The one lesson I’ve learned from life
Singer Kelly Rowland
KELLY ROWLAND, 37, lives in LA with her husband, Tim Witherspoon, and son, Titan, aged four. She rose to fame in 1990s girl band Destiny’s Child and has since launched a solo career. Her new single, Crown, a collaboration with Dove, is out now.
EMBRACE WHAT MAKES YOU UNIQUE
GROWING up, I remember my mum saying my hair was my ‘crowning glory’. However, I went to a predominantly white school. I was seeing all these different girls, who were able to throw their hair up, put it down, or even just go swimming. And mine wasn’t like that.
Every time she did my hair, I knew it was going to take three to four hours. So, when I was five, she tried perming it — to take some of the stress out, I guess. It was so bad. My cousin, who was training at beauty school, did it; and she didn’t know what the heck she was doing! All my hair fell out. It felt like pieces of me were going down the drain. I didn’t feel as pretty or confident. I could have crumpled up — and that’s probably what I did internally.
It was when I joined Destiny’s Child in 1990 that I became more comfortable with my hair. Beyoncé’s mother, Tina [Knowles], started doing it — and one day she said, ‘Do you want to cut it? It would be so pretty with your bone structure.’ It was one of the best things that happened to me. No one else in the group had short hair, so it gave me confidence and made me feel unique.
But do you know what made me feel even better? The girls who would come up to me and say, ‘I look like you!’ In that moment, I knew this was bigger than me. To this day, I’ll hear things like, ‘I’m just so happy I had you in my childhood.’ That kind of stuff really blows your mind, because I know what that feels like. I get it.
There’s still a long way to go. It’s not just black women, it’s women of colour across the board who should be represented. But I think it has changed dramatically. When I was a kid there wasn’t half the diversity that we have on catwalks, in photo shoots, TV shows, magazines and movies. I wasn’t seeing enough girls of my colour, or hair texture, represented. And it had a huge effect on me.
At the moment, I keep my hair natural — I wanted to do this for my son. He needs to see natural hair in his household; me washing it and walking around with it and being proud. And he does.
Now, I love my hair. And I’ve learned not to be so hard on myself — and above all, just be you. O dove.com