Dallas Cowboys cheerleader Armani Latimer bucked antiquated magnificence requirements Monday night time when she danced with out her wig in help of alopecia consciousness through the recreation towards the Cincinnati Bengals.
Monday night time was the “My Cause My Boots” recreation, throughout which cheerleaders honor a trigger that’s necessary to them with a star on their boots.
Different cheerleaders honored causes equivalent to lung most cancers consciousness, psychological well being consciousness and extra. In an Instagram reel, Latimer will be seen wiping away tears earlier than she walked onto the soccer discipline to carry out. Her teammates inspired her, telling her that she was “representing a lot of little girls out there.” Latimer instructed Ladies’s Health that she ran the concept of dancing with out her wig by the cheerleaders director, Kelli Finglass, initially of the season and that Finglass “loved it.”
At age 12, Latimer was identified with alopecia, a situation that causes the immune system to assault hair follicles, generally leaving an individual bald. Latimer instructed Ladies’s Health that she didn’t inform anybody about her alopecia when she was in highschool, however stress in school brought on her to lose extra hair. She wore sew-ins whereas in school to cover her bald spots, however when she auditioned for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in 2020, the stress brought on her hair to start out falling out extra. So she opted for a wig.
“My alopecia was hard to navigate during my early cheering days,” Latimer instructed Ladies’s Health. “It was such a tumultuous time that I was only able to give about 50% of my effort. Some people picked up on the fact that I was more withdrawn and not my bubbly self, and having teammates that I could sit and cry with about what I was going through was healing.”
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Since their inception within the Fifties, NFL cheerleaders have been held to a excessive magnificence commonplace. And Black NFL cheerleaders have stated they’ve a fair tougher time sustaining the wonder requirements.
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have a partnership with Tangerine Salon, the place cheerleaders can get their hair finished, nevertheless it wasn’t till 2020 that they partnered with a salon that focuses on Black hair. Jacie Scott, a former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader from 2012 to 2016, who’s Black, instructed Attract in 2020 that she paid for her hair care companies along with her personal cash as a result of she wished to go to a stylist aware of her hair texture.
Justine Lindsay, the primary overtly trans NFL cheerleader, instructed BuzzFeed Information in 2022 that she was relieved when her coach instructed her she might carry out with no wig. She stated she is completely happy to “inspire other young girls who may be insecure rocking their bald look.”
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Latimer instructed Ladies’s Health: “I figure that if I can overcome my negative self-talk and self-defeating mindset, I can help change the experience for the next 12-year-old who gets diagnosed. She can start healing early instead of waiting until she’s 23, like me. There’s so much societal pressure that comes with being a woman — we don’t need more.
“We can be empowered by so many things, and you don’t need your hair to feel that.”
