Where Does the Phrase "Long Hair Don't Care" Come From, Anyway?
Beyoncé may have made our Saturday night by dropping Lemonade, but she ruined at least one person's weekend. Sorry Rachel Roy but the Beyhive is not to be messed with.
Beyoncé's masterful album-and sumptuous HBO special-evoked a broad and rich vein of pain and strength, but the internet immediately pounced on the specifics. In the track "Sorry," Bey sings about the woman with whom her man was cheating, calling her "Becky with the good hair." And shortly thereafter, Roy, a designer, posted a photo of herself to Instagram, with a caption that read, "Good hair don't care, but we will take good lighting, for selfies, or self truths, always. live in the light #nodramaqueens." (Roy's account is now private.)
UPDATE: Rachel Roy has publicly denied that she is Becky.
So while we all wait for confirmation one way or another on Becky's identity (and how the hell Jay-Z talked himself out of this one), we took a look at the origins of the phrase "good hair, don't care"? Here, an anecdotal timeline:
1960s-1970s: We can trace back the construction of "good hair don't care" to the phrase "long hair don't care," which Urban Dictionary claims started with hippies as an answer for their shoulder-skimming counterculture hair. Then it went underground, like a cicada waiting to emerge.
January 19, 2009: Twitter user @bfnh. tweeted the Typhoid Mary of the #dontcare phenomenon, saying, "get it shawty just shuffled up. looks like the pink lava lamp will have to wait. #longHairDontCare" Let's unpack this: "Get it Shawty" was a song from Lloyd's second album, Street Love. Also on that 2007 album, a track called "You" featuring Lil Wayne, which became the first number-one single for both artists. It contains the lyrics, "Me & lil' Lloyd long hair don't care." The internet is divided over what that means. Some say Wayne is referring to his dreads and Lloyd's signature long hair, which he chopped for Locks of Love in 2010. Others think it's Lil Wayne's way of letting women know he will bed them regardless of the length of their, er, hair-down-there. (The Pink Lava Lamp was a mix tape by rapper Charles Hamilton.)
The phrase soon popped up everywhere-in long-hair forums, on Instagram, Pinterest, and in memes. The culture had hit peak hair extension. Even Kate Gosselin from Jon & Kate Plus 8 got them for the cover of People magazine.
September 29, 2009: The day #longhairdon'tcare begat #shorthairdontcare. User @iamwiddy tweeted, "@gr8wallzofchyna Fantastic! I had a blast. Even managed to make someone not like me by the end of the night! #woot #shorthairdontcare"
No disrespect to @iamwiddy, but it didn't really pick up steam until five years later.
In the meantime, people began to see that #longhairdontcare may not be the panacea they were hoping for. Buzzfeed published a listicle called "21 Problems That Make You Question The Expression #LongHairDontCare," including such dilemmas as strangers touching your hair in envy, accidentally hitting people in the face with your hair, and feeling jealous when someone else's hair is longer than yours.
February 11, 2014: Taylor Swift uploaded an Instagram video of herself getting a bob haircut in London in front of a group of cheering people. She signed off, "London, I could never thank you enough. See you next time! PS: short hair, don't care. (!!!)"
And with that, the new phrase "short hair don't care" was everywhere. Over the next few months, Jessica Simpson, Kristin Cavallari, and Jenna Ushkowitz all used it after a chop in the Great Lob-Off of 2014. When Lauren Conrad, hair heroine to so many, cut hers short, The Gloss gave the old phrase the official heave-ho with a blog entitled, "Lauren Conrad Chopped Off Her Hair, So #LongHairDontCare Is Officially Over." The update was mainstreamed into its own award category when the 2014 Victoria's Secret What Is Sexy List came out; Jennifer Lawrence won Sexiest #ShortHairDontCare.
October 27, 2014: The day #ShortHairDontCare died. Bustle published an article called, "The Phrase 'Short Hair, Don't Care' Has to Go." Author Martha Sorren wrote, "I admit, when I dyed my hair blue I copied Kylie Jenner and tagged my post 'blue hair, don't care.' But I've gotten wiser since then."
Today: The phrase has devolved into a variety of memes pinned to Pinterest boards, worn on T-shirts, and hashtagged on selfies explaining all the hair-related reasons a person may not care. A cursory search found the geographically-based (beach hair, lake hair, river hair), the activity-based (camping hair, gym hair, boat hair, Jeep hair), the lazy (dirty hair, messy hair), the unacceptable (ratchet hair, crazy hair), the animal-loving (dog hair, cat hair), the aspirational (pastel hair, big hair, mermaid hair), the funny (chest hair, mom hair), and finally, the political (Bernie hair and Trump hair don't care-both available on T-shirts, natch).
For more, check out Every Amazing Look Beyonce Wore in Lemonade
