oct 19, 2017 at 12:01am PDT
In the magazine's cover photo, Knowles' hair is blonde and braided but something is off—literally. In the original photo, she wears a braided halo crowning over her head, which was Photoshopped away so that just a close up of her head remained in the picture.
A post shared by Solange (@saintrecords) on Oct 19, 2017 at 9:25am PDT
Knowles posted the original photo on Instagram Thursday, calling out the magazine for retouching her with the caption "dtmh" which stands for "don't touch my hair," referencing the song mentioned above.
This is especially ironic considering Knowles openly spoke about the importance of her braids in this magazine's issue.
"Braiding is important to Knowles," the article actually reads.
"It is an ‘act of beauty, an act of convenience and an act of tradition’ — it is ‘its own art form,’" she adds. "'Every black woman has a personal journey with her own hair, and for Knowles it began in her mother’s salon which was a refuge — ‘a spare bedroom so to speak’ — for her as a young girl."
Not only has this caused discomfort for Knowles but also for the reporter of the story who asked her byline to be removed.
I am publicly disowning the Solange piece London Evening Standard published today. The entire piece was a fiasco despite my efforts.
— Angelica Jade (@angelicabastien) October 19, 2017
I told my editors to take my name off of the byline because they distorted my work and reporting in ways that made me very uncomfortable.
— Angelica Jade (@angelicabastien) October 19, 2017
This issue goes beyond hair. It has to do with women empowerment, representation, and identity and hopefully we'll see less of it in the future.