Emily Ratajkowski is the new face of Kérastase Paris, and while this should have been an exciting announcement for the model to make, it quickly became the point of controversy. In the Instagram post publicizing the exciting news, Ratajkowski wrote, “Hair is a fundamental part of beauty, femininity and identity. So excited to announce that I am the new face of @kerastase_official!” Harper’s Bazaar reports.
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Immediately after posting her announcement, fans accused the actress-model hybrid of shaming women who experience hair loss. “To say hair is fundamental for femininity is to perpetuate the struggles of women who’ve lost or cannot grow their hair for various reasons and have had to redefine their identities against a society that tells them that to be women, to be beautiful, they must have hair,” one follower angrily wrote on the post. “Hair is not fundamental to beauty, take his down…so shallow!” wrote another.
Thankfully, the brand immediately responded to similar comments made on their own Instagram announcement by commenting on the post with a sincere apology: “We are deeply sorry about that, we didn’t want to cause any harm to anyone with the caption. Of course beauty is not defined by your hair, beauty is something more spiritual, beauty is an attitude coming from inside each of us. Our new muse, Emily, thinks her hair is a way to express herself. As she said, ‘Everyone is uniquely beautiful in their own way’; and we agree. We apologize for the misunderstanding of our previous caption because it seems like we were making a one-way statement, forgetting the rest of the multiple variations of beauty. We honestly tell you we’re very sorry and thanks for your testimony because through it we are learning everyday.”
After noticing the backlash, Ratajkowski also edited her caption to eliminate the use of the word fundamental and instead wrote: “So excited to announce that I am the new face of @kerastase_official! Welcome good hair days!”
While this was clearly an insensitive move for the brand and Ratajkowski, they certainly responded to the outcry of offense immediately and respectfully, and for that we certainly commend them. Hopefully, this won’t happen again in the future.
