April 17, 2026
What Is A ‘Cloud Bob’?! Vogue Tries To Rename The Afro And Black Women Are Fed Up
As the article hit social media, Black women slammed the fashion publication for trying to reshape a staple of Black culture.
Vogue Magazine is being slammed on social media for trying to reframe the “Afro” as a “cloud bob” in an article highlighting hairstyles for thick hair.
In a now-removed section of the article with an image of actress Tracee Ellis Ross with a stunning Afro cut, Vogue attempted to downplay the hairstyle, describing it as a “cloud bob.”
“Defined by hairstylist Tom Smith as a ‘rounded haircut with a soft, airy silhouette,’ the cloud bob plays well with wavy, curly, and coily thick hair that has natural movement and volume,” the article said. “Unlike the sharp, architectural bobs of seasons past, the version is light, weightless, and characterized by its effortless life and movement.”
As the article hit social media, Black women slammed the fashion publication for trying to reshape a staple of Black culture. “It’s 2026, and they’re calling an Afro a “cloud bob,” @lynda_ohhh wrote on X.
On Instagram, users criticized Vogue for trying to “gentrify” the hairstyle.
“We’re not going to let them Christopher Columbus the Afro,” @msrobinmason said.
“Rebranding a style that is not even yours to begin with is so audacious it has to be white,” @ellisdecor said.
The crown of the Afro hairstyle has donned the heads of Black women for decades. After being referred to as “nappy,” “woolly,” and “unruly,” the style became popular in the 60s after activists such as Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton, proudly rocked Afros to fight oppression, but later the hairstyle became a symbol for beauty and pride.
“Black activists were agitated with white supremacy and Jim Crow laws, and they wanted to show an outward sign of their frustration toward Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent philosophy,” Chad Dion Lassiter, president of the Black Men at Penn School of Social Work, Inc. at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice, said, according to Ebony.
“The Afro was Black beauty personified without white validation, and it did not care about critics. For many Black men, it was about cool pose and hyper-masculinity in the face of police brutality and constant oppression.”
This isn’t the first time that a publication has attempted to downplay the Afro’s beauty. In 2015, Allure published a tutorial titled, “You (Yes, You) Can Have an Afro, Even If You Have Straight Hair,” featuring white actress Marissa Neitling.
While Vogue has yet to release a statement regarding the backlash, Smith spoke out on Instagram, saying he was never briefed on the topic nor approved the imagery.
“I did not provide or approve the image used,” Smith wrote. “The commentary attributed to me was originally shared in relation to a different haircut and was used here in a different context without my involvement or awareness.”
RELATED CONTENT: Ulta Beauty Salon Sued For Allegedly Telling Black Mother, Daughter It Doesn’t Do Their ‘Kind Of Hair’
