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"Hellooo," Zazie Beetz softly coos with a voice that sounds like it's casting spells — the good kind. I wish I could say she was sitting in front of me at a hideaway café in the West Village, or that we were on our way to a life-altering meditative experience at one of Manhattan’s trending Himalayan salt rock caves. Instead, I’m planted in my Harlem apartment, walking laps around my room as I listen to Beetz from the other side of the line, her location unknown. Considering that she's busy with presser after presser for the myriad films and projects she’s been in this year alone (Joker, Seberg, and Lucy In The Sky, to name a few), I’m lucky to even steal 45 minutes of her time.
The audio was slightly muffled, but Beetz’s spirit shines through crystal clear. We start, naturally, chatting about her beauty routine. A self-described minimalist, Beetz's beauty routine is efficient and to the point — this extends to skin care, makeup, and yes, hair. "My hair's just out as it is, and it's enough," she tells Allure.
It's an attitude that's definitely in line with her whole vibe, but living in a world where black women's hair is at times relentlessly policed, it's a more important point of view for a black public figure to hold than some may realize. "Being in this industry and having my hair natural, I feel such a responsibility to make sure people feel confident in their own locks and textures and to continue to show that, because I see how much it affected me to see other people wearing their hair naturally," she says.
Beetz is very conscious about the messages she is sending with her hairstyles, always pushing to show the versatility of black hair while challenging preconceived notions of acceptability, many of which are rooted in Eurocentric ideals. "I think it can be tempting to do a bunch of braids because it's easy to just whip it up and walk out the door. But even braids, while it's also a very black hairstyle, I think it mimics some of those European standards of what is considered beautiful," she says.
Coming Up Curly
Beetz's first hair memory is one many black women can relate to: "I'm sitting on the floor, [my mother is] on the couch or she's on her knees, and she's watching a soap opera [while] braiding my hair." She says that her mom is the main reason why she’s always avoided relaxers and products that would turn her coiled crown pin-straight. "I was blessed with a mother who never let me do anything to my hair in terms of straighteners, perming, or blowing it out," she explains.
Beetz spent a chunk of her childhood living in Germany, where, suffice to say, there weren't a ton of other black people. "Germany was such a homogenous country in terms of what people look like," she explains. "They just really didn't even know how to start with my hair. I think with people [in the U.S.], there is still sort of a concept of what my hair could look like, what it could do, and what it is. But Germany, I think people were just like, 'Wow. Different.'" There was, of course, curiosity about her texture, and though she says Germany looks different today than it did back then, the same inquisitiveness still exists. "[You] get a lot of people asking questions about it. Even today," Beetz says.
Questions aside, by the time Beetz moved to the U.S., her mother's influence led her to take her hair-care into her own hands once she reached high school. "I remember thinking, I have to figure this shit out." And so she did, embracing those natural coils. This was in the early 2000s, in the natural hair movement's nascent days. "As this young budding teenager, I remember wearing it out and walking down the street. I was so self-conscious. I felt like all these people were staring at me," she says. Yes, there was unsolicited hair-grabbing, too. But the experience also yielded a lot of positivity as well. "I know some girls told me that [me] wearing my hair out made them feel that they could wear their hair out. And during that whole time, I was figuring out how to style it in different ways," Beetz explains.
Coming Undone
These days, a quick scroll though Beetz's Instagram feed will show that she's styling her hair in a more undone, undefined, "messy" look. On the surface, that may seem just like an aesthetic choice, but in a world that is still overly critical about Afro-textured hair — even looser, more "accepted" textures like Beetz's, — it's more of a personal statement of freedom. "I think that black men who are wearing their hair longer and textured, sort of have more freedom to wear their hair in whatever shape they want, locking it in interesting ways and stuff like that," Beetz explains. "Whereas women still feel like there has to be an element of it being structured and specific and just a way, I suppose, to not make it look undone. That's just not my vibe. I think my vibe is a little undone, to be honest. And so, that's just what I've embraced, for me. It's important to continue expanding what that expectation is and to not [shame] other people for choosing to wear their hair how they want."
Beetz notes that for black women, hair is sometimes more than just hair: it’s an underlying representation of identity, femininity, and sexuality. And to this, I can relate — I think we all can. How many times have we complained, or nearly fallen into tears because of one bad hair cut, or refused to leave the house because our hair isn’t up to standard? The pressure of having "perfect hair" — whatever that means today — is even more intense for black women, especially those with kinkier textures.
"I have the confidence in other places, but I do attach my sense of beauty partially to my hair, which is why when I don't like [what] my hair [looks like] and I'm at an event, it's really emotional," she says. "It's emotional for a lot of people, but I think it would be a very different story if my texture [were] a softer, looser curl. I still get frustrated sometimes. I love my hair, I love the volume, I love how wild it is, but, certainly, I also think that it has taken up a lot of functional space in my life." This leads Beetz to tell me that this attachment to her hair is making her contemplate shaving it all off for a fresh, new beginning.
