On Monday morning’s (December 5) episode of Despierta América on Univision, Dominican host Francisca Lachapel spoke from the heart when she explained that she had decided to cut her hair on live TV as a statement on today’s beauty standards.
When she was a little girl, Lachapel said she believed that she was “ugly” because people said she had “bad hair.” Lachapel carried that weight on her shoulders growing up.
“Today, I want to make peace with my inner child and give her a gift and to tell her that she’s beautiful in all ways,” she said on the show. “That she was sent to this world perfect. Today, I free myself. It’s a very important day for me. I want to apologize to that girl for having thought that those who looked like her could not achieve anything amazing.”
Lachapel said that when she was 11, she asked her mother if she could have a hair straightener because she wanted to straighten her curly hair. Now, she is at a point in her life where she can look back on her childhood and embrace the little girl who was told she wasn’t beautiful because of her hair.
“I want to accept the Francisca that God sent to this world,” she said. “I want to embrace her. And I want to ask her [that inner child] permission for calling her ugly.”
Lachapel then let down her hair and was provided with a pair of scissors to cut a piece of it off. She then had the rest cut backstage.
“All I want is for a girl that looks like me today, to understand that she doesn’t have to fit into a mold,” she said.
While Lachapel’s act on live TV felt genuine to many, others criticized it as a gimmick and wondered why Despierta América had to make the event so dramatic. “We all have traumas that we went through as children but reaching this extreme, well I don’t know,” one Instagram user wrote.
Another critic wrote: “You keep wasting your time on these antics. What a shame. You better get to pray for all the people who are in hospitals with cancer or other diseases and for their families who are suffering; not for people who live the reality of TikTok.”
While most of us could’ve gone without the melodramatic piano music playing in the background, Francisca Lachapel sharing her story will be worth it if even one little girl sees the segment and realizes that what she said is true. Beauty is internal and forgiveness of self