Celebrity Hair

Melody Thornton of The Pussycat Dolls

I'm sure you guys are familiar with Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls. Well, there is another diva in the group that caught my eye. Her name is Melody Thornton, and she joined the group a little late in the game. Her tanned skin and blond hair stood out to me, and I assumed she was Latin. This blond diva is actually Latin American and African American, and her hair story is featured in the June/July issue of Sophisticate's Black Hair Styles and Care Guide (pg. 116).

I enjoyed reading Melody's story because it is very similar to mine (See My Hair Journey for details). She too incurred a lot of damage after a bad dye job and is trying to get her hair back on a healthy track. Below is a snippet of Melody's interview:

SBH: Tell us about your current hairstyle.
MT: Right now it's pretty long, and I'm wearing it in a ponytail. We add lots of pieces because my hair isn't that long, but my character [in the Pussycat Dolls] is the Black rocker chick with blond tips. I feel it suits me. I've grown up a lot in the Pussycat Dolls, and it's been a long ride. My last round [with the first CD] I really played up being the youngest member of the Pussycat Dolls. I was very young with T-shirts, little shorts and pigtails. I wanted to come back different this time -- rocking a really high ponytail, blond tips, the whole thing.

SBH: Tell us about your hair color change.
MT: It's very light! We're doing Balayage highlighting, blond on the tips and lighter on top of my natural hair. Not too many people are doing that right now. I always say if you want to be a trendsetter you have to be the one to do it first. Within the urban scene there haven't been too many people doing it. The blond tips get the dramatic feel I'm going for!

SBH: Why do you like to wear extensions?
MT: Extensions and pieces are good for stage, but in real life I like to do a partial weave with braids and wefts sewn in on the sides. I've had a lot of people damage my hair and I don't trust too many people. When I started with the Pussycat Dolls I had the longest hair in the world; the weave that I have now -- that's how long my hair was! It was dyed jet black, but they asked me if I would be the girl with long, light brown hair. I said, "Sure, I'll do that!" They bleached my hair six times in one sitting, and it all fell out.

SBH: That must have been traumatizing!
MT: Oh, it was awful! You know how we are with our hair! Everybody cried -- because I have friends that I grew up with who were trying to grow their hair as long as mine. I called them, and it was like a funeral. We gathered at my mom's house, and I walked in with a hat on. Everybody was like, "Let me see. It can't be that bad!" I pulled my hat off and literally I had these long strands of hair in front and a Rihanna cut in back. My sister cried, my mom cried and my friends cried. We went to the beauty salon and just cut it all off. I lost my hair, but I've been trying to grow it back for the past four years.

SBH: On the flip side, what's your best hair memory?
MT: I'm African-American and Latin-American, and I have naturally curly hair. My best memories are learning how to blow-dry my hair and straighten it myself and seeing how my hair could blow in the wind. My hair trauma helped me in a way because I can do my hair without the help of anyone. If all that trauma hadn't happened I wouldn't have been forced to learn how.

SBH: What kinds of things did you learn to do?
MT: I love to use home remedies. I grew up putting mayonnaise in my hair every Sunday. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like it really makes my hair grow. There's a lot of protein in it, and mayonnaise is made of eggs and oil so it's good for your hair! For my natural hair I use a deep conditioner by Rene Furterer. I wash my hair every week or two. I also love L'Oreal's Elnett hairspray. I have to have that for flexible hold.

SBH: Are there any hair tools you love to use?
MT: I have my trusty ceramic ionic blow-dryer. I also love my ceramic round brushes, and I always carry around two with me: a bigger one to get my hair straighter and then a smaller one for any of my little edges. I try to be careful with my flat iron because I have color-treated hair, but if I do use one, I use my CHI flat iron.

I think it's great that Melody is doing her best to recover from her hair trauma. I can only imagine how hard it can be to care for your hair when you work in an industry that requires your hair to be whipped all the time. I agree with her in that a negative experience can be the kick one needs to take the initiative to learn how to better care for one's hair. I think it's great that she is now working with extensions, because it will hopefully prevent further damage and help her tresses grow back.

Here's homegirl minus her PCD bandmates singing the vocals in the video for Go Too Far by Jibbs: