H&M Faces Backlash For Campaign Featuring Black Model With ‘Messy’ Natural Hair

People have claimed that the image shows that there are industry professionals out there who simply do not know how to style black hair, with the main critique of the advert coming from Vernon François, a global celebrity hairstylist.

François shared the image on Instagram, writing:

"It's essential that we have a conversation about this photograph from the @hm_kids campaign. Before I begin, I do not have the facts, nor have I seen any statement by #H&M or the team who worked on this. This post is just an assessment based on all my years of seeing situations like this happen time and time again. And its got to stop."

The celebrity stylist went on to explain how he felt sorry for the young model. He lamented the fact that the young girl in the shoot didn't get the attention she deserved from H&M's own stylists prior to the shoot. He also expressed a desire for more stylists to be educated in different hair styles.

François continued to write:

"My heart breaks imagining yet another girl from my community sitting in front of a mirror being ignored by the team around her, left to her own devices because someone didn’t know how to handle her texture. As if that's not bad enough…. Prior to this campaign appearing this photograph will have been seen and APPROVED by countless 'professionals'. Let's say conservatively 50 people [...] Our girls, our young women deserve better. Let this be a moment of learning. #Education is key".

However, over time public opinion began to change as people started sharing the images of the rest of the young models who were chosen for the shoot.

Several people highlighted that it was only the black girl who had been singled out for her hair, when the rest of the children also had hair which was, as people put it, supposed to look like the child had just come home from school.

According to the Daily Mail, H&M's statement read as follows:

"We are aware of the comments regarding one of our models for H&M Kids. We truly believe that all kids should be allowed to be kids.

"The school-aged kids who model for us come to the photo studio in the afternoon after school and we aim for a natural look which reflects that."

There is a concern that the young girl will take the controversy personally, and so plenty of people shared their messages of positivity for the young model.

The internet quickly became divided over whether the company had or hadn't appropriately styled the hair of the young girl.

The debate became very heated with some people accusing the brand of irresponsibly styling the model's hair, and with others claiming that all of the models in the campaign had been sporting a unanimously "messy look."

Hopefully the young girl in the advert understands that regardless of what people are saying, this is not an assault on her. She has done fantastically well to land such a large modelling job and should be proud of her achievements.

h/t: Yahoo & Daily Mail