Getting to the roots of “Becky with the good hair” in Beyoncé’s Lemonade

This chapter explores the aesthetics of pop star Beyoncé’s hairstyle choices throughout her entertainment career and especially in her audiovisual album Lemonade, including her stand-alone video for the single “Formation.” It further interrogates the racial and sexual politics behind the most memorable line from Lemonade—“you better call Becky with the good hair”—and examines how Beyoncé navigates the racial color lines of “black,” “white,” and “Creole” through creative hair expressions: from tignon headwraps and hoodies to cornrows and weaves. Far from representing a simplistic “wannabe white” narrative or reiterating “angry black woman” stereotypes, Beyoncé subverts the aesthetics of whiteness and white femininity in her reproduction of the versatility of black women’s hair politics.