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Tiffany Haddish

Source: Warner Media / Turner

When I popped into Tiffany Haddish’s Zoom breakout room, I instantly felt a friendly connection with the comedian and actress. “Hey, D’Shonda,” she said all Tiffany-like. Her custom background was filled with sparkles – just like her kindred personality – and her hair was in blonde finger waves with a hint of coil that allowed her natural hair texture to peek through. Of course, I had to ask how she was because I wanted to gauge her spirit to see if she inside matched what was presented to me.

“There’s a multitude of things weighing on me, so I’m going to go with a blessed and highly favored,” Haddish said. “To whom much is given, much is required, but I don’t feel like nobody gave me nothing, but there’s still a whole lot required because I’ve worked my ass off for everything.”

Speaking of working her ass off for everything, the Night School star secured a new bag on TBS by the name of Friday Night Vibes. The show, which premiered June 18th with Creed and Creed II starring Michael B. Jordan, is described as a “52- week movie destination where culture meets entertainment, featuring feel-good comedies, high-octane movies, and inspiring stories,” but for Tiffany, it’s all about the good vibes and fun times rolling. Just like her movie nights at home, there will be music playing in the background, a time to have a conversation with your girlfriends during a movie break, and space and opportunity to grab some snacks and a drink from your home bar.

Ahead of the premiere, I had the pleasure and honor of connecting with the Grammy-winning actress and comedian herself on behalf of HelloBeautiful about being comfortable in her own “meat suit” of a body, how social media alters your perception of reality and style and fashion confidence.

On being confident in what she wears:

It depends on where my body at. Let’s be honest. I feel very confident in what I’m in right now. I think it’s like silk and polyester mixed or something. I like to rewear my clothes because I feel like I pay so much money for them, I like to rewind them. I wore this at a premiere that I did two years ago, and this thing is so big for me now. I’m so proud. Whatever I’m comfortable in is what I’m most likely to wear. With clothes, not only are they supposed to cover your private parts, but you should feel good in them. If you don’t feel good in it, why are you wearing it? Unless it’s a uniform for work.

Now some people do be wearing things that I don’t think they should be wearing. Mo’Nique was talking about the bonnets in the airport and all that stuff, and I agree with her on that. You spend all this money for an airplane ticket, you might as well get dressed up because you never know. I was always taught to make sure your drawers are clean and you look decent, especially when you’re moving and traveling around because if something happens to you when they got to cut your clothes off, you want to be decent. It’s about respecting yourself. I ain’t going to lie to you, I run out in the streets in my bonnet sometimes just to run to the store real quick but we got to have some dignity in ourselves. When you dress a certain way, it tells people how you feel about yourself.

On falling in love with her own body:

I stopped caring about beauty standards probably like seven or eight years ago, but then things take off and you have to do the red carpet. When you see me on regular days, I have no makeup, I‘m comfortable in basic. When my body started getting bigger, I became uncomfortable. Anything that changes on my body is because I physically put the work in. I did the walking. I did the running. I did the pushups. I did the whatever. I built up my muscles and everything. That’s the healthy way to go about it. I changed my diet a little bit, drank lots more water, and just figuring out what works for my body.

On social media promoting the use of filters:

When you go on social media, you see these people that don’t even look like that in real life. They put a filter. I got a filter on right now. I’ll turn this filter off, I’m going to still look exactly the same. It’s just going to be no sparkle. Other people put all these filters on, they pull their waists in and they do all this stuff. They mess with your mind and make you think, “Dang, what am I doing wrong? What’s wrong with me?” 

If you just walk outside and look around your community, you’ll see that a lot of people are just like you. You’re okay the way you are. If you got a man, you’re fine until he tells you otherwise – and still he better watch what he says. As long as you feel comfortable inside this meat suit, this your meat suit. God gave you one; you decide how to use it. If you feel comfortable in it, then rock with it. If you don’t feel comfortable, make changes. I would suggest you do active work first before you go under somebody’s knife.

On Black women embracing their sexy:

It’s important that we know that it’s okay to be sexy. It’s okay to claim your power, but you do not have to allow people to sexualize you. If they are sexualizing you, it’s because you are sexy. You’re beautiful, damnit. There are people out here going under the knife to try to look like us. They’re getting injections trying to look like us. 

If anything, you should be proud. Anytime somebody is like, “Tiffany, your booty so big,” I say, “Yep, and you’re trying to get a big booty like me. So what?” I love my legs – every little wrinkle in it, all the cellulite. I love it. It’s melting away slowly but surely because I’m going through a transformation.

 

The grand return of the Melanin Awards amplifies and honors the finest Black-owned beauty brands with honest reviews, and discusses the evolution of beauty in Hip-Hop culture.