On October 26, Willow Smith’s stylist for her “Whip My Hair” music video, Marcia Hamilton, was interviewed on Livestream.com. Dawn Yerger, of Nappturalite Radio, has the inside scoop and put together a recap of the interview so all of the curlies who missed it can get to know a little about Marcia and her personal style.
Read more about Willow and her natural curls here and click here to see her Whip My Hair Video.
This is what Dawn has to say about the interview with Marcia:
From the moment that I saw Willow’s “heart hawk” in her “Whip My Hair” video, I knew that the bar of creativity in the world of hair had been raised to an all new level. I was instantly curious who the person was behind the style. My friend and colleague, Regina Kimball, creator of the documentary “My Nappy Roots,” told me that she would be doing a live interview with the stylist, Marcia Hamilton. Based on the creativity in the video, I knew that the opportunity to listen to Marcia live would be a treat.
When the evening of the interview finally came, I was curious to see what Marcia’s personal style would be. I was expecting her signature funky mohawk (which is hot”>. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see her rocking a low-cropped platinum blonde afro. After seeing her hair, I checked off one of the things that I was curious to find out during the interview—Marcia loves her naturally curly hair.
The interview opened with Marcia explaining what she thinks of the word “nappy.” She says that she thinks of “soft, fun, free, and curly”. I like that! She also mentions that she grew up in Guyana as a child, and that she didn’t even know of the word “nappy” until she moved to the U.S.
Marcia also pointed out that the naturally coily and curly look is being embraced more and more, particularly in commercials. This is something that I’ve noticed, too. Could this be related to why more black women are going natural?
Regina asked Marcia about her signature mohawk style, and Marcia replied, “Ten years ago, I told my clients that the next big style was going to be the mohawk. They didn’t believe me, so I told them that the next time they saw me, I would have a mohawk and a new tattoo on my neck.” Need I say more? Obviously, the mohawk is one of the hottest styles for all hair textures and types.
Marcia also explained how Willow started rocking the mohawk. “I gave Willow an asymmetrical bob cut to be safe, but Jada and Willow wanted me to cut more!”
Marcia says that she feels like gets to live vicariously through Willow because she has a mother who allows her to express herself creatively through her hair. “I grew up in a traditional household where my mom didn’t allow me to cut my hair at all.”
Marcia says that she loves working with the entire Smith family. She started working with Jada through a mutual friend. “It was an emergency and my friend told me that Jada needed her hair fixed for a red carpet event the following day.” The rest is history. Marcia has worked with Jaden as well and says that he’s a blast to work with. “He hides my phone in his hair and tells me to find it!”
And, as for the heart hawk (my personal favorite from the video”>: “The heart hawk was Jada’s idea. I made individual braids and carefully handcrafted the piece. Once it was secured on Willow’s head, I could finally breathe!”
If you missed the first interview, tune into Nappturalite Radio on Sunday, November 28, at 5 p.m. Central time when the cast welcomes and interviews Marcia Hamilton!
