I’m A Black Journalist & When My Hair Went Viral, I Became The Story

As a journalist and presenter, I'm constantly having viral moments. I'll deliver a news story, and millions of people will see it, and that's just the norm, the day-to-day, but I'm not necessarily the topic of that viral moment. Yet after a recent news report I made was posted online, millions of people were talking about my appearance on social media — my “bad hair day” at work — and then that became the conversation, people made videos about it, and shared their own ideas of what went on. It’s not something I expected. 

On 28 March 2025, I headed into the BBC offices in London, where I present the news for the broadcaster’s social media pages. We'd been alerted that there was a tragic earthquake in Myanmar, and when things like that happen, it’s all hands on deck — everyone is working to ensure we cover the story as well as possible. As well as reporting on the tragic event, I was scheduled to interview professional wrestler Tiffany Stratton on location that day, but the main aim was to make sure that we were covering the earthquake and the fatalities. It meant that I was quite rushed for time, leaving no time for hair and makeup. I rushed over to the interview and was aware that my hair didn't necessarily look as well as I'd wanted. It was my first time trying a sew-in with a leave-out, and to be honest, I do think the humidity had a massive effect, because when I first arrived at the office, my hair was laid and slayed! But that's the thing, when you straighten your natural hair, you just don't know what it’s going to do.

The interview was posted online on April 1 and soon went viral, and thousands of people commented on how my hair looked. It is a shame, because the story was about women's empowerment and women in sport. I spoke to a champion in her field, and people weren't able to take from that when they saw the video. 

I didn’t notice the comments at first. When I finally did, some of them were quite funny, but as the post blew up, it got more hateful and abusive. When I noticed the hate growing, I needed to make sure people knew that it is never okay, so I posted a video to my TikTok page, @jonelleawomoyi, in response to nip it in the bud. 

People know it's wrong, even when they try to disguise abusive comments as “banter”. When you’re in the public eye, many people have the assumption that because you chose this public lifestyle, if you get praise, then you should also expect negativity. And some feel like they have a right to hold public-facing people accountable. But there’s an obvious line. 

In general, women are subject to a lot of criticism based on the way they look. And when you think about that intersectionally, when it comes down to race and gender, it seems Black women are under heavier scrutiny when it comes to the way we look. There are massive billion-pound industries that are making money from us having these high standards for the way we present ourselves, so I understand where this comes from. 

Growing up as Black women, there can be pressures to have our hair “on point” and “laid” — and I'm using these words specifically because they emphasise just how culturally significant our hair is. So, it was disheartening seeing that a lot of the comments on the video were coming from Black women. Still, I did try and approach those criticising me with some compassion. A lot of people have internalised negative messages they've received based on the way they look, and then they project those messages onto other people. However, whilst I have compassion, I had to make it clear that the comments were still wrong, regardless of the reasoning behind them.

A while back, I posted a video on TikTok of me doing a news report with my natural hair and then going on a walk — the wind just blew it out of the way! It’s one of those things: when I get to my destination, I have no idea how I'm going to look. But that's fine, because it’s just hair at the end of the day. We all have different hair types, and different hair types will do different things in different environments — as Black women, we all know that. If you have type 4 hair, you're going to be aware that when you straighten it or curl it, and you go into a different environment, there's a possibility that it won't look the same way that you styled it originally. We should give each other grace.

In my role as a journalist, there is no one way of presenting myself. I’ve had many different hairstyles when presenting the news. Right now, I have Fulani boho braids, I’ve tried stitch braids, red braids, half up and half down and wore my natural hair all while presenting the news. I know that other Black news presenters may not have felt welcomed when wearing their natural hair, and hair discrimination in the workplace is a common issue many Black women have faced, but I've not had that issue. I present myself in a way that I feel comfortable and I feel true to myself. What's interesting is that when I first got my job in TV, I had long blonde braids. Maybe because my work is aimed at younger audiences on social media, I have never felt my hair was a hindrance to me within this space. 

Regardless, I don't think we should steer the conversation to telling Black women how to wear their hair in any setting — many people were prescribing me different hairstyles to try — that's just not the point here. 

For me, it's an empowering thing to be a Black woman working in journalism, connecting with diverse communities and trying to push conversations that matter. We're lucky enough to live in a country where we have free press, but there are female journalists in Yemen, in Afghanistan, in Nigeria, in Sudan who will face terrible consequences based on doing their job in general, let alone how they present themselves. It's really important that we remember how important journalism is and how lucky we are to have free press where we're allowed to report on things; in some countries, they’re not necessarily given those same freedoms.

I also think it's good that we're now questioning ourselves a bit more about how we post online, how we're using the online spaces we're given, because it is so powerful to have an online forum where everyone in the world can get involved in conversation. 

Rough hair days happen. And I hope as Black women we're giving ourselves and other people grace, especially on the basis of how they look — if someone's hair's not done, is it really that important?

Jonelle Awomoyi is a BBC journalist, presenter and producer