When Ariana Grande first emerged in the entertainment industry, she portrayed the sweet, innocent short red head on Nickeloden’s hit television series Victorious. Her character, Cat Valentine, always had the same hairstyle majority of the time the show was on air. The half-up, half-down hairstyle became Ariana’s signature look.
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This look and sweet, innocent “persona” that she portrayed to viewers on Victorious carried over in her music career. Although the red hair color was gone in her debut video for her hit single “The Way” featuring Mac Miller, she wore the same half-up, half-down hairstyle. The hairstyle quickly transitioned into Ariana wearing a high ponytail all the time. Five years and four albums later, she still hasn’t changed her hairstyle and I’m honestly tired of seeing it.
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At first, the signature high ponytail was cute. It fit with Ariana’s image of being the short, sweet, modest girl. But as her music has evolved and her style of clothing has changed, the consistent use of the high ponytail just doesn’t match.
In 2014, Ariana made a post on her official Facebook page detailing that because she bleached hair red year-after-year while filming Victorious and Sam and Cat, it became severely damaged. Because of this, she was forced to wear extensions and her hair in a ponytail until her natural hair grew back.
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Ariana isn’t the only celebrity who has faced the same issue. Jennifer Lawrence stated in an interview in 2013 that her hair was uneven and “grew at an awkward length” due to dying her blonde hair brown for her role as Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games series. This prompted her to cut her hair into a short pixie cut to repair the damage. Jennifer’s hair grew back to its original length and she sported many different hairstyles during this time.
Ariana Grande’s hair officially grew back and was “healthy” in 2015. She posted a picture on Instagram of her gorgeous brown curls.
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This prompted me to think we would see more of her natural hair and in different hairstyles. Yet almost four years later, she’s still wearing a high pony tail. There are times where Ariana switches up and tries something different. When she does change up her hairstyle it doesn’t last long. She quickly goes back to that damn pony tail.
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The excuse of “my hair isn’t healthy” can’t be used anymore, as she frequently posts pictures of her natural hair on Instagram.
I’m no hair expert. But I know what it feels like to have damaged hair and being forced to wear wigs, sew-ins, protective styles in order to repair my hair. The difference between Ariana Grande and myself is that I change my hairstyle very often. I don’t rely on just one.
Ariana Grande’s signature ponytail can be compared to R&B singer, Brandy. She has worn braids majority of her career. But she has worn different styles from box braids, micro braids, to Marley twists. She has even worn wigs and sew-ins. Brandy is automatically associated with braids but she isn’t afraid to steer away from them.
I think Ariana only wears ponytail because it’s a defense and persona that she wants to continue to play. She wants to be seen as sweet and innocent to her fans and to people in the entertainment industry. The only problem is that this persona she plays doesn’t match how vocal she is about her sex life and some of the music she releases. It’s no shade or anything but at 25 years old, she shouldn’t be wearing a high pony tail all the time. It makes it very hard to take her and her relationships serious sometimes (still don’t get how her and Big Sean were together). The look is old and played out. I’m ready to see a different Ariana, a more mature version of herself. Not this innocent act she keeps playing.
Ariana, say “thank you, next” to the ponytail and let it go.