Emily Ratajkowski is a highly successful model and actress, but now Ratajkowski can add being the face (and hair) of Kérastase to her growing resume, Allure reports. However, Ratajkowski’s problematic and offensive statements during her new campaign may have overshadowed her latest career milestone.
The Daily Mail explains that an excited Ratajkowski took to Instagram to share her campaign with her followers. In a now deleted (or heavily updated) post, Ratajkowski wrote, “Hair is a fundamental part of beauty, femininity, and identity. So excited to announce that I am the new face of @kerastate_official ! Welcome good hair days!”
However, hair is absolutely not a “fundamental part of beauty, femininity, and identity.” There are approximately 1.5 million new cases of cancer diagnosed every year. In a lot of instances, cancer patients need to undergo a series of chemotherapy—which obviously causes you to lose your hair. Whether it was intentional or not, Ratajkoski’s Instagram caption suggests that women who lose their hair are somehow less feminine than those who are fortunate enough to have hair. And this doesn’t take into account all of the women who lose their hair from alopecia, other medical (and psychological) conditions or stress.
According to The New York Post, Ratajkowski’s followers expressed concerns with her message. One commenter stated, “Hair is not a ‘fundamental’ part of beauty. There are people with cancer and other illnesses who are unfortunately undergoing treatment that causes them to lose their hair. Saying that hair is a ‘fundamental’ part of beauty is extremely shallow and it gives off the false idea that hair is a necessity.”
As a sufferer of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) who has struggled with feeling feminine because I have hormonal hair loss from my condition (and because of the medication I need to take to control my PCOS), it’s a bit worrisome that Ratajkowski chose to include this caption. It’s comments like these that negatively impact those of us who do have hair loss.
Nevertheless, Ratajkowski did eventually notice that her original caption upset a lot of her followers. Instead of addressing the issue and apologizing, she decided to update the previously offensive caption. Hopefully, she will realize how harmful this Instagram post is and use her platform to begin advocating for femininity in all forms (or at least raise awareness for alopecia, cancer and other conditions).
Because Ratajkowski has yet to respond to this issue, we’ll say this: You are beautiful regardless of the hair, or lack thereof, on your head, chin, armpits or back.
Header Image: Emily Ratajkowski / Instagram