Gabrielle Union Shares Why She Ditched 'Cornrows' & 'Hair Beads'

Gabrielle Unions talked about why she changed her hairstyle when she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area when she was young.

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She said in an interview: “Most people think of the Bay Area as having a lot of diversity, but the town we moved [to] was 99.9 percent white.”

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That said, Union “just wanted to fit in."

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The actress then changed the way she looked to achieve her goal.

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She recalled: “I wanted swoop, swinging hair and in order to get that I needed a relaxer.”

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Union added: “I had to convince my mom, and I'm sure she thought, 'What's the worst that can happen? They've been around forever.'"

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Union also noted that she “didn't care about my hair health” at the time and would “try to leave the relaxer on as long as possible.”

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But she realized that what she’s doing was wrong.

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However, Union had a hard time letting go of the relaxers, even describing it as one of the “hardest breakups ever.”

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