Beyoncé’s opening up about her struggle with psoriasis while reflecting on her hair journey.
In Essence’s March/April cover story, on newsstands February 27, Beyoncé, 42, explained that she has “many beautiful memories attached to [her] hair.”
“The relationship we have with our hair is such a deeply personal journey,” she told the magazine while promoting her new haircare line, Cécred. “From spending my childhood in my mother’s salon to my father applying oil on my scalp to treat my psoriasis— these moments have been sacred to me.”
Scalp psoriasis causes the body to overproduce new skin cells, leading the immune system to attack healthy cells. As a result, thick, scaly and dry patches of skin can develop.
“The conversations and debates in the salons and barbershops create a sense of community for the people who look to it as a retreat from their everyday lives,” she continued. “For them, it’s a place to feel beautiful and vent, laugh, share secrets and pass down wisdom. It’s the most consistent community gathering we have. It’s so important that it’s a sanctuary.”
Beyoncé explained that her previous experiences inspired the name of her brand.
“So I took the end of my name, Cé, and made it the beginning of the word sacred to create Cécred,” she said. “From my mother’s salon, daily rituals with my father, and years of experience in developing a hair care line, the journey has been just that: Cécred.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Beyoncé reflected on her decision to famously chop her hair into a pixie cut in 2013.
“I love how we associate a certain hairstyle with moments in our lives, like that short-hair moment,” she said. “I remember the day I decided to just cut all my hair off. I didn’t have a particular style in mind. It wasn’t an aesthetic choice, but it was a very big emotional transformation and metamorphosis that I was going through.”
Beyoncé made her hair transformation nearly one year after welcoming her and husband Jay-Z’s first child, Blue Ivy Carter, 12.
“So much of my identity as a performer has been connected to flowing hair. Cutting my hair off was me rebelling against being this woman that society thinks I’m supposed to be,” she said. “I was a new mother, and something about the liberation of becoming a mother made me want to just shed all of that. It was a physical representation of me shedding the expectations put upon me. I just wanted it off.”
Beyoncé noted her choice was “very intentional” and she “became super brave after,” saying, “It was the first step to many more audacious decisions I made in my life and my career that have led to who I am now.”
Beyoncé’s candid interview came days after she announced during the 2024 Super Bowl that she will release a country album. She teased new music during a commercial with Verizon, where she accepted a challenge from actor Tony Hale to break the internet. The video concluded with the artist saying, “OK, they ready, drop the new music.”
Following the commercial, she revealed Act II will drop on March 29. Along with the album announcement, Beyoncé released two tracks: “Texas Hold ’Em” and “16 Carriages.”
