Tamron Hall’s short hair is a staple of her appearance and in a new article, she explained why.
On Today.com, the journalist revealed the inspiration for the style came from a high school boyfriend’s love for a famous R&B singer.
“It’s fashioned off of Anita Baker,” Hall revealed. “My boyfriend at the time was absolutely obsessed with her. He just loved her. And I wanted to have Anita Baker hair.”
Hall has kept her tresses cut since she was 18. As she ventured into local news broadcasting, she continued to keep it short.
However, once she hit the national news circuit, Hall faced some backlash. Criticism emerged over why her locks were not long like most broadcasters.
“I arrived just around the time when bloggers were beginning to chime in with their opinions and all that stuff was going on. And I remember reading the cruelest, most awful thing about my hair online,” Hall recalled. “A person speculated about who I was as a person and even read into my personal life based solely off my hairstyle. He or she said I must be lazy because I have short hair.”
The judgment wore on Hall, and in 2009, she attempted to grow out her hair into a bob.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BL1YQzcFOAt/?taken-by=tamronhall
“I really let it get to me,” she said.
It was not until Hall’s mom asked her about it that she instantly chopped her hair. But that didn’t mean Hall’s hair dilemmas were over. After appearing on “Running Wild with Bear Grylls” in 2014, the MSNBC host felt too exhausted to straighten her hair to co-host “Today.”
“I had a flight back in the middle of the night, and I’d planned on getting my hair done straight,” she remarked. “But it’s a process, and I just did not feel like going through that that day. I even woke up with the intention of straightening it, but I was so physically tired.”
When Hall went on air showing off her natural hair texture, the images became plastered across magazines and online.
“In the end, I don’t mind that attention,” she said. “More than anything, it’s a connection. I know sometimes people will make a fuss about, ‘Well, why do people care about what our hair and makeup look like on TV?’ And the truth is, it’s a connection with our viewers.”
“And I enjoy being able to connect in that way,” she added.
