Halle Berry’s ‘Wild and Free’ Oscars Curls Divide Twitter

Halle Berry had a major hair moment at the 2017 Oscars.

We are used to seeing the award-winning actress in her trademark close-cropped pixie, but on Sunday night she showed off a head full of ravishing ringlets. While Berry has worn natural curls from time to time over the years, she told Vogue that she chose tonight’s hairstyle to accentuate her overall look.

“I have always marched to the beat of my own drum, and I think this red carpet look encapsulates that,” said Berry. “The dress is glamorous with a sense of romance that made me feel feminine and fresh. With this look, I celebrate my natural hair by allowing it to be wild and free.”

Seconds after she hit the carpet, the subject of Berry’s hair began trending on Twitter, and fans had mixed feelings.

Many loved it:

Some likened Berry to the late, great pop star Whitney Houston.

But while many gave it a big thumbs-up, others thought the opposite:

While it’s hard to say how much love or hate Halle’s hair got, one thing is certain — it definitely made a statement:

Why did Berry’s hair cause such an uproar? It could be due, in part, to the fact that black hair is an ongoing controversial topic. In 2009, Chris Rock made a documentary called “Good Hair” that explored the relationship that black women have with their hair. “If your hair is relaxed, white people are relaxed,” the comedian Pail Mooney says in the film.

“For black women, you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” Ingrid Banks, an associate professor of black studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara told the New York Times in a 2009 article. “If you’ve got straight hair, you’re pegged as selling out. If you don’t straighten your hair,” she said, “you’re seen as not practicing appropriate grooming practices.”

Yahoo Beauty has repeatedly reported on instances of women of color facing opposition to their natural hair. In a recent story, a black woman applying for work at the London-based department store Harrods was told that she wouldn’t get the job unless she chemically straightened her hair to look more “professional.”

In January 2016, Zendaya went viral for calling out Giuliana Rancic for offensive comments about her dreadlocks at the Oscars. The TV host infamously joked on Fashion Police that Zendaya’s hair “must smell of patchouli oil or weed,” and the then 18-year-old actress reacted with an insightful Instagram post:

But over the past three years or so, prominent women of color — such as Solange Knowles, Kerry Washington, Issa Rae, Lupita N’yongo, Tracee Ellis Ross, and, on Sunday night, Halle Berry — have been rocking natural hair at public events.

At New York Fashion Week, natural hairstyles were spotted at several runway shows, including Calvin Klein Collection, Alice & Olivia, and Gypsy Sport, suggesting that insiders are acknowledging that you can and should wear your kinky, curly, wavy, coily, and dreadlocked hair with pride.

In early February, the Perception Institute conducted “The ‘Good Hair’ Study: Explicit and Implicit Attitudes Toward Black Women’s Hair.” The study found that black women are twice as likely to report social pressure to straighten their hair at work as white women are, and that white women demonstrate the strongest bias — both explicit and implicit — against textured hair, rating it as less beautiful, less sexy or attractive, and less professional than smooth hair.

The good news: Millennial women who wear natural hair have more positive attitudes toward textured hair than all other women. This is consistent with past studies showing that millennials identify as progressive, confident, self-expressive, and open to change.

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