She also talked about her decision to have the conversation with Matt during an episode of the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast.
“I just think that as women, and especially as Black women, so much of our self-worth is tied to our hair,” Chelsea explained. “And I don’t know if a lot of people realize that or understand that, especially as far as Black women go, and I mean it was just a really big deal to me, so that’s obviously something that I wanted to share with somebody who I am potentially going to end up with, my partner.”
She then noted she hadn’t seen these conversations come up on the show before.
“I watched the show since I was younger and there haven’t been that many Black contestants or there hasn’t been a Black Bachelor lead. Nobody’s going on there talking about their hair journey,” Chelsea added. “And I think that some people might have—hopefully they don’t anymore—but might see it as trivial because it’s like, ‘Oh it’s just hair.’ And, like, even for a while, I felt like that. I felt like it wasn’t important enough for me to bring up to people or it wasn’t, like, a big enough insecurity to be, like, valid. And then it wasn’t until I decided to shave it off that I realized how important it was and how much of an effect it had on me.”