Tina Turner and her signature mule: behind the wig, a symbol of rebirth

On May 24, Tina Turner left the music world in mourning. The rock star has marked generations with her voice, her dance steps but also her stage outfits. And his hairstyle, recognizable among all.

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In video, Tina Turner and Mick Jagger perform together Brown Sugar

The British edition of Vogue interviewed an expert on the subject, Rachael Gibson who hides behind the Instagram account The Hair Historian: "You see this shaggy cut, oversized, bristly but silky, and it could not be anyone else," analyzes the specialist.

Hair as armor

What fewer people know is that the singer used wigs following an unfortunate experience in a hair salon. And like a change of hairstyle for many women, that of the style of her wigs also marks the important milestones of her life, like her rebirth after her separation from Ike Turner, her first abusive husband.

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"As she asserted herself in the 1980s and left behind the toxicity of her past, her hair was the perfect visual sign that something had changed," says Rachael Gibson. "Smooth hairstyles, wide bangs and plump tips have disappeared in favor of a unique XXL and curly mullet. It's a power-driven hairstyle – it's hair like armor."

In pictures, the brightest looks of Tina Turner

Tina Turner's brightest looks

In pictures

View slideshow23 photos

View slideshow23 photos

"An extension of myself"

A saving accessory that will also help him define his style. So much so that the public sees only fire. In her memoir, Tina Turner: My Love Story, Tina Turner wrote: "I'm not surprised that people think my wig is my own hair, because I've always seen it as an extension of myself. In a way, it's my hair." But this signature mane was so much a part of herself that the singer also feared the reaction of those who would discover it without, in intimacy.

"I've always felt anxious about starting a relationship because I wondered how the wig would be received. I was always in danger of meeting a man who would raise an objection, aggrieved to have gone out with Tina to wake up to Anna Mae, much more mundane." Anna Mae being his birth name. A detail that did not seem to have mattered to the producer Erwin Bach, his great love.

In video, the trailer of the film Tina