Last week, a friend and I spent the day shopping in downtown New York. The weather was warm, the streets were packed, and people just seemed to be enjoying themselves. Oh, how I love the city during the summer! The greatest thing about my metropolitan area is the diverse crowd of people. They range in different sizes, colors, styles, and backgrounds.
The highlight of my afternoon occurred as we were walking through Times Square. In the midst of the buzzing crowd of New Yorkers, tourists and foreigners, there stood Rihanna! Yes, the international Bajan pop star was hanging out in the heart of New York with no entourage or security. My friend and I ran over to the singer to get a closer look. That is when we realized Rihanna was only a Rihanna look-a-like. Womp. The woman was dressed in the same style of dress as Rihanna and wore flaming red hair with a side braid that came all the way down her back, a style Rihanna recently rocked. We both shook our heads at the Rihanna wanna-be, only to laugh at our naiveté moments later.
As we continued to walk through Times Square, we began to notice more and more women wearing bright red hair. What is going on? The summertime is an ideal season to experiment with different looks, styles and colors when it comes to your hair, but we couldn’t help but wonder, should certain looks be left to the stars?
While I am certain many black women were wearing red hair before Rihanna was doing it, like Faith Evans, Fantasia, and even Janet Jackson, I can’t help but wonder, did the number of red tresses increase after Rihanna publicized her fire truck red hair? I am sure the answer is yes. Has the trend come around full circle now that Rihanna is doing it? Her influence seems to be unstoppable. A year ago she had girls saying, short hair don’t care, and now she has women going redder and redder. This cycle is prevalent in the growing pink wig trend as well. While Nicki Minaj wasn’t the first to do it, she sure has been able to sway a lot of women to dress and look like her.
The media one way or another influences us all. However, is there a thin line between being influenced and being a copy-cat? While I do believe colored hair and unique styles are excellent ways to differentiate oneself in a sea of similarity, is the effect the opposite when it appears to be exactly what a major celebrity is doing?
What are your thoughts on celebrity copy-cats? Should certain looks be left to the stars? Let me know what you think!
- Chelsey Wilkins
oh my lord! i work at a public venue and that is ALL i see is rihannas! everybody and their mama has the exact same bright red hair color. its becoming annoying and a huge eyesore. i complimented this girl with purple hair and congradulated her on being unique since everybody else had bright red hair. and yes rihanna definitely started SOMETHING. cause as soon as she dyed her hair red then suddenly eveyrbody else did. just like when she cut her hair short. idk its good i guess for women to try something new and learn what works for them but i swear its getting on my nerves already seeing everybody with the same hair color. its overkill
Lol I love Rihanna…anyways my sister has a “Rihanna type” short hair cut and its a beautiful purple and black, and she gets tons of compliments because like New York, Arizona has a ton of red heads ha ha.
It’s no big deal. Once Rihanna changes it up, those types will too. That fire truck red hair is nothing new, but it’s popular because a celebrity is currently wearing it. Ri-Ri will be on to the next soon, and the regular chicks will store their leftover red weave for another day. I guess some women aren’t nervy enough to try something drastic unless it’s celebrity approved. They don’t realize they could wear any color with the right attitude. I love all kinds of red hair though.
I am an English teacher in Turkey. Let me just say the Turks love Rihanna. I have one female student in particular with the red fire truck hair and waves. What is even funnier to me is being in the university post office and hearing a male students’ phone ring S&M. And even having to reprimand one of my students whose Rihanna ringtone started playing during class.
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LOL just like the masses had the blond patches and streaks last year, I did that look myself bout 18 years ago too LOL…..I BEEN ruby red for some years now, and yes when Rhi changes her hair so the masses will follow, hopefully it is soon.
I don’t think no look should be off limits but one has to ask themselves is it practical for their daily life and is it a wearable look and trend for them. Their is nothing wrong with using celebrities as inspiration but one has to remember that celebs doesn’t play by the same rules as we do their image is their money maker so of course they are going to keep switching it up and changing it to get attention. But I would love to see women/girls be bold and daring with their individuality instead of looking for someone to give them the green light. If you want to rock purple hair or wear something odd than do it but do it because you want too not because so and so did it.
I have a hard time with this i am 36 and when i was around 14 i dyed my hair a blondish color anyhew i use to get a lot of “are you trying to be like Mary J” UGGGH i was rocking that color way before she was a star so im saying all this to say just beacuse a celebrity is rocking it most of the time it was already done they just have a platform and regular joes’s dont …and also i was wearing that red red color in the 90′s also its nothing new to me:)just Mizz Parker 2CENTS
I just hate when I see people all of a sudden wanna do exactly what a celebrity is doin! It makes you look so thirsty…can’t you create your own style? Iv’e been seeing a lot of people rocking the long red hair weave and its deplorable. It didn’t even look good on Rihanna in the Man Down video, so it most definitely isn’t going to look good on your very regular basic self #justsayin
lol THis site really runs out of stuff to talk about. Seriously? it’s ok to just not write anything sometimes lol
Rihanna rocks her hair perfctly and her look alikes do too sometimes,but before putting your hair on fire first be sure that you have the right skin for it,all am saying is that colourful hair is not for very dark skinned ladies out there..NO OFFENCE LADIES!!!