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Dave Hogan / NBC News
Gabby Douglas and her mom, Natalie Hawkins, on TODAY after Team USA's gold-medal win.
Just before the scoreboard showed that Gabby Douglas had won the gold in individual gymnastics last week, her mom Natalie Hawkins had only one reaction: relief. It was relief that came after ten years of training, after her daughter said she dreamt of being an Olympian, and after she let her daughter move away from home at 14 to chase her dreams.
The relief didn't last long, as Hawkins soon found herself defending her daughter's hair, which had been swiftly criticized for being both “unkempt” and “embarrassing” very soon after Douglas made Olympic history.
In an interview with gymnastics gold medalist Dominique Dawes, Hawkins said when she first saw the comments she was confused. "Because I was looking at the pictures and I was like, 'I'm missing it,' because I don't see what they're talking about. I mean, she doesn't have fly-aways all sticking out, it's not like it's all over her head. It's pulled back into a ponytail."
Ronald Martinez / Getty Images
Gabby Douglas has been deflecting online commentary about her hair.
Hawkins went on to describe the specific way gymnasts must tie their hair back so that it doesn't interfere with their tumbling.
As her daughter competed, Hawkins thought of Douglas sharing a place in the history books alongside Dawes, who was the first African-American woman to win an individual Olympic medal in gymnastics. Hawkins told Dawes that when she imagined Gabby winning the gold she thought of her sharing "that amazing feat with people like the likes of you, and so that was exciting for me to know, that she would be counted on a level and in a category with you and all the other gymnastic greats."
She was not considering her daughter's ponytail.
According to Dawes, it shouldn't be a consideration. "As an athlete you are not focused on your appearance or you're not going to make those achievements," she said.
The attention over Douglas's hair gained ground once it hit Twitter. One user tweeted, “I love Gabby Douglas, but I'm mad at whoever keeps letting her wear that half wig and that silky ponytail on the back of some nappy hair.” Another suggested she did not belong on camera.
If Douglas has been fazed she hasn’t shown it, continuing to wear her hair the same way throughout the games. Fans have encouraged her along the way, many coming to her defense. TODAY's Al Roker tweeted Tuesday, "Anybody who has a problem w/Gabby Douglas' hair needs to sit down and be quiet. Enjoy and focus on the accomplishments."
When Hawkins spoke about the hair controversy to Fashionista.com, she said that she herself was once guilty of prioritizing her daughter's hair before her training, and had to be reminded that it had nothing to do with her career. “It was actually her coach who told me that,” she said. “I was trying to get her into a hair appointment and I wanted to move her training schedule around and he said to me, ‘She’s beautiful. You don’t need to change her hair. We need to focus on training.’"
Douglas lives and trains in Des Moines, Iowa, with a host family, Hawkins reminded Fashionista.com. "She lives with a white host family and they don’t know anything about taking care of her hair," she said. "And there’s no black salons in their area — not one. We had to work really hard to find a stylist to come and do her hair... It’s really been African-American women that have come out and attacked her. They don’t know about gymnastics. She has to keep her hair in a ponytail 28-30 hours a week."
Hair, especially among African-American women, has long been a cause of contentious discussion. As TODAY.com reported last week, media queen Oprah recently went au naturel for the cover of her magazine's September issue, which hits the stands today. The cover has sparked everything from widespread support to accusations that she isn’t wearing her real hair.
Douglas herself has summed up the controversy, echoing her mom’s statements in an interview with the Associated Press. "'I just made history and people are focused on my hair? It can be bald or short; it doesn't matter about (my) hair,'" she said.
More: Gabby Douglas: Gold medals are made of sweat, blood and tears
Video: Gabby Douglas is welcomed by gymnastics legends Mary Lou Retton, Carly Patterson, and Nastia Liukin
Golden Gabby! Read Shawn Johnson's analysis of gymnastics all-around finals
TODAY Moms: Sweet photo of white dad doing black daughter's hair goes viral
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It really saddens me to know that there are so many negative people in the world! If it were not Gabby's hair, it would have been something else. You felt as if you had to explain the history behind her hair. You did not have to do that. My suggestion would be: #1. avoid reading or listening to anything negative. Make it clear to your family and friends, if it is not positive you do not want to hear it; #2. get use to praying and relying on God for strength and peace; #3. after you pray, let go and let God; #4. remember, the battle is not yours' it's the Lord's; #5. remember, you have more supporters who are extremely happy for you, praying for you, and wish you nothing but the best. God is good!!! Don't let Satan still your joy!!! Hold your head up high, and praise God for blessing you.
