Adena Andrews.com

Head & Shoulders has taken out a $1 million loan to protect the locks of its spokesperson, Troy Polamalu. Troy grows his locks so long to resemble the powerful manes of warriors from his Samoan culture. For those warriors, hair symbolized strength and the ritual for preparing one’s hair for battle also helped prepare the mind, he says.  Troy has a 45 min pre-game routine for prepping his hair.  Troy found a way for something so simple, his heritage and his hair, to make millions for him. He could have cut it off to conform, but he stayed true to himself and got big bucks out of it. Mainstream America digs ethnicity and gets even more excited over the exoticism of it. So excited they would pay a million dollars to protect it. I see the excitement firsthand when I rock the natural at work. “OMG did you cut your hair, Adena? It’s so cute.” (yeah they dig me). If only I could turn my messy, nappy, natural hair into dollars……

Troy’s deal with Head and Shoulder’s deal got me thinking about some other hairstyles that should be insured for symbolizing so much about that person and their generation or just for the weirdness.

Luther Vandross- His curl never, never quite curled just right, but we loved him always.

 

 

Jermaine Jackson – The pure semantics of putting that style together with all that shoe polish, permanent marker and glue, then to carry it with confidence in public? That deserves some recognition.

 

 

Kid of Kid And Play – No one rocked the flat-top fade like Play. He became a symbol for a generation of folks who just wanted to get they freak on while their parents weren’t home.

 

 

Tina Turner: Forget the mullet, Tina’s hair was a full on party all the time! She gave black women around the country a chance to rock out. And little girls like me a reason to wear a sparkly wig on Halloween and run around the house singing “Rollin, Rollin, Rollin, Rollin” ( I didn’t know the rest of the words).

  

Venus and Serena Williams: These two little girls brought beaded braids out of the hood and to America. Yes Bo Derrick did it first on screen, but the Williams’ sisters were real girls, with real aluminum foil at the end of their braids. That’s authenticity right there. I know Bo Derrick didn’t rock the foil. The Williams’ sisters parents thought they looked adorable in those beads. Little black girls around the country got to see themselves in the Williams’ sisters.  Year’s later we also get to experience the “What the hell were our parents thinking?” feeling when we look back at pictures with those atrocious beads.

Patra - The dookie braid, which seemed to come in a set complete with gold tooth and gold door knocker earrings with your name written in the middle of them said you were an African queen and no one should ever call you out your name (finger snap and neck swivel). Kitchens everywhere smelled of burnt hair as “stylists” lit our souls and synthetic hair up to seal the ends of the dookie braids.

Prince- I want hair like this! Any MAN that can rock the Farrah Fawcett and still get chicks, gets respect from me.

Jennifer Aniston- Yes, I had to include my light skin sister in here. Here iconic style had everyone going in the salon asking for “The Rachel”.

Rihanna – If you cut your hair off, made it asymmetrical or at least thought about it after seeing how fly Rihanna’s hair looked raise your hand…. Yep, like I thought, everybody.