Kelis shares video of two women touching her hair without permission while in Singapore

American R&B singer-songwriter Kelis, best known for her smash single ‘Milkshake’, has posted a video of two women in Singapore touching her hair, supposedly without permission.

The video – which was filmed in late September while the singer was in town to perform over the F1 Singapore Grand Prix weekend as part of the Mandala Weekender lineup – made its way onto Instagram over the weekend with the caption “I don’t even know what to say here”.

In the video, Kelis can be seen at an undisclosed coffee shop in the city-state as two women touch her hair, discussing amongst themselves about its length and if it was real. Kelis is visibly uncomfortable in the footage, and tries to play it off by touching one of the women’s hair and striking up a conversation with her.

The woman seemingly responds in Mandarin, and goes back to touching Kelis’ braids as the singer conceded with an exasperated smile. Kelis’ friend then jokingly tells the singer to “embrace it”, leading Kelis to sigh and respond “Oh, I like to be touched” sarcastically.

Watch the uncomfortable clip below.

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A post shared by Kelis (@kelis)

Kelis would later go on to explain in the comments of the post that she reacted uncomfortably to the incident as “First, I was caught off-guard. Second, they were enamoured, as they should be”.

Multiple commenters on Kelis’ post pointed out that it was rude of the two women to touch Kelis’ hair without permission. Others pointed out that no woman should have her hair touched without permission, especially African-American women, given the symbolism and values tied to Black hair.

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