Priscilla Renea, better known as Muni Long, has certainly made a name for herself since stepping out of the shadows of songwriting, and into the spotlight of her own solo music career.
The “Hrs & Hrs” singer recently sat down with Coveteur, to share more behind her career’s transition and how she actually learned to care for her natural hair.
“When I was in eighth grade, I was living in Washington D.C. – my dad was in the Navy, so we moved around a lot – and I got a perm at my best friend’s house,” she shared. “My mom said no, but I wanted it anyway.”
Long went ahead with the perm, but her friend’s mother left the solution in her hair for too long and all of her hair fell out.
“I was trying to swoop my hair to cover up the bald spots, but it just kept falling out in clumps,” she shared. “So my mom grabbed a pair of scissors and cut off all my hair. I remember going to school after the haircut and walking down the stairs to go to lunch. There was a girl with long, beautiful hair standing at the top of the stairs.”
“She saw me and in front of all my classmates said, ‘My little brother’s got more hair than you.’ I went to the bathroom and cried,” she said.
This experience pushed Long to learn how to do her own hair. She started wearing microbraids and installing her own weaves, with the gull of never wanting anyone to touch her head ever again.
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A skill that was born from a traumatizing experience actually became a way for Long to make money – she started doing the hair of her high school classmates and said her favorite style to sport was “Beyoncé braids.”
When asked what her favorite thing is about her career now, she says it’s being able to just be herself.
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“I’m actually wearing the clothes I have in my closet. I’m doing my hair and makeup the way I want it done,” she shared. “I don’t feel like I have to put on a persona or anything. It’s just another outlet of creative expression for me.”