Last week, on-air beauty expert Deepica Mutyala found herself in hot water after her live hair tutorial went viral. The Today segment, entitled “One-Minute Summer Hair," featured Mutyala styling model Malyia MacNaughton’s natural hair into a side ponytail.
Commenters on Facebook were quick to criticize Mutyala, claiming that the vlogger had no knowledge of how to style MacNaughton's natural hair. And Mutyala responded swiftly in a comment on her Instagram with a heartfelt apology. MacNaughton even backed her up, crediting the weather and lack of time, products, and tools for the mishap — not Mutyala.
But where most would stop there, Mutyala took it one step further and produced a video where she called upon three natural-hair experts, Tiarra Monet, Akilah Hughes, and Kamie Crawford, for a shot at a redo. The three poke fun at Mutyala's viral disaster before showing her how to style MacNaughton’s gorgeous hair and offering up some gems of styling wisdom.
The first thing Mutyala learns? Styling natural hair takes time — a fact that was drastically overlooked in her one-minute segment. The ladies go on to discuss their experiences with going natural, tips and tricks for caring for natural strands, and the importance of everyone expanding their beauty education.
They finish by sitting Mutyala down in the chair and playfully enacting their "revenge." A minute later, she's is rocking the fluffy, messy side-ponytail that got her into this position in the first place. The entire video is fun, thoughtful, and refreshingly self-aware — and viewers agreed.
In the hours since posting the video on YouTube and Facebook, Mutyala has received a wave of positive feedback. "I'm so happy you took this on as a learning challenge and an opportunity to educate others rather than be upset. Kudos to you," YouTube user ItsTerriLove wrote.
"Seriously so proud of you! All the ladies are so stunning and [I] love their hair," added YouTube user Sharifa Easmin-Kabir.
We're proud of Mutyala for being humble enough to acknowledge her need for help — and for creating a video that does more than apologize. It promotes education and real change. “We’re all in the same boat,” Monet says in the video. “Whatever your hair language is, you perfect it, find what works for you, embrace it, and just own it. It’s a conversation that needs to be had.”