The international beauty icon that is Meghan Markle is renowned for her grace and flawless appearance, but is her thick, black hair natural, or does she wear a wig?
Meghan Markle does not wear a wig, but she has been known to wear hair extensions. The actress, humanitarian and philanthropist (and member of the British Royal family) naturally has flowing, wavy hair that is aided a little in length and volume by high-end extensions.
The Hair Necessities
It’s a broad and well-known fact that people – particularly women – in the public eye, are deeply scrutinized for almost every aspect of their day to day life. This can include the things they eat and the hobbies they enjoy, to the way they dress and how they style their appearance, hair or otherwise. It’s an unfortunate fact that this can lead to very judgemental or critical comments from some parties about particular people, whether they’re actors, musicians or – in Meghan Markle’s case – royalty.
The graceful and svelte Meghan Markle is of mixed heritage, with a caucasian father and African American mother, something which relays quite clearly in her appearance. She has darker skin, but what some may consider more caucasian facial features. She has actually gone on file explaining the issues this created for her earlier on in her acting career, saying she: “wasn’t black enough for the black roles, and wasn’t white enough for the white roles.”
One of these more ‘traditional’ caucasian features is her hair – straight or wavy, and thinner than African hair. Regardless of its nature, Meghan obviously spends a lot of time, attention and money on her hair, as it never fails to look flawless in her royal engagements, or on screen. She’s worn it in a wide range of styles, adapting to the particular circumstance she finds herself in, and it always compliments the ever-present sense of style about her.
One article explored the potential methodology behind Markle’s straighter hair, suggesting she may be invested in chemical straightening procedures, or that she may use ‘relaxers’ in her hair, to battle the natural curliness within. It’s likely that procedures such as this may be harsh on human hair, leading Markle down that path of needing to supplement her existing hair with extensions.
Inevitable Criticism
In 2019, at another Royal engagement, Meghan Markle was spotted by eagle-eyed fans wearing hair extensions – potentially quite obvious and poorly-fitting ones. As you might expect, plenty of people took to social media to call her out on this, suggesting that she either didn’t need them because her hair was naturally beautiful, or that she didn’t have them professionally applied and she looked silly. This draws back to the aforementioned comments of celebrity scrutiny that we have seen all too often online in recent years, especially with the overwhelming swell of social media.
This wasn’t the first time Markle was called out for wearing hair extensions though, as in her engagement photo shoot with British Royal Prince Harry she was suspected of also wearing hair extensions then.
One publication ran valiantly to the defense of Markle after one too many judgemental comments however, stating that she was being criticized for doing things that are completely natural for women – or in many cases anybody – to do. To list a few examples, Markle was judged for ‘touching her pregnant stomach’, ‘wearing too much black’, and even ‘having too much energy’.
These comments culminated in one large defensive article, focused primarily on the (at that time) most recent comments regarding Meghan Markle’s use of hair extensions, one of which read, “… she can’t even see past her new wig…” Regardless of whether or not Meghan Markle supplements her hair on a regular or sporadic basis, the point still stands that she’s an icon of beauty and an inspiration to many women worldwide.