What's with white celebrities who actually get cornrows? From Fergie to Jared Leto, Justin Bieber to Kylie Jenner, numerous white celebs have come under fire for rocking the cornrow hairstyle. When it comes down to it, many people think that it's not just a hairstyle, it's an issue of cultural appropriation and cultural identity. While some argue that donning the hairstyle is a way to honor Black culture, others feel white people with cornrows is just super inappropriate.
Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, and Christina Aguilera all wore cornrow braids back in the '90s. Were they just trying to look cool or was it about something else? Looking back we can see how ridiculous their white cornrows looked, but what about current celebrities with cornrows? Is it douche-y (as Justin Bieber wrote about his own cornrows) or cool?
Take a look at our list of white celebrities with cornrows and let us know if it's cool or if white celebs should just say "no" to the cornrow.
Justin Timberlake seriously regrets his cornrows. He's said “God, I feel I’ve gone to therapy just to erase some of them. The cornrows I wore with ’N Sync. That was pretty bad. Britney [Spears] and I wore matching denim outfits [to the 2001 American Music Awards]. Yeah, another bad choice. I’d probably pay good money to get some of those pictures off the internet.”
Madonna once said in an interview that she often wore her hair in cornrows because "I was incredibly jealous of all my Black girlfriends because they could have braids in their hair that stuck up everywhere. So I would go through this incredible ordeal of putting wire in my hair and braiding it so that I could make my hair stick up. I used to make cornrows and everything." She went on to explain, "But if being Black is synonymous with having soul, then, yes, I feel that I am."
