Vice President Kamala Harris shares her ‘hair history’ – including her first signature hairstyle

Before deciding on her signature silk machine, Vice President Kamala Harris, like many other Black women, experimented with a series of hairstyles. During a recent performance at Buzzfeed’s “Cocoa Butter.” video series, Harris took a visit down memory lane to reflect on a few of her most vital hair moments.

“For as long as I can remember, my mom has been dividing our hair in half and putting it in two tight braids,” Harris said in a video interview, adding, “(but) I wanted to let it down.”

Looking on the photo of the 5-yr-old, Harris recalled how repeatedly her mother sent her to highschool in a classic style, decorated with “big pompoms” and colourful pins. Although Harris sometimes had something to say in regards to the color of her hair accessories, she consistently desired to keep her hair free and flowing.

“It’s funny because I went to school and (my mother) would put it in two braids, and then whenever I came to school, I would take the braids out,” the vp recalled. “To get ready to go home at the end of the school day, my friends braided my hair.”

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Years later, as a Gen Xer attending Howard University within the mid-to-late Nineteen Eighties, Harris opted for shorter hairstyles. She remembers that between classes, often protesting on the National Mall and taking an energetic role in HBCU student government, she was unable to devote time to styling her hair.

“It was just easy, instead of having to deal with the amount of time it takes to do my own hair or do something that I really couldn’t afford,” she said, explaining her alternative of a giant cut. “When I was in college, I just didn’t want to spend so much time worrying about my hair.”

It wasn’t until after college, while working as an elected district attorney in San Francisco, that Harris decided to grow her hair out again and started to adopt her signature look – a silky hairstyle.

“I decided I wanted to grow my hair out; Drying was just to make the hair easier to style,” she explained. “I know a lot of people saw my interview with Keke Palmer and yes, it’s about the round brush, not the hot iron. This is how I do it…” she added, referring to her June 2023 performance Keke Palmer Podcast “Honey, It’s Keke Palmer” where the VP revealed the key to her hair routine.

“I don’t use a curling iron,” Harris previously told Palmer when asked how repeatedly a month she presses her silk. “It’s too much heat; I use a round brush.”

“Now what kind of magic round brush?” Palmer asked, shocked by her response, “Your hairstyle must be exceptionally beautiful, Madame VP.”

“No, it’s not. It takes a while (using) a boar bristle (brush),” the vp replied, describing the method in additional detail. “It takes a lot of heat. But it’s too much heat to do it and do it (curling iron.) “.

As Harris once more reflected on her hair journey for Buzzfeed, she also shared some advice with her younger self.

“Pay attention to what these amazing people were telling you – and I think I was doing that without even realizing it,” she said, recalling how popular she was Aretha Franklin’s 1978 album “Young, Gifted and Black” she was in childhood. “Everything we were told told us that we were special, that we were loved and that we had responsibilities – and that we should never let anyone tell us who we were; we tell them who we are.”

Watch Vice President Kamala Harris’ video full interview with cocoa butter on YouTube.