One creator,Sam Gomezrecently went viral for fighting back against the ‘clean girl aesthetic.’ As she danced, text displayed over her video stating: “You say slick hair and gold hoops is the clean girl aesthetic, I say its historic Latina culture.” Comments like “It went from ‘ghetto’ to ‘clean girl’ really fast!,” “So we’ve been rocking ‘clean girl’ this whole time?! Nah, where is our cut?” came pouring in.
Let’s be clear: I’m not saying that BIPOC women have exclusive ownership of this look. Anyone can wear hoops and low buns. It’s just that historically, when Black and Brown women wore their hair back and showed off their jewelry, it was deemed “trashy,” “dirty,” and “ghetto.” Many of us have memories of our moms, aunts and grandmas pulling our hair back before school and getting ridiculed for our styles by the other kids. But now that a few white women have claimed the look as a trend on TikTok, it seems to hold an entirely new meaning.