Chelsea Vaughn has responded to Bachelor Nation's Kaitlyn Bristowe's apology over her insensitive comments regarding Chelsea's vulnerable conversation about her hair on The Bachelor.
Earlier this week, Chelsea, who is competing for Matt James' heart on the reality show, opened up to the leading man on a group date about her experience with her hair. The runway model, who rocks a shaved head, spoke about how she came to that style decision after struggling with insecurities surrounding her tresses.
"I just think that as women, and especially as Black women, so much of our self-worth is tied to our hair," the 29 year old explained. "And I don't know if a lot of people realize that or understand that, especially as far as Black women go, and it was just a really big deal to me, so that's obviously something that I wanted to share with somebody who I am potentially going to end up with."
Over Instagram Stories shortly after the episode aired, Kaitlyn tried to relate her own experience with her hair to that of Chelsea's while promoting a hair vitamin, leading to backlash from people who pointed out that Kaitlyn did not realize how Chelsea's race caused her to face much discrimination over her hairstyle.
On Jan. 28, the reality star realized the error of her ways following backlash. She shared a post of herself watching a video titled "The History of Black Hair," along with an explanation.
She told her audience that she was "humiliated" that she didn't listen to Chelsea's full story.
"Chelsea's experience is deeply ingrained in Black culture and beauty standards," Kaitlyn said, "and I have now done so much research into what that looked like for many centuries."
She also wrote, "Shame on me for contributing to making a profit off a Black woman's struggle."
Following the apology, Chelsea took to her Instagram Story on Jan. 30 to write, "I will always appreciate anyone who's willing to openly listen, learn and take responsibility for their actions. @kaitlynbristowe thank you for your personal and public apology."
Chelsea is still in the running on Matt's season. Only time will tell if she walks away with the final rose.