Jay-Z popped out at the Roots Picnic this weekend with a freshly combed out fro and the internet blew a gasket.

Perhaps I was way too ignorant about the widespread natural hair ignorance, but I was truly blown away by how misinformed people are as it related to locked hair.

Let’s comb through it!

Wigging Out

The main claim I’m seeing involving Jay-Z’s hair makeover is that he’s wearing a wig. And not just that his afro is a wig, but his locs were a wig as well.

Now, I want to be clear: I’m not his stylist and certainly have no insider knowledge on what’s going on between his combs, but I believe we all watched him grow those huge Basquiat-esque locs from infancy to full-grown.

So, although anything is possible, it seems highly unlikely for those locs to have been a wig. It would mean he had an elaborate scheme and design team to create him different wigs at various lengths to keep up the lie.

Given that he’s mostly been out of the spotlight until recently, it would have made much more sense for his to just disappear for a year or two and pop up with the full-length wig, no?

Additionally, people are also saying that the fro is a wig, or that it’s a wig he’s using after cutting all of his locs off. Sure, it’s possible. But again, this also seems nonsensical. I mean, if we can give him the benefit of the doubt that he actually grew his locs out to begin with, the fro he’s now rocking is actually far shorter than it could be. To me, it appears that he did a big chop and then had the remainder of his locs combed out into a fro.

Here’s a tutorial I found that details how to comb locs out:

Either way, I didn’t know it was possible for so many Black people not to know that locs are being combed out all the time by people who don’t have billions of dollars and access to an unlimited supply of Cecred products. I was so confused about how so many people were acting like he would’ve had to pull some magic trick that isn’t already embedded in the whimsical nature of Black hair, in general.

At any rate, therein lies the problem. Black women are constantly criticized about the ways we choose to wear our hair, but this is a real-time demonstration of how little the entire community knows about caring for our hair in its natural state.

It’s embarrassing, really.

I would expect other communities to spew such ignorance, but here we are on the front lines, being the voice of natural hair denial.

Honestly, if we’re honest, the reaction to Jay-Z’s big chop is similar to that of Future’s. Jay-Z also doesn’t have the more palatable curl type, which has left his hair choices subject to extreme scrutiny.

If his hair type had a looser curl, no one would question whether his hair was real. However, because it’s of the kinkier variety, here we are with millions of people chiming in on whether it’s even possible for him to A.) grow long locs and B.) comb them out.

To be fair, though, since most people hated the free-form locs, most people feel this look is a vast improvement, unlike what happened with Future. Moreover, given his age, many expect him to be bald or balding, so simply showing up with a head full of hair is actually a flex. Also, in terms of aesthetics, Hov’s fro is more intentionally shaped and lengthier, which adds to its appeal.

At the same time, it’s not nearly as polished as most of the natural hair-inspired pieces I’ve seen. No shade to Hov at all, but most of those units have a more defined curl pattern and are even more sculpted than his. I’m just saying.

In true artist fashion, revealing his new do at the Roots picnic was poetic. Although it has been disappointing reading most of these reactions, I do think it’s inspiring that he was able to generate so much buzz by simply showing up wearing an afro, whether it’s real or not.

I love the idea of him inspiring more young men to embrace their inner-fros and let them fly free. Jay-Z is an artist in every sense of the word, and the fact that his big comeback has sparked so much controversy is proof that his work isn’t done yet.

Despite rampant ageism in hip-hop, Hov is showing us that you’re never too old to reinvent yourself, pop out, and show ninjas.