Photo: Theo Wargo/FilmMagic
It turns out that Jay-Z’s locs were all for Blue Ivy Carter. On Father’s Day, a few weeks after the rapper appeared at the Roots Picnic last month sporting a combed-out Afro, Beyoncé and her hair-product brand, Cécred, shared a seven-minute video titled “The Blueprint.” In it, she narrated the sentimental story behind her husband’s locs and why he decided to comb them out after more than eight years.
“I thought it was always beautiful that the real reason Jay grew out his hair was to show Blue that her hair was like his hair,” Beyoncé said over footage of Jay and their oldest daughter. When Blue was 5 — which would have been around 2017 — she wasn’t feeling confident in her hair. “When she told her father that, it inspired Jay to grow out his hair,” Beyoncé said. “We really wanted her to love and embrace every inch of her gorgeous curls.” She added that “the 5-year-old Blue had no idea that her father’s hair had texture like hers.”
Eight years later, ahead of Jay-Z’s appearance with the Roots in Philadelphia, he told Beyoncé that he wanted to comb out his hair in order to honor his father, who wore an Afro and loved Philadelphia sports. “I wasn’t all the way convinced that he would be able to comb out his locs, considering he had such thick, long wicks,” Beyoncé said, referring to the specific style of Jay-Z’s locs. She referred to the process of combing through Jay-Z’s hair as a “family affair” and shared footage of Blue’s hands helping out.
The whole process took about a week, and Beyoncé seemed pleased with the results. “On show day, his ’fro was beautiful from start to finish,” she said. Yes, this was basically just a really long commercial for Cécred, but we don’t get to hear from Bey that often, so I’ll take it. And besides, you never know what groundwork she might be laying for Act III — this could all be part of the plan.
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