Mini Buns Inspired By Marc Jacobs??- My Solution To The Cultural Appropriation Problem In The Hair I

I was on Instagram today and saw the above picture posted by the lovely ladies over at My Natural Sistas. I try not to get upset over these things because on one hand I know for a fact that Marc Jacobs will never in a million years give Africans any credit for any style inspiration and on the other hand, we just started to accept these styles ourselves.

MyNaturalSistas appropriately captioned the picture with the following:

Mini buns??? Inspired by Marc Jacobs??? No. No. And No. Bantu Knots, those are Bantu Knots. This is exactly what @amandlastenberg was talking about in her #culturalappropriation video. #inspired by us #naturalhair originated in #Africa It’s considered ghetto on us, but high fashion on them… smh

We will always be subject to cultural appropriation because quite frankly the things we have done over the years for our hair are down right cool.

I do want to offer more than just an angry response to the picture though. I would like to suggest that the styles that the designers now think are so edgy and fashion forward we should rock more often and rock them proudly.

The truth is when Rihanna wore her bantu knots pictured above some of us were like ‘oh girl hec no!’ As a matter of fact we probably would never wear the knots out and about years ago even to the supermarket much less a formal event.

What I am saying is, it is one thing to get mad when white girls rock bantu knots and cornrows proudly pretending like they never ever saw their black friends wear them, and it is another thing to really show them how it is done.

So my answer to the cultural appropriation problem is simple, be proud of our home grown styles, wear them out and about so that Marc Jacobs, and all the other designers who think they are original can know that they are not. Comment below and let me know if you agree?