Tina Turner is “simply the best,” though fans of the late superstar may not feel that way about a $1,000 wig her estate started promoting for sale this week, which critics say looks nothing like the wildly teased hairstyles synonymous with the rock and roll icon.
The wig was removed from the Tina Turner website and all social channels within hours of its introduction.
Priced at 694.99 British pounds, or about $935 before taxes and shipping, the hairpiece is made of “100% Remy human hair” and is the creation of Arthur Johns, Turner’s longtime wig and hairstylist. It came with a Certificate of Authenticity “signed by Arthur Johns himself,” according to promotional material.
The Hollywood Reporter contacted Johns, who says he isn’t sure why BMG, which controls Turner’s image and music, had the wig yanked off the Tina Turner website less than 24 hours after its debut. BMG did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Johns insists the wig is representative of the kinds of hairpieces he styled for Turner.
“Tina wore that hair,” he says. “If you do your research, you’ll see that curl was very popular in the ’90s and through the early 2000s.
“What you don’t see is Tina onstage after 25 minutes, working that hair, throwing her body around and having that hair blow up and just become wild. But that was the hair, that was the hairstyle, and that was the curl on the color that went with that,” Johns insists.
Fans were not buying it. During the few hours the product was available on social channels, it became the source of much mockery. “She looks like Little Orphan Annie!” said one Facebook commenter, while others likened the wig to the one worn by Olivia Newton-John at the end of 1978’s Grease.
It turns out there is a Newton-John connection. Johns first met Turner in 1980, styling hair for Olivia Newton-John: Hollywood Nights, a TV variety special starring the Australian pop queen and featuring Turner as a guest performer.
Months later, talent manager Roger Davies would sign Turner — who’d found fame amid much personal turmoil as one half of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue — as a solo act, launching her career into the stratosphere.
Turner’s new hairstyle was a big part of that rebirth — as untamed, sexy, and singular as the woman herself.
“Tina called me and she said, ‘Arthur, I love what you do with Olivia’s hair. I love all that color,’” Johns recalls. “She said, ‘What I’m doing right now is my hair is teased, but it doesn’t fly. Yes, I’m Black, but I’m not soul. I’m rock and roll — and I want my hair to fly.”
Johns suspects part of the backlash over his wig design was the model they chose to photograph it in.
“I did hear that a couple of people were upset that the model was not Black, but the girl that we used was half-Asian and half-Black, even though she doesn’t look Black in the photograph. I mean, certainly not like Tina,” Johns says.
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