The 2021 VMAs have presented us with a gold mine of traffic-stopping beauty looks, including but not limited to Kacey Musgraves’s feather headpiece, Jennifer Lopez’s voluminous waves, and Lil’ Nas X’s mullet — but we need to take a full pause to talk about Ashanti. The braid she wore at the September 12 ceremony might have looked like an average ponytail from the front, but there was definitely a party going on in the back. A very long party, at that.
You might not have caught it on the red carpet, but no one on Earth could have missed her braid when she stepped out to present an award and the tail end of it whipped all the way around to the front, then hit the floor — quite literally. In fact, Ashanti’s braid hit the floor and then wrapped slightly around her ankle. It is, more or less, longer than she is tall (and Ashanti, for the record, sits around 5’3″ without heels on).
Now, I can’t even imagine how many bundles of hair and hours it took to create this braid — whatever those numbers are, they sure as hell paid off. Because during her presentation, Allure‘s Slack VMA Slack channel immediately displayed the “multiple people are typing” message (in digital editor language, that means the really good stuff is going down).
So, while y’all are looking around at the floor beneath Ashanti’s perfectly pedicured toes, could y’all take a look around for my jaw? I’m going to need that back.
More from the 2021 VMAs:
Now, learn how to stream the Met Gala on September 14: