Celebrities Think Braids Are Incomplete Without Hair Rings

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Apparently if your braids aren’t pierced, you’re doing it wrong. Kim Kardashian stepped out yesterday with uneven cornrows, lots of baby hair, and messy ends, but the rings adorning her braids were what really caught our attention. Kim isn’t the first to pierce her braids, though.

Yesterday, Katy Perry dropped a music video for her new song Rise, and her messy mop was scattered with fishtail braids and hair rings of varying sizes.

The man behind the trend is hairstylist Chris Appleton, and we’ve already seen it on five celebs since Christina Aguilera debuted the look on The Voice earlier this summer.

Other celebs that have rocked hair rings include Ariana Grande, who wore a pierced twist with her signature ponytail on her 23rd birthday, and Shay Mitchell, who has worn iterations of the style twice.

First, Appleton created pierced cornrows like Kim Kardashian’s for Mitchell, and this week she wore a pierced braid from the nape of her neck up to a messy topknot on the red carpet.

While we love his hair rings, Appleton’s signature calculatedly messy cornrows are problematic. He’s yet to create the style on black hair, and is perpetuating appropriation that’s become nearly synonymous with the Kardashian name. We hope to see the look on one of Hollywood’s gorgeous black women soon.