Venus Williams knows the rigamarole of outside noise and unwarranted opinions that can come with being a Black woman in a highly visible field. As the most decorated tennis player in Olympic history and one of the most prolific careers in the world of sports, she’s no stranger to the opinions of the public. You don’t win four gold medals, one silver and seven Grand Slam titles by flying under the radar. Plus, many Black women in professional sports are placed under an especially scrutinous gaze when it comes to their hair.
As such, she has had to define what beauty means to her in her own eyes without the stifling noise that can come from external sources. This can be seen as early as her first few professional games when she rocked the now-famous bead-covered braids that often matched her court fit of the day. Or what about her first Olympics appearance, when she brought individual braids to the biggest sports stage in the world? The spiced-brown clavicle grazing braids were a plaited relic of Black girlhood and a celebration of our heritage.
Perhaps one of her most daring and patriotic looks, though, was her red, white and blue braid moment at the 2012 Olympic Games. It combined the rich culture of Black hair with the colors of the American flag, a parallel of the storied blend at the crux of many of this country’s greatest Olympic feats. A dichotomy that, as the 2024 Paris Olympics unfurl, still rings true.
Now, 30 years after her professional debut, Williams is upping her experimental leverage once again, this time in partnership with Schwarzkopf Professional for their “Up Your Hair Game” campaign.
Williams describes the collaboration as an embracement of beauty in all of its forms. “It celebrates diversity and is inclusive of all hair types and ways of styling,” Williams tells EBONY of the partnership. For the collaboration, Williams underwent two hair transformations, including a scrumptious honey-blonde look whipped up by renowned hair colorist Brendnetta Ashley.
For many Black women, the prospect of playing around with color comes with a host of emotions. This mix of feelings usually includes some excitement at the prospect of switching up your look, fear for whether or not the color will “work” for your complexion and often most pressingly, concern for whether or not this will negatively impact the health of your hair.
But when you have gone through as many hair phases as Williams, at a certain point, you learn to let some of that weight go. “There’s moments where I want to play with my hair. And sometimes I just want to put it away and not bring it out,” she says.
The ebbs and flows of Black women’s relationship with their hair come with mixed emotions and realizations, a common one being that hair should be enjoyed. “I just have fun with my hair. I’ve straightened it. I’ve done extensions, infusions, all of that. It’s fun and it grows back,” says Williams.
However, she has learned to work within the confines of what she describes as “fine” hair. “But then there comes a point where you’re like, ‘OK. This is my hair. I can’t keep abusing it. Your hair type is not like your sister’s. She can do that. You can’t,'” Williams jokes. “After a while, you go through this road of acceptance.”
In 2008, we saw a glimpse of this embracement of her hair in its natural state when she rocked a natural puff during the Beijing Olympics. “I was there, and I was tired of whatever was in my hair at the time. So I took it all out. And I just rocked the fro. And it was the cutest thing,” says Williams.
Learning how to care for and understand her hair was an admittedly lengthy process. As Williams tells EBONY, she was simply not as concerned with acquiring hair knowledge at the start of her career.
“I think in the beginning, I just didn’t know a lot because I was just like, ‘Hair beads!’ And I was just out there playing. I just wasn’t thinking about anything,” says Williams. As an athlete, how she wears her hair extends beyond the bounds of self-expression; she also has to consider how it can impact her performance. “You just want to make sure you have all your hair pinned and nothing flying off, or It’ll be a point penalty,” she says.
This is partially why braids have been such a go-to for her throughout her career. It also doesn’t hurt that they have a considerably low-maintenance style. “You’ve eliminated half an hour, at least getting ready. That, to me, represents freedom,” says Venus.
This ease, however, does not negate the needs of your natural hair, says Williams, who prioritizes moisture and tenderness in her routine. The latter of which can be a tangled process for those with coily hair.
“That’s always my main priority, as much moisture as possible and really loving your hair, your hair type and texture,” says Williams.
