John Frieda criticised for choosing Rochelle Humes as ‘curl positivity’ ambassador

John Frieda has been criticised for selecting singer and TV presenter Rochelle Humes as their new "curl positivity" ambassador.

The decision has been condemned by people who claim that Humes doesn’t represent all different types of curly hair, but solely those who have looser waves and curls.

According to Jay-Ann Lopez and Patrina Charles, co-founders of curl positivity platform Curlture, loosely curled hair is often glamourised in the media, which shifts the focus away from women who have kinkier, tightly curled hair.

“The trend with major brands in the UK natural hair scene is to idolise loose curls and wavy textures whilst tokenising the women with kinkier textures who created the scene,” they told BuzzFeed News.

“So this campaign was not surprising to us. It’s a huge faux pas to join ranks with John Frieda, a brand renowned for only catering to white women with loose waves.”

Humes has frequently spoken about embracing her curly hair, launching a website called Curls Like Us that aims to make women who have naturally curly hair feel empowered.

However, some have stated that Humes doesn’t use her platform to highlight the hair of darker skinned black women enough, which is why her appointment as a curl ambassador for John Frieda is problematic.

“Curls acceptance? Her hair Insta page mainly features white and light skinned women with curls that have always been accepted,” one person tweeted.

“Dark skinned women with 4C hair are too few and far between on the page for this to be credible.”

Black Naps, a website that provides women that have kinky textured hair with advice on how to care for it, explains the different categories that kinky hair types fall into.

Kinky hair, otherwise described as type 4 hair, is classed as being either 4A, 4B or 4C, with 4C being the most tightly coiled.

Another person wrote: “This is such a poor collaboration especially when platforms like @curltureuk exist that represent all hair types.

“Rochelle’s Instagram page is notorious for the erasure of dark skinned black women with 4C hair. Despite being called out about this she just ignores people.”

The Curls Like Us Instagram page regularly features black women with tighter curls.

A spokesperson for Curls Like Us explains to The Independent that Humes believes strongly in encouraging people with all different hair types to embrace their natural look.

"Curls Like Us was started as a platform to bring together all people with curly hair - sharing tips, advice and curly hair stories," the spokesperson says.

"Rochelle is a strong advocate for curly hair, having struggle to embrace her natural hair when she was younger, and wants to encourage people of all ages, hair types and races to embrace their natural curly hair through the Curls Like Us platform."

However, it’s not just the type of curly hair being represented in the collaboration between John Frieda and Rochelle Humes that’s being criticised, but also the wording of the campaign.

When the partnership between John Frieda and Rochelle Humes was announced a few days ago for the brand’s Frizz Ease Dream Curls campaign, it was stated that the products being promoted were designed specifically with “demanding hair” in mind.

The use of the word “demanding” to describe curly hair has been a source of contention on Twitter.

However, John Frieda states that the use of the word was inspired by responses that they've received from consumers.

"It was inspired by our customer feedback - that they have demanding lives and high expectations, and that their hair demands the best," Louise Yankovic-Jenkins, UK marketing director at John Frieda tells The Independent.

"We are incredibly pleased to be working with Rochelle and it is certainly not our intention to exclude anyone in this campaign.

"Rochelle is a long-time fan and user of John Frieda and this combined with her recent decision to embrace her curls, made her a natural choice of ambassador for Dream Curls."