A white woman by the name of Sarah Marantz Lindenberg recently did an interview with Fashion Magazine, where she claims she “came up” with a brand-new, innovative way to sleep. She calls it NiteCap, and it’s a silk head wrap you can wear to protect your hair while you catch some Z’s.
Amazing, right? What an idea! Except that it’s not new, nor innovative, and she’s rightfully getting dragged.
Per the article, the mother of two “got the idea” for the $100 bonnet while preparing for her wedding.
“There were products on the market but none of them had a functional and fashionable solution for me—synthetic fabrics that I felt did more damage, or horrible colours that I felt silly going to sleep in,” she says of her wacky idea. “It inspired me to create something of my own. Many people have told me that their grandmothers wrapped their hair, and my aunt recently told me that my great-grandmother wrapped her rollers in toilet paper after it was all styled and set.” The website also comes complete with a “how to wear” photo tutorial.
As we know, this is not a new idea, and nor will you ever find a bonnet in black beauty supply stores that cost $100. The benefits of sleeping with a silk bonnet or silk pillowcase have been around since the Age of Methuselah, and black women have had enough of the appropriation.
“Imagine being a black woman who has been described as “ratchet, hood and ghetto” for wearing a bonnet every night for DECADES to maintain her hair, when suddenly a white woman ‘invents’ a ‘nitecap’ and gets put in Forbes magazine,” one Twitter user wrote. “My black grandma who yelled at me for not keeping my bonnet on overnight is rolling in her damn grave, I just know it,” wrote another.
Read some of the reactions to NiteCap below.
So let me get something straight. A white woman is capitalizing on satin bonnets(FOR NINETY-EIGHT GOTDAMN DOLLARS) as if it’s some new thing she just invented. My black grandma who yelled at me for not keeping my bonnet on overnight is rolling in her damn grave, I just know it.
— Ambrosious✨🌈 (@ambi_moonchild) July 21, 2019
So a white woman “entrepreneur” is saying she more or less invented the satin bonnet after “discovering” the benefits thru her doctors and is now selling her ✌🏽invention ✌🏽for $100? Are you kidding me? When most Black women have been sleeping w/ their hair in bonnets 4 decades? https://t.co/xRcJ934gZh
— God-is Rivera (@GodisRivera) July 21, 2019
Imagine being a black woman who has been described as “ratchet, hood and ghetto” for wearing a bonnet every night for DECADES to maintain her hair, when suddenly a white woman “invents” a “nitecap” and gets put in Forbes magazine. They done gentrified the bonnet 🤦🏾♀️
— Ashela (@california11ac) July 26, 2019
To the white woman who claims she created the silk bonnet, Sarah Marantz, here is a picture of Harriet Tubman in her’s more than 100 years ago.
They’d hate to see it lmaoo pic.twitter.com/fb0jq287wO
— Jailain (@jailainhollon) July 24, 2019
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