Tiffany Haddish And 10 Other Black Women In Flattering Fades And Buzz Cuts

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When Tiffany Haddish first cut all of her hair off in the summer during an Instagram Live, people had a lot to say about it. Some people liked the end results, other people weren’t so crazy about it. There were also those people who took her decision to take it all off as a cry for help. But for the 40-year-old funny lady, she said she simply wanted to know what her head looked like underneath all of her hair.

“I cut all my hair off cause I want to see my Scalp,” she wrote on social media. “I know my whole body I know where every mole is but I don’t know my Scalp. So hello Scalp #SheReady to everything.”

As for those who thought she was going through some sort of emotional breakdown, she refuted the idea.

“Nothing is wrong with my brain, you guys,” she later said. “I’m not suffering from no emotional s–t, nothing. I’ve literally been talking about this for years.”

She also shared her giddiness about not having to worry about what to do with her hair for a while.

“As a black woman — I don’t know about white women — but as a Black woman, that’s a good hour to two-three hours of your f–king day,” she said. “Even if your hair is braided, you gotta grease your scalp, you gotta tie ’em up at night, you gotta make sure they look neat, it’s a lot of work. So, I’m taking time off!”

We heard that. And months later, Haddish’s hair is growing back nicely. She sported a gorgeous in-between stage low cut at Sunday night’s People’s Choice Awards where she won Favorite Movie Actress. The look was very flattering on the beauty.

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Haddish is the newest addition in a long list of ladies who sported fades, buzz and extremely close cuts with all the confidence. Since you don’t have all day to waste though, hit the flip to check out a reasonable 10 other women who showed how low they could go with hair and pulled it off perfectly.

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Jada Pinkett Smith

There aren’t many styles Jada can’t pull off. She did a short ‘do for Low Down Dirty Shame. But after 1997’s Set It Off, where she cut all her hair off at the end, the star became very comfortable with close to the scalp cuts like this one, which she also sported in Scream 2. She is seen here with the lovely look while at the Blockbuster Awards in 1998, carrying son Jaden.

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Danai Gurira

The former Walking Dead and Black Panther actress and writer has sported all sorts of natural and protective styles on red carpets, but there aren’t many that frame her face as well as this fade on the star. She kept her hair very low for years after an exhilarating work experience.

“One day I had to wear a wig cap, and I said, ‘That kind of works,” she said. “As soon as I could, I cut it all off, and I haven’t looked back since.”

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – JANUARY 11: Actress Danai Gurira attends the 13th Annual AFI Awards at Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on January 11, 2013 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

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Lupita Nyong’o

One of the most beautiful women in the world, Nyong’o can wear anything. No joke. She first reached stardom with a short cut like this fade, which allowed her stunning features to shine through. She has said that she wears her natural hair, and protective natural-inspired styles, for a reason.

“My hair is something that, historically, has been shunned,” she said in 2018. “I mean, how often do you hear, ‘You can’t get a job with hair like that’?”

LOS ANGELES, CA – OCTOBER 14: Actress Lupita Nyong’o arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of “12 Years A Slave” at Directors Guild Of America on October 14, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amanda Edwards/WireImage)

Source: Paras Griffin / Getty

Cynthia Erivo

The star loves to experiment with not only hair styles, but also colors. She’s heard all sorts of comments about her love of very short blonde hair, but that hasn’t held her back.

“Some people like it; some people hate it. I don’t care either way,” she told ESSENCE. “I did it because I really wanted people to see my face. The thing about me and having dark hair is I felt like I was hiding and the white hair feels like a light bulb. You can’t miss me. I just stopped being afraid of my face. My hair was really long and I just want to spend less time doing it and have you see my face. Never want to hide behind hair. It’s fun and easy to dress.”

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 22: Cynthia Erivo attends the 51st NAACP Image Awards, Presented by BET, at Pasadena Civic Auditorium on February 22, 2020 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET)

Source: Carlos Osorio / Getty

Keke Palmer

The actress and TV host is another person whose low fade worked, and who wasn’t afraid to put all kinds of color in it. From reds to purple, Palmer looked like she was having all the fun with less hair and less worry about what other people thought of her.

“The less you care, the happier you’ll be, I promise,” she wrote on social media while showing off the look.

TORONTO, ON – JUNE 18 – Keke Palmer Presenter, actress/singer/songwriter walks the red carpet at the 2017 iHeartRadio Much Music Video Awards in Toronto on June 18, 2017. (Carlos Osorio/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

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Amandla Stenberg

The young star boldly shaved all of their head off and looked fantastic. They said they cut it for a role and ended up loving it. They also said that less hair helped them feel more comfortable in more than just their looks.

“Shaving my head was wild. I felt a sense of complete neutrality. It was so freeing,” they said in 2018. “This summer I came out as gay, and I must say, having no hair made me feel even more comfortable with my gender and sexuality. My hair is still short, but I let it grow out a bit to give myself more options. Sometimes it’ll be a more masculine look with little-boy curls, or I’ll part it in the middle and slick it down to look more feminine. The best part: It’s totally up to me.”

HOLLYWOOD, CA – MAY 06: Actress Amandla Stenberg attends the screening of Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Everything, Everything” at the TCL Chinese Theatre on May 6, 2017 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)

Source: Gregg DeGuire / Getty

Jodie-Turner Smith

The new mom and gorgeous British actress has worn protective styles like braids and some wigs here and there, but for the most part, we’ve had the chance to fall in love with her very short cuts. A great example is this low fade, which for extra spunk, she dyed blonde. This type of self-expression was something she said she stifled in high school in order to fit in.

“I remember how badly I hated myself and hated the dark skin that made people call me ugly,” she wrote on Instagram. “How I turned my helplessness at being unable to change my outward appearance inward, by constantly cleaving away any and all parts of myself that I was told made me unacceptable to others.”

“how i changed my voice, changed my hair, became captain of this and president of that, used my intelligence to build a wall around me, spent years in the practice of bending and shaping myself into the most acceptable form of Jodie for the people around me until there was nothing of me left but hate for a person i didn’t recognise and fear that i had become someone it was impossible to come back from…
AND, MY GOD, IT WAS EXHAUSTING!” she added. “but i say all that to say this— i am grateful for the girl in these photos and for every part of this journey. because i couldn’t be me, now, if i wasn’t first her, then.”

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – JUNE 27: Jodie Turner-Smith arrives at Louis Vuitton Unveils Louis Vuitton X: An Immersive Journey at Louis Vuitton X on June 27, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic)

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Sanaa Lathan

We all watched the actress shave off her head, live, in the Netflix film Nappily Ever After. The bald style was lovely, and so was the in-between stage short cut, which you can see here.

“It was intense,” she said of taking clippers to her head. “I had butterflies for the week before because I knew that it was very crucial for Violet’s journey and it was a one-shot deal and there was the added thing of I’m shaving my head. Then there was, what is my head going to look like? So, I purposely decided I wasn’t going to think about what emotions I wanted to play. I wanted to go into it completely as Violet in the scene and just see what came up, and it was really surprising. It was really an emotional rollercoaster, so many emotions that came through. It was terrifying, but like most terrifying things, once you jump, it turns out to be surprisingly great. I actually continued shaving my head for four months after we finished the film because it felt so freeing, so good.”

LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 11: Sanaa Lathan attends Fonkoze’s “Hot Night In Haiti” Los Angeles Event on November 11, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amy Graves/WireImage)

Source: Jo Hale / Getty

Adwoa Aboah

Come through fade! British model Adwoa Aboah boldly rocked a short cut while many models wouldn’t dare strut the runway without long locks following behind them. She said shaving her head changed everything for her, including how she felt about her hair.

“After many years of hating my hair, I finally felt no attachment to it,” she wrote. “I was empowered, and for the first time, I don’t need to carry around a large plastic bag of products, and it doesn’t take me an hour to find all the hairpins after a night out.”

LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 04: Adwoa Aboah attends WE Day UK 2020 at The SSE Arena, Wembley on March 04, 2020 in London, England. (Photo by Jo Hale/Redferns)

Source: David M. Benett / Getty

Michaela Coel

The I May Destroy You creator and star, who has switched between wigs and a shaved head, including on her hit HBO series, has managed to look completely comfortable and cute in whatever style she chooses. (Name someone with better bone structure — I’ll wait.) However, she admitted that nothing beats a bald head.

“It’s so liberating – everyone has to do whatever they want in their lives,” she told UK’s The Guardian.

LONDON, ENGLAND – JUNE 19: Michaela Coel celebrates The ELLE List in association with MAGNUM ice cream on June 19, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Hearst Magazines)