Gabby, you made this 57-year-old grandfather proud. I was shocked and amazed to learn about the criticism surrounding "HER HAIR." She is a young athlete competing on the world stage at the 2012 London Summer Olympics; not a model walking down some international fashion show runway. Now, she is being criticized about her teeth -- incredibly unbelievable. Douglas is 16-years old, so just let her be a teenager.
I'm just glad I got the opportunity to see Gabby Douglas' history-making performances; jealousy is contagious -- all the haters should get a life and be congratulating this phenomenal, world-class gymnast!
I believe people put people put down because they don`t like them selves . And try to make other people to look bad . Wanting to make them self look better.. or are jealous ,and just mean .
ADULTS ACTING LIKE BRATS...it is so hard for me to believe, you have [GROWN Adults] not children, speaking the way they are speaking concerning a sixteen year old girl [Gabby Douglas], who wants nothing more out of life than to 'Achieve' something in this life.
I am really amazed, at how these grown people are carrying on.
When I hear grown people acting like this, it shows how much [Home training they must have gotten when they were kids."
I mean, I hear of kids being bullies, and bullying other kids...but most of the blogs, I am reading, are from people that say they are mature, have jobs, families, and should already know how to act in this life. "These should know better"
But it is shocking and amazing, to hear hate, and kid like attitudes concerning someone who is suppose to be adults, and picking on a young sixteen year old girl who is more positive than adults.
Hate, is a terrible thing. I wouldn't want to die with a heart like most people who are so hateful. I believe, people who hate really aren't human at all.
"Only "Beasts" seeks prey.
This is really sad indeed.
I wouldn't want a sixteen year old kid to be smarter than me."
But I think (Gabby Douglas) has out smarted more adults than anyone.
She has a gift that most adults don't have. She has wits. She mature for her age. She knows how to carry herself among people. She's not belittling anyone. She thinks of her family very well. She has class. there are so many important factors in her life that is good.
She now has "GOLD" to help her mom, who has has a bad fall in life. She now has so much "GOLD" whatever she has missed out in this life, she now can get it FIXED...Thank God for the "GOLD"
She now can move into a better home, and pursue many more opportunities that she dreams of.
Thank God she doesn't think like some LOW-Life Adults, who should already know these things.
I am happy for Gabby and her family, I wish them well.
Well, I have noticed that (at least to me) it was not a weave; so, to the sistas hatin' on her with small minded comments pertaining to Gabby's hair, how many of them are wearing weaves right now? I love my sistas and my people, but, come on y'all! And besides, it doesn't look all that different from the the First Lady, Michele Obama's when she is working out. But even if Gabby had a weave, what difference would it make in the grand scheme of things..., receiving a Gold Medal for the U.S.A. for the world to see!
Sounds like we need to start an ADULT anti-bullying campaign. After all, kids do what they see us grown-ups doing. Gabby Douglas made history on so many levels -- stop hatin and leave the girl alone!!!
Poor black girls. So confused they don't even realize they are imitating another cultures standard of beauty because they think their OWN hair is unacceptable and ugly. Such self hatred needs emotional therapy. Wake up! Your own hair is beautiful too. You show your ignorance by criticizing a stellar athlete because of a hairstyle. Stop sewing other people's hair to your head so your brain can breathe.
What a crock.......forget the hair! People always have to have something to put their baseless ideas on. How about this: An olympic athlete just did it up for her country after years of hard work and dedication!! You dumba$$e$ out there worried about her hair need to get a frickin' life!!!!!!!
Insanity...besides all the other gymnasts had theirs pulled back in the same messy ponytail knot too!
People are so stupid who care what her hair looks like! She did a wonderful job at what she was there to do. Win gold. That's all that should matter.
Well my opinion does not even count because I am old, poor, white and way too fat. But as some obviously legally blind person is jealous of this beautiful Olympian I want to add my feelings. Long before she ever competed in these games I saw her face and the beauty springing forth from that face won me as a fan. So all you haters who are not good enough to carry this lady's dirty laundry "EAT YOUR HEART OUT!"
So I am sitting in my esthetician class yesterday when my Cuban-Puerto Rican sistah turns to me and asks, "So what's the problem or controversy surrounding Gabby's hair?" Since I had no clue, I reached for my laptop while she scrolled her iPad to get to the bottom of the hair mess as I thought to myself, "I know damn well black folks are not making an issue of this baby's head!" And sure enough, I located a quote from some black woman complaining about Gabby's poor representation of black women due to her hair. OMGoddesses!!! You have no idea how badly I wanted to ignore my being the only African-American woman in a classroom of beautiful, diverse women and blatantly bash any and all black women with the audacity to bring hair into such a golden historical moment as Gabby Douglas!
What made it even more frustrating, a few of my classmates and I had just recently discussed the racial and cultural differences involving women and their hair and skin complexions. I had shared my frustration with the caste system we naturals are using to describe and distinguish our curl pattern by assigning it a numerical grade (pun intended) and letter. This led to my Cuban-Puerto Rican sistah describing the numerous names given to describe the hair texture and skin complexion within the Latino community and then a white classmate shared her need to emphasize her Native American percentage in order to fit into a quickly shrinking white majority.
I mean, it felt so good to have an honest and open discussion about race, hair and politics with a racially diverse group of women with different but similar experiences. Within that one discussion, I discovered how toxic self-hatred is among all women, regardless of the perpetrator of HERstory.
So if you are a black woman stupid and silly enough to diminish this Golden Gabby moment into a Wanda Syke's, "white folks are looking, you are the embarrassment holdingus back!
How do the hairstyles below differ?
I did not know we were watching the Olympics for a fashion show. How ridiculous for someone to be so petty to comment on an athlete's hair. Wonder what they would look like if they were doing all those things that Gabby and her team were doing? Way to go Gabby and congrats to all your team members. You were all awesome. The time and hard work sure has paid off, and you were awesome. If those people could only comment on someone's hair, they should have tuned into a fashion show
These people don't understand gymnastics but they do know beauty. The 2 don't compare. We don't say that Miss America can't do a hand stand
People need to shut up.
Gabby is working out every day to stay in condition to win the medals that she won and to represent the US like she did. That is a lot of sweat. Her hairstyle is completely appropriate for someone doing the physical work that she is doing.
Now that she is done with the competition for this year, she can get a fancy do! I hope some of the hairdresser critics step up and offer her free services to honor her accomplishments.
Congratulations to her and her accomplishments. I look forward to seeing her in 2016 in Rio and on the cornflakes and wheaties boxes that she has earned.
I agree that as an athelete she should first focus on her training. That is why she won GOLD. But with public acclaim, people will take note of appearance. They had the cute uniforms, but none of the US girls hair looked good in my opinion. How hard is it to do a good ponytail anyway. The Russian girls had on makeup and their hair looked good. I'm sure there is someone in Iowa that can do Black hair. Anyway, Gabby should be proud of her accomplishments.
She has accomplished great things in her life within the last few days and im very proud of her and thats not any hate but she do need to even out her hair texture wearing a bone straight synthetic weave with natural new growth isnt attractive at all. Im very surprised her mother is defending her hair especially when her own hair is chemically relaxed and has a even texture. She represent african american girls and her hair should be neat i understand what her mom said about her not having access to a beautician who do black hair but now she has endorsements to fly beauticians to her. If shes gonna keep her hair like that at least get some kinky straight human hair weave to make her hair look a bit more natural or she can get braids like venus williams or even dreadlocks. Its easy to call people who notice her hair shallow or vain but do u think her mother or her sisters will let their hair go half nappy. They shouldnt want that for gabby either. Do you all think anyones whose defending them will let their hair go unkempt that way. Just because me and others care about the upkeep of her hair doesnt mean we are haters or dont care about her achievements.
This whole conversation is ridiculous...Gabby is 15 years old and she has already accomplished more than most of us have by the time we reach 65. Gabby your hair looks great and I would be proud to have you as my daughter with or without a medal. Your critics need to get a life.
You can be proud and happy for Gabby and still be distracted by her hair. It would have been refreshing to see a high profile woman of color wear their hair in its natural state (a small afro would have been adorable). I get that she wanted to look like the other young ladies and wear a ponytail, but my personal wish is that Gabby and her family (her mother and sister had hair weaves down to there) could embrace their heritage and know that short natural hair can be just as beautiful as long straight hair.
I posted a youtube poem about Gabby Douuglas hair and ESPN did an article about it please watch it and share with others and help me support Gabby!! Look up "Ponytail a poem for Gabby Douglas' on youtube!
Who cares she has 2 gold medals and a place on the Wheaties Box stuff it Wankers
"There are two kinds of people. Those who climb mountains and those who sit in the shadow of the mountains and critique the climbers."
Go Gabby!!
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