Gabby Douglas Doesn't Understand Why People Are Mad About Her Hair

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Gabby Douglas is fine with how her hair looked during the Olympic gymnastics all-around final, but even if she wanted it to look differently, there’s nothing she could have done. There are no stations to freshen up or breaks to look in a mirror in between events. A gymnast has to compete with the product she puts in her hair prior to the competition, and since anything put in that early is sweated out, there’s nothing that can be done to improve the quality. That’s why almost every female gymnast wears her hair slicked straight back in a ponytail.

That’s what the sixteen-year-old told US Weekly today in response to the growing controversy about her hairstyle choice. An overwhelming majority of Americans watched her performance with nothing but admiration. Unfortunately, a small segment of viewers, mostly African-American women, took to Twitter during the event to criticize Douglas for how poorly her hair looked. Apparently, they thought she should have stopped what she was doing, headed to the bathroom and put a little product in her hair before flipping around on the uneven bars.

Douglas’ mother raged about the controversy in an interview with Fashionista, but her daughter was much more reserved as she took a goofier and more lighthearted approach in dealing with the controversy.

"We rotate from event to event so there's no time for them to say 'Representing the USA, Gabrielle Douglas' and me to say 'Yeah, thanks!' as I'm brushing my hair. It's like, come on."

The only appearance that really matters is that of Douglas’ medal, which, for the record, looks gold.

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.