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H&M’s Rationale for ‘Natural Look’ of Young Black Girl Doesn’t Fly with Folks: ‘It’s Not Quite the Same Beloved’

Hours after a young H&M model’s photo went viral for her hair being styled in an imperfect manner, the fast-fashion retailer has responded.

A screenshot of a Black girl modeling a printed blue hooded sweatshirt made the rounds on the internet Friday and many criticized the way the youngster’s hair was styled. The girl, who wears her hair in a naturally kinky state, had her tresses pulled back into what amounted to a small puff.

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The controversial image of a young Black H&M Kids model’s hairstyle that has Twitter up in arms. (Photo: H&M)

Swiftly, social media users slammed the clothing company for allowing the girl to have her photos taken with her hair in that state.

“Throw the whole H&M awayyyyyy”

“So umm…who approved this #HMKids Y’all betta stop playin with these black kids. #cancelled @hmcanada”

“Excuse me @hm I just want to talk, because natural is fine but not doing her hair properly/at all is not..”

“Apparently @hm thinks allowing this African American young lady’s hair to look like this in their AD is acceptable! I find this disrespectful! This is a clear example that there are no people of color working at the higher level because they would have not allowed this#DoBetter”

Even celebrity natural hairstylist Vernon François got in on the debate saying in part in a lengthy Instagram post, “My heart breaks imagining yet another girl from my community sitting in front of a mirror being ignored by the team around her, left to her own devices because someone didn’t know how to handle her texture.”

Still, some people pointed out that all of the H&M Kids models had hair that was not perfectly coiffed.

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By midday on Sept. 20, H&M’s customer service Twitter account responded to one critic who said, “When I was in the ad industry, @hmcanada was one of my clients and I hated them. Think Devil Wears Prada on 1000 #HMKids.”

“Thank you for the feedback. We truly believe that all kids should be allowed to be kids. The school aged kids who model for us come to the photo studio in the afternoon after school and we aim for a natural look which reflects that.”

But the response was not enough for those who took issue with the Black girl’s appearance.

“Put some curls on her or something …”

“It’s not quite the same beloved.”

“Your company is constantly disrespecting black children. Wasnt it just this past January that you had a black boy in a sweater labelling him as a monkey? Cut the s–t.”

The last response references a prior controversy for the fashion company involving Black children. In January 2018, H&M caught major flak for featuring a young Black boy wearing a hoodie that read, “Coolest Monkey In the Jungle.”

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