Mariah Carey recalls struggles to find hairdresser who could style natural hair

Mariah Carey has recalled her struggles to find a hairdresser who could properly style her natural hair.

In an interview with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex for her Archetypes podcast, the royal shared that she loved seeing the curly locks the superstar sported in the music video for her 1993 hit Dreamlover.

"People were saying, '(She's the) girl next door'... because there was also this ambiguity about me, racially, that fed into that, and those curls," Mariah reflected. "Here's the thing: They didn't know how to do my hair, because if it was a white hairdresser that had never dealt with textured hair, they would tend to do a different thing. And my hair would be like, 'Ahhh you're not doing that!'"

The Hero hitmaker went on to note that when she worked with hairstylists used to handling natural locks, they would often use "too much product".

In response, Meghan referred to her experience of having her tresses "shellacked" by "so much heavy hair grease" in the past, with stylists opting to "slick those roots down".

Elsewhere in the conversation, Mariah shared that "nobody" knew how to deal with her "baby hair" when she was growing up.

"I think sometimes when it's the other way around, you get the benefit of someone who's dealt with textured hair," the 53-year-old said, referring to having a white mother and Black father.

Meanwhile, Meghan - who is also biracial - explained that her natural hair is "so curly" and "so thick", but her maternal grandmother Jeanette always took charge of styling her strands.

"She'd go, 'Just hold on to the sink,' and I would grip my little hands on both sides," she sighed.