Earlier this month, Jay-Z took the stage at The Roots Picnic in Philadelphia. But, something was different. In fact, the one thing that’s defined his appearance for the past eight years was completely gone: his locs. Instead, he unexpectedly debuted his natural afro in all its glory. Now, Beyoncé’s sharing just how she—and Cécred—did it.
“Everyone wants to know the details of Jay’s hair transformation,” Beyoncé narrated in a Cécred YouTube video titled “The Blueprint.” While his afro was a surprise to his fans, Beyoncé knew he’d been planning on ditching his wicks months before. “His dad used to rock a ‘fro, so he wanted to rock a ‘fro in his honor,” she said. However, “I wasn’t all the way convinced that he would be able to comb out his locs considering he had such thick, long wicks,” she added. In fact, she admitted she initially didn’t really want him to comb them out at all. “Hair grows, people grow, so the transformation can be emotional.”
In part, because he’d been locing his hair for over eight years, a process he started to show his daughter, Blue Ivy, how similar their hair textures were. “Our daughter was about five and she wasn’t feeling very confident about her hair at that time,” Beyoncé recalled. “When she told her father that, it inspired Jay to grow out his hair.” With the help of his hairstylist Nakia Collins and loc specialist Letisia Ravelo, the key to Jay’s healthy hair, according to Bey, was how consistently he used Cécred products (and religiously shampooed his hair). “It was in immaculate condition,” Bey said, which is how he managed to retain his length and density even after having his locs all combed out.
Take a look at Jay-Z’s full hair transformation process, as narrated by Beyoncé, below.
Step 1 — Saturate & Pick
“We started at the bottom of the loc and worked our way higher and higher until we got to the base, which was the hardest to detangle,” Bey said of the very first step in the process. Here, they generously saturated his hair with water and the Cécred Detangling Spray (they went through three entire bottles!). While the high-slip spray was the most used product in his hair transformation and reapplied rigorously, as was the Parting Tail Comb, which detangled his hair in a bottom-to-top, diagonal line technique.
Step 2 — Cocktail Your Products
Once a wick was combed out, they used the Vented Paddle Brush to distribute products onto the big, detangled section of hair. “We mixed the Detangling Spray with the Moisturizing Deep Conditioner and our Moisture Sealing Lotion,” Bey said, which added extra slip to his hair. “It gave us the right amount of water, oil, and hydration to detangle.” For the parts with the most build up, the Hair & Scalp Balm was used to break down his toughest sections. Bey would even massage his hair with it for an hour or two until she could gradually separate his hair with just her fingers. “It was always a great accomplishment when you could finally break that wick apart,” she said.
Step 3 — Steam & Let Sit
Using a steamer to help the products penetrate even deeper made his hair easier to detangle. However, “the key ingredients are patience and love,” Bey said. “When it got challenging, we just used more products and I found that you didn’t have to be as aggressive,” she affirmed, sometimes leaving products to saturate his hair, and specifically his roots, overnight.
Step 4 — Reset Your Curls
It took six days to comb out Jay’s wicks. By then, “we spent another day detangling and really deep conditioning,” Bey said. So, she blew out his hair, trimmed his ends, then gave him one final wash before his hairstylist used the Wrap & Set Foam to braid his cornrows. Finally, the finishing touch was adding oil, balm, and the Moisture Sealing Lotion. Unbraided and picked out for The Roots Picnic, Jay-Z’s afro was finally a spitting image of his late father, Adnis Reeves.
“I want to thank Jay for trusting Cécred on his hair journey,” Bey said. “He is forever the blueprint.”
