Keke Palmer says she hasn't always 'appreciated' her natural hair as she admits she often wears wigs

Keke Palmer hasn't always "appreciated" her natural hair.

The 31-year-old actress has a head of curly locks and while she now sports a plethora of "protective styles" by wearing wigs, it took her a "long time" to understand what her actual hair can do.

She told Vogue: "I am a girl that likes to do protective styles, which for me usually means a wig. And I think it took me a long time to get to the place of being able to really appreciate my hair and all its uniqueness and what it can do and only it can do."

The former Nickelodeon star noted that whenever she chooses to don a fake hairpiece now, it is something that she does completely out of choice to explore her options and this has meant she has developed a "different relationship" with her tresses.

She said: "Now when I wear a wig, it's not because I feel like I have to, but it's because I wanna do something different that I don't wanna do to my natural hair. And when I wear my natural hair, I actually have a different relationship with it."

The actress recalled that when she starred in 'Nope', director Jordan Peele wanted her to use her natural hair and that came as a surprise to her.

She said: "I remember when I did 'Nope', it was such a big thing when I was talking to Jordan, he was like, 'You know what? I think I want you to wear this hair for the movie.'

"And I'm like, 'You want me to wear this hair in a major motion picture?' And he was like, 'Yeah, I think that's what we need!'"