Sheryl Underwood probably wishes she could take it back.

The comedian and actress incurred the wrath of natural black hair enthusiasts when she spouted negative comments about nappy hair on CBS’ The Talk.

Underwood, a wig-wearing co-host on the talk show, got in trouble when the group discussed model Heidi Klum’s revelation that she saves the hair of her sons, whose dad is the black singer Seal.

“Why would you save afro hair?” Underwood asks. “You can’t weave afro hair.”

She continued: “You never see us at the hair place going ‘Look, here, what I need here is, I need those curly, nappy beads…That just seems nasty.”

When white co-host Sarah Gilbert said that she, too, saves her kid’s hair, Underwood saw fit to add that it was “probably some beautiful, long, silky stuff.”

Read how Underwood's comments set off a firestorm of criticism from sources like The Root and blogs such as Bossip.

About the Author

Keep Reading

Whitney Wharton, a cognitive neuroscientist at Emory who focuses on Alzheimer’s disease prevention, said she would not be surprised if her National Institutes of Health research grant funding that was canceled and then reinstated this year is terminated a second time. “We are on this roller coaster, and it is literally impossible to plan,” Wharton said. “It feels like one step forward and then two steps back. And I still don’t know what to do at this point.” (Natrice Miller/AJC)

Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC

Featured

In 2022, Georgia Power projected its winter peak electricity demand would grow by about 400 megawatts by 2031. Since then, Georgia has experienced a boom of data centers, which require a large load of electricty to run, and Georgia Power's recent forecast shows peak demand growing by 20 times the 400-megawatt estimate from just three years ago. (Illustration by Philip Robibero/AJC)

Credit: Illustration: Philip Robibero / AJC