Rapper/podcaster Maino recently revealed that he has been wearing a hairpiece for 5 years.

Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal, but when dealing with Black men, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out the hypocrisy.

I don’t want to be mean, and I hate to roast people based on superficial things.

At the same time, Black women: how are we to proceed?

Black men are some of the only men who constantly berate and degrade their female counterparts’ hair choices. If we’re natural, it better come with a looser curl; if we wear weave, we’re ashamed of our hair; if we wear wigs, we’re imposters.

Black men have been so relentless in their obsessions over our hair and beauty secrets that they started encouraging one another to have their love interests jump in the pool on the first date, to ensure they “know what they’re getting.”

I’ve always found this especially egregious. Women of all cultures do various things in the name of beauty, but for some reason Black men have been hyper-focused on only Black women’s hair, as though other races of women don’t wear the same weaves and wigs.

In recent years, men have begun creating realistic-looking hairpieces for Black men. It’s been a game-changer in the hair industry, as men who are balding and experiencing other hair issues can now comfortably rock hairpieces without worrying about looking ridiculous.

They’ve done such a good job, that per Essence, wigs have been a trending topic amongst men since at least 2024.

The article states,

In the same way that women conceal their hair-related problems and insecurities, men quietly engage in similar practices. For men, this includes concerns ranging from hair loss to texture and overall hair health. Unfortunately, for men, the haircare industry has not evolved with our unique needs.

Men who aren’t as comfortable with the available options have used “hat fishing” as a quick substitute. “Many will wear hats to cover the issue they are dealing with because they don’t want people to see the receding hairline or see the thinning crown,” says Wade Menendez, Owner of The W Hair Loft in Baltimore.

In general, I champion anyone who wants to make adjustments and alterations to boost their own confidence. And clearly, male hairpieces have a real demand in the Black community.

But are they even allowed? Black men tell Black women to go natural or literally call women insecure and self-hating for wearing weaves and wigs.

Now that you can join in the party, it’s all cool? Are Black women expected to ignore the decades of derogatory jokes that Black men created and regurgitated as a means of making Black women feel inferior to other races and ethnicities of women?

I’m not so sure.

Although I personally don’t wish to waste my time scouring crowds looking for Black men in bad wigs, I’m sure many will, and I will never blame them.

Nobody cared when Black women were being forced to perm, straighten, and cover our hair just to be accepted in the workplace, let alone in the dating realm, but now we’re supposed to have sympathy for adult males who are primarily doing it for their own vanity.

I’m not encouraging women to give the same energy we’ve been getting, but I’m also not going to discourage it. Black women get raked over the coals by everyone, including, and sometimes especially, Black men.

And therein lies the problem. We should have never gotten to the point where making fun of Black women’s beauty choices was commonplace. We know why other communities feel inclined to do it, but why do we have to face so much hate and discrimination from our own?

And after all that, you would think if they’re staying true to their politics, they would want nothing to do with fake hair.

Yet, and still, here we are. I haven’t seen any Black men coming out and denouncing man weaves, nor have I seen them policing one another to figure out who is and isn’t wearing one.

And this just goes to show that a lot of this misogynoir is just for sh*ts and giggles, with no real morals or values behind it. I would respect it if they stood on what they told us not to do. But it seems that, as many have stated, men really are the new bad b*tches.

And with that, I leave you with this: