Oprah’s Stylist Andre Walker Goes from Shading Kinky Hair to Creating Kinky Hair Products

Remember Andre Walker? He’s Oprah’s hairstylist, famous for creating the hair typing system many women use today that puts Type 1 hair at the top, and Type 4 hair at the bottom. I’ve personally commented on the inherent discrimination against kinkier textured hair in his numbering system and I’m not the first to do so. Proving my point, Walker has thrown mega shade towards kinky hair in the past, calling it “the only hair type that I suggest altering with professional relaxing” since it has “limited styling options.” I don’t need to link to the dozens on BGLH articles featuring beautifully styled kinky hair to prove Walker wrong, do I?

But that’s old news. What’s new is that Andre Walker has seemed to recognize there was money to be made on natural hair move on from his old views and created a haircare product specifically for kinky hair: the Beautiful Kinks Styling Crème Gelee. He’s made no mention of his past remarks, but in a recent interview with with Naturally Curly, Walker said “it used to be that people looked at natural hair as unattractive or militant. It had all of these negative connotations. People wanted straight hair — the straighter the better. If you had kinky hair, that was bad hair. Today, kinky hair is considered beautiful. It’s something to be embraced.”

Considering there are even kinky hair models represented on Walker’s website where he sells his Gold Line of haircare products, it appears he no longer thinks kinky hair should be altered with relaxers. Or maybe he still thinks so, but wants a piece of that natural hair money pie.

FYI, the Beautiful Kinks Styling Crème Gelee has the same ingredients as every other kinky hair product on the market, but it’s $22: Water (Aqua), Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Cetearyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Polyquaternium-69, Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Schinziophyton Rautanenii (Mongongo) Kernel Oil, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Disodium EDTA, Citric Acid, Cetyl Alcohol, Polysorbate 60, Caprylyl Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Hexylene Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Fragrance (Parfum).

Do you think Andre Walker really understands and appreciates kinky hair, or is he just trying to make a buck off us?