New Hollywood Hair
In the meantime, though, Beetz is noticing that Hollywood and the mainstream media are slowly starting to shift gears in regard to representations of natural hair. "The kinds of roles I've gotten in my career with my hair texture, I don't necessarily think I would have gotten 10 years ago, which is not that long ago," she says. [Some of those roles include a starring role as Donald Glover’s love interest in Atlanta and co-starring alongside Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool 2, two roles that Beetz told Vogue allowed her to wear her natural Afro. These include starring as Donald Glover's love interest in Atlanta and co-starring alongside Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool 2. Beetz explained to Vogue that her natural Afro was embraced as an essential for both roles in an empowering manner.
Outside of Hollywood, Beetz also sees improvements in terms of natural hair inclusivity in the beauty industry and in magazines, but she is fully aware that there is work left to do. "There are still models who talk about coming to set and people don't really know what to do with their hair. I definitely have experienced that before. It's wildly frustrating, I can tell you."
Beetz's Beauty
Just as society is still learning in terms of Afro textures, Beetz admits that she’s still learning about her own hair as well. "I still feel like every six months, I learn something new about my hair that I didn't know," she says. She gets an enthusiastic, excited lilt to her voice as she tells me her latest technique for more voluminous, loose curls: "I finally realized the braiding technique I can do at night that allows me, next day, to have the kind of braid-out that I like when I've just washed my hair. It's a new thing for me and I'm really excited about it." She credits YouTube for her latest tips and tricks on hair care.
"Earlier this year was the first time I braided my own braids using additional hair, and I learned from YouTube how to do it myself," Beetz explains. "I learned what a knotless braid was on YouTube. I learned how to moisturize my hair with products that are good through it. [YouTube] created this beautiful community in the last decade."
YouTube isn’t the only place that Beetz finds inspiration for her hair. She cites Shingai Shoniwa, the lead singer of the Noisettes, as a major influence. "She always does really fun stuff with her hair that I love and find so creative," she says. Other hair icons she looks up to include FKA Twigs, Rihanna, and surprisingly, Marie Antoinette. "I love Marie Antoinette's beehive style," she says. "I always tried to look like that, but obviously, that's not what I look like."
As for her hair-care routine, Beetz keeps it decidedly low-key. "For a while, I started to use a lot more products and now I've pared it down," she explains. "I don't want to create any habits that will complicate things." Besides shampoo and conditioner, she uses two products: SheaMoisture's Raw Shea Butter Deep Treatment Masque, and Koils by Nature’s Replenishing Hair Oil.
Her other beauty rituals are also pretty streamlined: "I wake up, brush my teeth, wash my face, and then I use the True Botanicals Clear Collection. I really like the Repair Serum and Pure Radiance Oil. They also have a nice Vitamin C Booster that I'll also use, and their Antioxidant Booster that's a powder format that dissolves in the serum when you add it in."
Beetz is one of True Botanicals’ "Band of Activists," an ambassadorship she shares along with the likes of Laura Dern and Olivia Wilde. Though she religiously uses the brand for most of her skin-care regimen, she also likes to supplement with a little DIY beauty every so often. "If I'm super dry, I'll make my own masks at home and that'll be brown sugar, honey, and a little bit of oil for hydrating. I also do a lot of buttermilk in my at-home masks," she says. As for wearing makeup? "It's very on and off."
But, there is one important beauty ritual she’s admitted to sleeping on: trims. "My first 20 years, I'd never got my hair cut, and since then I've maybe had it trimmed maybe five times." For many of us, a trim is something we all mindlessly get every so often, but for Beetz (and many other women with her hair texture), those few inches of hair would be a sacrifice. "I just want it to be really long, but it never grows past my shoulders," Beetz says. "I feel like there's a point where your hair just reaches a certain length and that's it, so maybe my hair has just reached the point where it's going to grow."
Could Beetz’s desire for longer hair be another example of subconsciously-embedded Eurocentric beauty standards placed on women in our society? Maybe, maybe not. But, as Beetz notes, things like trims, perms, and braids don’t always have an underlying significance. "I also think for many people, perming your hair or wearing weaves or using whatever they choose is also just a matter of ease," she says. "If I have my hair in braids, I can just walk out the door. There is that aspect, too. I don't think it's necessarily all wrapped up in beauty ideals and your basis of self-worth and stuff like that. I don't want to paint that picture, either."
But, regardless of styling intent, Beetz puts it clearly: with natural hair textures, we’ve just barely gotten on the right track, but there’s much more work to be done. "A myriad of different things are in the process of shifting, but I think people need to and will continue to shift — hopefully."
Now, check out some more celeb interviews:
- Laverne Cox Shares Her Entire Skin-Care Routine, and It’s So Affordable
- Barbie Ferreira on Being the First Face of Becca and Creating a Truly Diverse Beauty Campaign
- Becoming Billy Porter
Now, tour drag star Willam's beauty room:
