I hope you haven’t been sleeping at the magazine rack, bellas — in case you haven’t checked out venerable magazines Ebony or Jet lately, they have been bringing the HEAT. Ebony has become thoroughly engaging from cover to cover — the October issue featuring Mary J. Blige is visually stunning and intellectually satisfying all the way through! And fresh life has been brought to the pages of Jet magazine as well. Currently helmed by scribe for the ages and inspiration in general Mitzi Miller, Jet’s been featuring some REALLY sizzling interviews lately.
Next week’s issue of Jet features an interview with the stunning Tracee Ellis Ross — all about her new show Reed Between The Lines, (premiering on BET Oct. 11). In the interview Tracee speaks on her new show and gives insight on how she cares for her beautiful natural hair. She shares why she loves her body more now that she did in her twenties and offers her best style tips.
And I’ve got some exclusive outtakes from the interview that will be in the Jet Magazine that will be on newsstands, October 10th. Thanks to my friends at Jet!
Even celebrities have trouble finding professionals who know how to rock with natural hair:
“The truth is most stylists do not know how to do natural hair of color. They know how to put heat on it. They know how to straighten it. They know how to braid it. And they know how to weigh it down with product to get it to look like hair that it isn’t. But how to enhance the hair that it is? I am telling you that there are so few people who know how to do that and I know all of them. Half the time I’m teaching them.”
On why she loves celeb hair stylist Chuck Amos:
“This is why I love Chuck Amos who is the king of natural black hair. Chuck respects the curl. You gotta respect the curls. He and I are just teaching each other stuff left and right. We find stuff together but it’s a process.”
On why her hair is a fulltime job:
“This is one of the things I say: I work for my dog and my hair. Taking care of them is a fulltime job. I have so much hair it’s extraordinary. You could take half the hair on my head and cover another person’s head. I have a s**tload whopping amount of hair. I don’t wear a lot of makeup, getting dressed is pretty damn quick but the shower process and the airdry process can take hours!”
On why she knows who’s boss:
“You gotta respect the curls. I work for them. I can’t tell them what to do. Someone said to me the other day, “Your hair looks really good.” and I said, “Oh great — it’ll never happen again.” Because I have no control over what I want my hair to do. It does what it wants to do when it wants to do it! I just hope it happens on a good day.”
On learning when it’s time to let go:
“I had an event last week. I really thought I was going to have trouble with my hair. I was late to get in the shower. I was concerned that I wasn’t going to have enough time to let it dry naturally. Chucky ended up having to diffuse it. Let me tell you something, my hair looked at me and said, “Lady, I got this. Let me do me, why don’t you do you? And I went, ‘Okay!’ And my hair did what it did. I just surrendered to my hair.”
Check out Curls, Coils and Kinks for more interview excerpts!
Read more about Tracee’s new show Reed Between The Lines (premiering on BET Oct. 11), in this amazing interview in Jet Magazine (which will be on newsstands October 10)! Click here to follow Jet on Twitter.
Are you a Tracee Ellis Ross fan, bellas? Will you be watching her new show? Tell me!
Tracee looks soooo much like her mom in that Jet picture!
I loved her in Girlfriends and I bet her new show is going to be great!
The clip has such a Cosby vibe on it! Malcolm Jamaal must be producing it. It will be a success, no doubt. 🙂
Great article. I am a big fan of Tracee and of her natural hairstyle. Loved her on “Girlfriends” too. Yes, our natural hair can be a challenge sometimes. But it’s worth the effort to stay “naturally” beautiful!
Will definitely be watching Tracee’s new show and wish her much success.
I like seeing and reading about Tracee – she is her own person and not a DR clone.
i really like her! she’s such a beauty and funny too. i hope the new show is a hit and wish her much success!
Tracee is so outspoken. She looks so classy on the cover of Jet.
I have a small bone to pick with this story. Tracee is bi-racial so I imagine she wears her hair naural because it never needed a relaxer in the first place. How can going natural be considered a choice if the dilemma never existed? Also, it looks to me like her hair was heat styled for the cover of Jet so I just don’t get why her hair “challenges” became part of the article at all. If you want to applaud a Ross for her natual hair choices it should be her half-sister Rhonda (Berry Gordy’s child). Her real challenges with her hair were documented in her October 2005 Essence Magazine article titled, “In The Shadow of The Stunning.” See for yourself. http://www.myspace.com/rhondarosswords/blog
Tracee’s hair is an inspiration and I will definitely watch the new show.
Yes taking care of natural hair can take hours. Moreover it does what it wants and when it wants. Your natural hair is its own boss.
Hair never “needs” a relaxer. I have hair like hers and I’m not bi-racial but that didn’t stop me from having to hear “Girl you know you need a perm!” or “You could have some pretty hair if you just learned what to DO with it” growing up. Many black stylists also believe the only way to style hair is to “tame” (read: straighten) it first and see it as a problem. Wearing your hair natural is a choice no matter what texture your hair is because you’re making the decision to do what you want to do and not what society tells you regarding your hairstyle.