Why We're All Obsessed With Beyonce's Pixie Cut

The signature "lion's mane" is gone: Beyonce debuted a new pixie cut on Instagram last week, and people cannot stop talking about it. At the Daily Beast, Allison Samuels says Chris Rock is to blame. After he released Good Hair, his documentary about black women and their tresses, "the politics of black hair ... became topical for the mainstream population," Samuels writes. But, she points out, black women aren't the only people who use hair extensions, wigs, and weaves. From Beyonce to Jennifer Lopez to Dolly Parton and beyond, many women use those types of products to protect their own natural hair—so why is no one talking about the white women who use them?

"For some baffling reason, black women take all the flak when it comes to adding human-hair enhancements to our varied beauty arsenals," Samuels writes. They are required to always "keep it real," while everyone else is allowed to fake it with no judgment. "In a world where requests for breast implants, liquid face-lifts, lip injections, and butt implants are the norm at doctor’s offices, women of color continue to be ridiculed for our love affair with Indian Remy hair," she writes. Isn't it time for this double standard to end? The truth is, "the ideal of female beauty in this country remains very narrowly defined." So what's wrong with wanting to feel more beautiful? Click for Samuels' full column. (More Beyonce stories.)