Gabrielle Union Was Told By Producers She Couldn't Wear Twists and Play a Professional Woman

It's already a well-known fact that hair is a passionate subject for Gabrielle Union. On top of the fact that no matter how she wears her own gorgeous hair, she looks fantastic, she also has worked hard on her own hair care line, called Flawless by Gabrielle Union. Now, in a recent interview with Byrdie, she's opening up about a time she had to speak out during a meeting when a producer told her that she couldn't wear her twists and play a professional woman at the same time (yikes).

During a meeting about an role for a major unnamed part, it seems the producers wanted Union to play into eurocentric standards of beauty. Union says, "I was doing a project and with the character the producers were coming up with what they wanted to do for her hair. And they were like, 'She’s beautiful, sophisticated, and professional.'" To that, Union responded, "Well, I want to wear braids." However, the producers just didn't seem to get it. They continued pushing back, saying, "Well, I mean, she’s beautiful, sophisticated, and corporate America.

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Union told Byrdie, "I responded, 'Yes, and specifically I want twists.' And they went on to say, 'We just really want her to look more polished.' I said, 'You all really don't understand what are we talking about here?'" It's worth noting that there have been plenty of instances of women of color, specifically black women, pushing back against the photoshopping of their natural hair on magazine covers lately. Both Solange and Lupita Nyong'o have been in the news recently for this very reason, and it's wonderful that Union is speaking up on the issue.

In fact, the very reason she created her hair care line was because of the complete lack of people who know what to do with textured hair in the entertainment industry. Hopefully, speaking up about these kinds off issues will bring change. Go, Gabrielle.

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