‘Young, Famous and African’ cast dragged for poor quality wigs

Africa’s first Netflix reality show Young, Famous & African is taking the world by storm and while most people are focused on the entertainment provided by the show, the show’s American viewers can’t seem to take their eyes off the cast members’ wigs. 

Described as ​both a reality series and a real-life soap opera, Young, Famous & African follows a group of young, affluent and famous A-list media personalities as they navigate life, love and work while being famous. 

The cast features names like South African rapper Nadia Nakai, Nigerian superstar 2Baba, broadcaster Andile Ncube, businesswoman Zari “The Boss Lady” Hassan, media personality Khanyi Mbau and Metro FM DJ Quinton “Naked DJ” Masina. 

The show went live on 18 March and was made available globally at the same time to more than 214 million subscribers in over 190 countries and most of them seem to think South Africans have bad wigs.

Taking to Twitter and TikTok in the days following the show’s premiere, various viewers expressed their shock at the poor quality of the lace wigs worn by the cast of Young, Famous & African. 

“So I’m currently watching this show on Netflix called Young, Famous & African, and I’ma say, I don’t care about the backlash, what’s up with these wigs? This is the worst wigs I’ve ever seen in my life,” said American TikTok user @champbailie.

She went on to state that her feelings had been hurt by the quality of wigs worn by Khnayi Mbau and her co-stars and joked that she was so traumatized that she might never wear a wig again.

She made a follow-up video for her followers who asked to see some of the wigs and she filmed a montage featuring Khanyi Mbau, Nadia Nakai and Annie Idibia as examples of wigs which she said looked like they were “straight from the beauty supply” store. 

Another TikTok user, @zemyfenty pointed out how Khanyi Mbau’s wig had even slipped back in another scene leaving the cornrows she had under the wig showing on screen. 

Over in South Africa, local Twitter users said they were not even going to defend the cast as the criticism was justified. 

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