When FKA Twigs accepted her first-ever Grammy Award, her hair told a story long before she reached the microphone.
Styled in an anthurium red basketweave with spiked mullet locs, the look was arresting, deliberate, and deeply ancestral.
In a space where Black hair is often flattened into trends, Twigs used the Grammys to honor lineage, craftsmanship, and cultural memory.
The basketweave technique itself holds weight. Historically used in African and Afro-diasporic hair practices, basketweaving is a method rooted in patience, geometry, and care. It speaks to communal beauty rituals passed down through generations, hands braiding, parting, shaping identity strand by strand. By bringing this technique to the Grammys stage, Twigs reframed red carpet hair as a site of history rather than novelty.
Color amplified the message. Anthurium red, bold and symbolic, evoked vitality, sacrifice, and spiritual power. Against the traditional backdrop of award-show glamour, the shade refused neutrality. It demanded to be seen, much like Black hair traditions that have long been policed, misunderstood, or erased. The choice felt intentional: beauty not as softness, but as strength.
The spiked mullet locs added a futuristic edge, bridging past and present with ease. Locs themselves are a living archive, connected to resistance, spirituality, and self-definition across the Black diaspora. By reshaping them into a sculptural, almost avant-garde form, Twigs highlighted the evolution of Black hair without severing its roots. Innovation, here, didn’t replace tradition; it expanded it.
What made the moment resonate was its refusal to dilute meaning for mass appeal. This wasn’t hair styled to be “acceptable.” It was hair styled to be truthful. In doing so, Twigs joined a lineage of Black artists who use beauty as language, asserting that our aesthetics are intellectual, political, and worthy of reverence.
FKA Twigs’ Grammy hair look wasn’t just a win for style, it was a visual thesis. It honored Black hair as art, archive, and living history, reminding the world that when we show up fully rooted, we redefine what the spotlight is capable of holding.
In an industry still learning how to credit Black creativity, moments like this matter, documenting excellence on our own terms and insisting that cultural authorship remains visible, protected, and celebrated across generations with intention and pride always forward.
