by Sharelle B. McNair
April 17, 2026
Because the article hit social media, Black ladies slammed the style publication for attempting to reshape a staple of Black tradition.
Vogue Journal is being slammed on social media for attempting to reframe the “Afro” as a “cloud bob” in an article highlighting hairstyles for thick hair.
In a now-removed part of the article with a picture of actress Tracee Ellis Ross with a surprising Afro minimize, Vogue tried to downplay the coiffure, describing it as a “cloud bob.”
“Outlined by hairstylist Tom Smith as a ‘rounded haircut with a gentle, ethereal silhouette,’ the cloud bob performs properly with wavy, curly, and coily thick hair that has pure motion and quantity,” the article mentioned. “In contrast to the sharp, architectural bobs of seasons previous, the model is mild, weightless, and characterised by its easy life and motion.”
Because the article hit social media, Black ladies slammed the style publication for attempting to reshape a staple of Black tradition. “It’s 2026, and so they’re calling an Afro a “cloud bob,” @lynda_ohhh wrote on X.
On Instagram, customers criticized Vogue for attempting to “gentrify” the coiffure.
“We’re not going to allow them to Christopher Columbus the Afro,” @msrobinmason mentioned.
“Rebranding a mode that’s not even yours to start with is so audacious it needs to be white,” @ellisdecor mentioned.
The crown of the Afro coiffure has donned the heads of Black ladies for many years. After being known as “nappy,” “woolly,” and “unruly,” the type grew to become fashionable within the 60s after activists resembling Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton, proudly rocked Afros to combat oppression, however later the coiffure grew to become an emblem for magnificence and delight.
“Black activists had been agitated with white supremacy and Jim Crow legal guidelines, and so they wished to point out an outward signal of their frustration towards Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent philosophy,” Chad Dion Lassiter, president of the Black Males at Penn College of Social Work, Inc. on the College of Pennsylvania College of Social Coverage and Apply, mentioned, in line with Ebony.
“The Afro was Black magnificence personified with out white validation, and it didn’t care about critics. For a lot of Black males, it was about cool pose and hyper-masculinity within the face of police brutality and fixed oppression.”
This isn’t the primary time {that a} publication has tried to downplay the Afro’s magnificence. In 2015, Attract printed a tutorial titled, “You (Sure, You) Can Have an Afro, Even If You Have Straight Hair,” that includes white actress Marissa Neitling.
Whereas Vogue has but to launch a press release concerning the backlash, Smith spoke out on Instagram, saying he was by no means briefed on the subject nor accepted the imagery.
“I didn’t present or approve the picture used,” Smith wrote. “The commentary attributed to me was initially shared in relation to a distinct haircut and was used right here in a distinct context with out my involvement or consciousness.”
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