Jada’s Baldie & 10 Other Black Bald Beauties

Source: Jason Koerner / Getty

Jada Pinkett Smith recently unveiled her new shaved look via social media, which she said was inspired by her daughter Willow Smith. The Red Table Talk host turns 50 this year and said that her new cut signifies how she will be entering the next decade of her life.

“Willow made me do it because it was time to let go BUT … my 50’s are bout to be Divinely lit with this shed,” she captioned the photo of her and her baby girl.

Willow Smith also showed off her mother’s fresh cut on her IG with the caption, “a gift is pure when it is given from the heart to the right person at the right time and at the right place, and when we expect nothing in return.”

Pinkett-Smith has joined a roster of bald beauties who chose to let go of their tresses and and rock their baldies boldly. Here’s 9 other Black women who also slayed the bald look.

Source: Screenshot / Red Table Talk/Facebook

Willow Smith

Willow Smith has rocked a baldie a few times throughout her young life, so it’s not surprising that she inspired her mother to try it. Smith has been shaving her head since she was 12-years-old.

In 2020, she let her boyfriend Tyler Cole shave her head during their 24-hour exhibit called “The Anxiety” at The Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, California.

“I felt like I was just shedding a lot of just history and emotional baggage,” she said on Red Table Talk in March 2020. “Six, 7, years of emotions, I just let it all go.”

Toni Braxton

Braxton had a pixie cut when she debuted on the R&B scene in the 90s and has slipped on various wigs throughout her career. Back in March, she decided to let it all go and revealed her new blonde baldie along with her banging body in a two-piece bikini and cover-up.

Source: Johnny Louis / Getty

Tamar Braxton

Tamar Braxton shocked the world when she shaved her head. Braxton, who has been open about her love of wigs, said that when she shaved her head, it wasn’t just about trying a new look.

“Shaving my hair, for me, was me letting go of a lot of things that I was holding on to,” she told Hype Hair. “Me letting go of my hair was me letting go of my issues which meant me working on my issues.”

Tiffany Haddish

In July 2020, Haddish unveiled a completely bald head on Instagram. Haddish shared that she always wanted to shave her head and figured doing in while in the COVID-19 quarantine was the perfect time because she didn’t have any public appearances to do.

The Night School star said cutting all of her hair off also helped her fall in love with herself more.

“I was like, ‘Oh, look at those pretty eyes you got!'” Haddish told Insider. “It’s like that hair was blocking me from seeing me. People kept asking if I’d lost my mind, though,” she added. “It’s not usually important to me to defend myself, but when the moon is full and my cycle is on, I’m going to have to put some people in their places. Chime in to give some facts, tell them to kiss my ass, and keep it pushin’.”

Source: Paras Griffin / Getty

Sanaa Lathan

Sanaa Lathan did a big chop in 2017 while filming her movie, Nappily Ever After. The chop was a major part of the film,  where she played Violet Jones, an advertising executive who was crushed by a break-up and decided to give herself a hair makeover.

Lathan told Entertainment Weekly that cutting her hair was an “intense” experience but she knew what it meant for the character she was playing.

“It was really an emotional rollercoaster, so many emotions that came through,” she said. “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.”

Source: Ron Galella / Getty

Grace Jones

Grace Jones shaved her head back in the 1960’s. The Jamaican-born model/actress/singer shaved her head in order to stand out.

“It made me look more abstract, less tied to a specific race or sex or tribe,” she said according to Vogue. “I was Black, but not Black; woman, but not woman; American, but Jamaican; African, but science fiction.”

Source: Victor VIRGILE / Getty

Alek Wek

Alek Wek is one of the most successful supermodels of the past few decades. The South Sudanese born beauty has stood out since the 1990s thank to her beautiful skin, bone structure and of course, her signature bald look.

Source: Supplied by WENN.com / WENN

Danai Gurira

Danai Gurira, who played Okoye in Black Panther, shaved her hair off specifically for that role. She was delaying chopping off her curls as long as she could but when she did, she didn’t expect to be completely bald.

“I’ve had a short cut for a long time, but there’s a big difference between a short cut and dolphin-smooth bald,” she said on Jimmy Kimmel Live!  “At first, I was like, ‘Okay, this is good,’ but then the astounding Mr. Ken came in, who did my design on my head and he needed to get the mold of my skull, and he said, ‘Oh no. No, no, no. That’s not short enough.’ And he started to do a little shavey-shave.”

Source: FayesVision/WENN.com / WENN

Amber Rose

Amber Rose caught all of our attention over a decade over not only because she is a striking beauty but because of her platinum blonde baldie. Rose, who was inspired to go bald by Sinead O’Connor, said she was begged not to do it but rebelled and the rest was history.

“I think that I’d definitely seen Sinead O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ video,”  the mother-of-two told Refinery29 in 2016. “I was inspired by her. And I grew up in Philly… Eve was really popular, and my friends said, ‘Please don’t do it, Amber, you’re gonna look crazy.’ And, of course, me being me, I rebelled against everyone and went straight down the middle at a barber shop. Fourteen years later, I still have it.”