Don't Touch My Hair
by Solange (featuring Sampha)

Album: A Seat at the Table (2016)
Charted: 91
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Songfacts®:

  • Solange celebrates here the style and beauty of black hair. Speaking during an interview with mother Tina Lawson and journalist Judnick Mayard for her website, Solange said:

    "Hair is incredibly spiritual, and, energetically, it really encompasses and expresses who we are. Obviously, my relationship with hair, being that I grew up literally in a hair salon, is very deep and very complex. I think that one of the things that I'm also trying to communicate through that song is the way that people see us through our hair.

    I feel like when I cut my hair and I decided to wear my hair natural, I didn't feel any more pro-Black or like I identified any more or less in my walk as a Black woman. That just wasn't my personal journey."
  • The song title refers to a small but insulting act where a Caucasian pats a black woman's hair. Though intended as a compliment, the action is viewed as demeaning as it makes them feel like a pet dog.
  • English singer Sampha joins Solange on the song. The London crooner also sung on Drake's Nothing Was The Same tunes "Too Much " and "The Motion" and Kanye West's Saint Pablo title track.
  • Solange performed this song during her debut appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 5, 2016. She also brought out Sampha to join her on the hook.

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