00:00Look at this. This is... Can I say f***? I probably can't say f*** or if I already know. Got
00:06it.
00:06Hi, my name is Monae Exchange from RuPaul's Drag Race and we're here in my wig closet.
00:16Wigs are very important to any drag persona because a wig has a lot of character.
00:21A wig is what type of diva that you're gonna be that day. I normally start with the hair
00:25and then I figure out what the rest of the outfit is gonna be because a wig can make or
00:29break a look.
00:33Now look at this good time girl. I like to call her Shaterika. She was your RA. Fresh from the
00:38sophomore
00:39year in college, but she would not write you up if she caught you. You know what I mean? She
00:42was a cool
00:43down chick. Lots of girls will wear natural hair in drag and I'm like, I love it. I think natural
00:48hair
00:48is beautiful. So I have lots of natural variations. Look at this top mount. Isn't it ridiculous?
00:57This is bad two knots girl. When I have this on my head you cannot tell me it is not
01:00sprouting from my scalp.
01:02Okay, this is giving you Jada Pickett in the Matrix Niobe Realness.
01:08This is Courtney or Ashley or Kelsey or Mary Kate. See this like messy little top knot bun mom.
01:17I put this on when she wants to feel fun and frilly. I'm gonna have cocktails with the girls.
01:24If you watch RuPaul's Drag Race, you know what this wig is. This is my promo here for All-Stars
01:304.
01:30I wanted to do something fun, something that I thought that no one else would do.
01:34And I'm very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very inspired by Grace Jones.
01:39I think that Grace Jones is a style icon in every sense of the word.
01:44My wig guide, Domino Couture, can literally create any hair.
01:48And we got this icy pompadour fantasy. Like, I'm obsessed.
01:56If I had to look at this wall of wigs, you can send a couple of your kids to college
02:02with all this hair up in here. Hair up in here. Oh my god, I'm gonna start a series.
02:07Hair up in here. Thank you, Refinery. Again, if you're looking at this wall,
02:12you're looking at someone's tuition. I would guesstimate $50,000.
02:16My most expensive wig to date is $1,500. It is a full lace human hair moment.
02:22And it's about 60 inches long. Let's just give me a little share. Let's give me a little scissor.
02:33RuPaul Andre Charles on Season 10, um, came at me for wearing Pussycat Wigs.
02:39And Pussycat Wigs, or as some people call them, Bus Driver Wigs, are typically very short wigs.
02:45You can just pull it out your purse, and it looks the same, and it's fine every time.
02:49I have a slew of Bus Driver Wigs, and I love them. Giving you the NeNe Leakes fantasy.
02:54Look at this, girl. This is glam, honey. I don't know how to look, but I know how to look
02:59best.
03:03So this is the wig I'm going to be putting on today. I'm going to have my final beauty glam
03:08look for you.
03:19So I went to this drag competition called Cattle Call in New York City at Therapy Bar, hosted by Peppermint.
03:25And you had to be in drag for this thing. So I went down to MAC, got me a cold
03:29liner, and a Ruby Woo lipstick, girl.
03:32And you could not tell me I was not the prettiest. I was like, oh, this was actually really fun.
03:37And the one thing led to another. I started going out more. I started doing more competitions,
03:41and I started working a lot in New York City. You know what, surprisingly, my first wig ever in drag
03:47was actually a pretty good one. And I had no idea what I was doing, but it was this, like,
03:51knife lace front.
03:52Now, I looked a mess, but the wig was fierce. And after I, like, learned more about drag,
03:57I, like, added some tracks in, because, I mean, it was pretty bald-headed.
04:00Now, for the children at home, before you, uh, want to start investing in wigs, know this.
04:05They are expensive, okay? Especially for drag queens. Lots of drag hair is custom.
04:23I've had lots of strong, powerful women in my life, so that's what my drag is very inspired by.
04:29I perform pieces that speak to women's empowerment often. I feel the need to, again, to not just wear
04:36long, silky, straight hair. That's so boring. It's so vanilla. I like to do natural hair. I like to do
04:41things to show the beautiful kaleidoscope that all different women have. Some women have kinky hair,
04:46women have curly hair, straight hair. I like to do every single type of hair and make it look pretty.
04:50That is what my drag is really inspired by, because that's what I saw growing up. To me,
04:54that's what makes my drag, I think, special.
05:18RuPaul's Drag Race has become this very amazing and beautiful show, and it's becoming very
05:23prominent in pop culture. There are so many people of color, queer people of color,
05:27getting their stories told through RuPaul's Drag Race. Being a drag queen of color has definitely
05:32presented its challenges to me. I've been called everything in the book for no good reason.
05:36People shaming me for wearing afro, shaming me for wearing braids and box braids. I'm like,
05:41those are, again, those are beautiful hairstyles.
06:02Black women have definitely been instrumental in injecting wigatry into pop culture. Growing up in
06:09America, I was not proud to be Black because I was taught through TV and through magazines and
06:14through all that stuff that being Black was not something that was fierce. Not until my early
06:1920s when I left college. It was weird. I just woke up one day, I was like, being Black is
06:23everything.
06:24I love to get up, look in the mirror, see my skin. It was just an epiphany I had one
06:28day, so that's why
06:29in my drag I tried to do that so much. By wearing lots of African prints and wearing natural hair
06:35hair and just doing things to accentuate the Black experience and how that has changed my life and
06:41how it has made me a much more informed adult and a human being.
07:14What I want people to take away from the Monet X Change experience is how proud
07:19and how unapologetically myself and Black that I am.
07:26Hey you guys, thank you for tuning in to Refinery29 as we did a little wig talk with me,
07:31Monet X Change. This was so insightful. I learned a lot about myself and I hope you did too.
