A beauty blogger has been blasted online for posting a photo of herself wearing a wig with pink dreadlocks.
Nikita Dragun, who describes herself as ‘half Mexican and half South East Asian’ has been accused of cultural appropriation by followers, after she shared the image of herself in the pink dreadlock wig while on vacation in Harajuku, Japan.
In the photo, the 22-year-old transgender Instagram star is posing with her hair down in long twists, wearing a plastic visor around her head while eating cotton candy. However despite the seemingly innocent context of the snap, it has been blasted as ‘rude’ and ‘disappointing’ by some.
Cultural appropriation: Blogger Nikita Dragun is under fire for posting a photo wearing a pink wig that resembles dreadlocks
Fury: The transgender Instagram star has been accused of cultural appropriation because of the wig, which she wore while posing for pictures during a trip to Japan
Trend setter: Wearing wigs is something that the 22-year-old does frequently, and she is often seen showcasing different hairstyles – and colors – on her Instagram account
Since posting her photo just a day ago it’s already accumulated almost 300,000 likes and 2,000 comments – many of which are seriously negative and call out the vlogger for appropriating black culture by wearing dreadlocks.
‘Girl ily but why you gotta appropriate culture?’ one fan of the blogger commented while someone else wrote, ‘Cultural appropriation is such a look nowadays don’t you think?’
One person questioned in the comments, ‘Why you gotta wear dreads tho?’ while another went so far to say: ‘This would be cute but you can’t wear dreads unless you’re black so please step off the cultural appropriation queen.’
Two other very annoyed fans wrote on her photo, ‘Seriously. Like wtf with the dreads,’ and ‘THE DREADS ARE A NO FROM ME SIS. Disappointing,’ said another upset user.
‘Your hair looks disgusting,’ a very mean comment read while someone else who got offended by her look wrote: ‘Not sure what’s so cute about appropriation but okay.’
Mean comments: In the photo, the 22-year-old is posing with her hair down in twists and people aren’t amused by her photo as one person even said she’s disrespectful
Defense: Some fans of the blogger came to her defense urging others to leave her alone
Viral: Since posting her photo just a day ago it’s already accumulated almost 300,000 likes and 2,000 comments – many of which are seriously negative
Nikita is wearing a wig by hairstylist, Daved Anthony Munoz, who also posted the photo of her with the caption: ‘Bed head, dred head, it’s twists. But seriously I simply love how Nikita allows me to play with her looks in so many ways and serving it up from baby pink pixies to multi pastels to baby twists .. and the list goes on … what’s next?’ he wrote.
Some of the other comments came from people who were calling her the new Logan Paul – the YouTuber who was bashed for posting a horrific video of a dead man hanging from a tree in Japan’s ‘suicide forest’.
‘Pulling a Logan Paul?’ someone wrote. ‘I thought you would at least be respectful of a culture you consider “yours,”‘ while someone else wrote, ‘Logan Paul who?’
Aside from calling out her hairstyle for cultural appropriation, many people were quick to say her manners in Japan were in poor taste.
This is not the first time that Nikita has worn dreadlocks and received slack for it – back in April she wore rainbow dreadlocks pulled halfway up to Coachella and some people berated her for the hairstyle choice.
While the accusations that Nikita was appropriating culture back in April were present, they weren’t as harsh as her most recent Instagram photo in the pink wig.
‘Cultural appropriation is a timeless trend at Coachella,’ a very sarcastic user commented while another woman wrote: ‘I don’t understand why people see nothing wrong with this. There’s black people who are disrespected and discriminated against every day for wearing dread locks. But when someone else does it it’s nice.’
Response: Nikita has not yet responded to all of the accusations and backlash she received on her photo
Japan: Nikita tweeted that she shouted to her YouTuber friend Joey Graceffa while on vacation and people got even more angry
Culture: After she tweeted that she yelled her friends name on a quiet train, users called out her behavior in the country rude
Rude: Another user said that being loud on a train is not acceptable in Japan and she should’ve respected that
Uh oh: One woman also compared her to Logan Paul, the YouTuber who got in trouble for posting a horrific video of a man hanging from a tree in Japan’s ‘suicide forest’
Nikita tweeted that she shouted to her YouTuber friend Joey Graceffa while on vacation, saying: ‘I just screamed happy birthday to Joey on a silent train and he wants to rip my wig off now haha.’
People immediately flooded her Twitter with comments saying it’s rude to be noisy on a train in Japan and one person even wrote, ‘In Japan it’s considered rude to be loud or cause a disruption on trains so I understand why he’d be mad.’
‘It’s actually a custom in Japan to be silent on trains. So you might wanna not scream on trains again. Just letting you know to respect the culture,’ another woman commented.
Despite all the hate about her hair, there were actually a few fans that came to her defense such as one user who wrote: ‘Having dreads in pink hair is inappropriate.? Wtf! Please let her live her life.’
‘Her hair is twists, not braids. Twists hold no cultural value,’ someone else chimed in while one girl wrote: ‘It’s just hair. Why do people have to be so negative all the time,’ and another person cleared the air writing: ‘Everyone commenting – these are twists, NOT dreadlocks.’
This is not the first time the transgender model has made headlines for cultural appropriation considering she was cast as in Jeffree Star’s Androgyny makeup palette campaign last year ans was accused of wearing blackface.