Will Smith opens up about a poignant moment from Willow Smith's early music career, revealing the delicate balance of guiding his young daughter and trying to take her feelings into account.
- March 29, 2025
AceShowbiz - Will Smith got candid about the early music career of his daughter, Willow Smith, in the documentary "Number One on the Call Sheet: Black Leading Men in Hollywood". He recounted the moment she shaved off her head after the release of her hit 2010 single "Whip My Hair."
The story unfolds in Dublin, Ireland, where Willow was performing on tour with Justin Bieber. As Smith recalled, "I'll never forget, we were in Dublin, Ireland. Willow comes off stage, she was on tour with Justin Bieber, and she comes off stage, and is like, 'I'm done, Daddy,' and I was like, 'Yeah, baby, that was a great show!' And she was like, 'No, no, I mean I'm done! I'm ready to go home!'."
Faced with his daughter's sudden insistence, Smith tried to reason with her, explaining that the family had committed to the tour. "I was like, 'Well, no, you can't go home, sweetie, you promised Mr. Jay-Z that you were gonna do these 30 days of this tour,' " he said. Willow's blunt response was, "No, Daddy, you promised Mr. Jay-Z."
The tension was palpable as Willow questioned whether her feelings mattered to her father. "She looked at me - I'll never forget the look in her eyes, and she was like, 'It doesn't matter to you that I'm finished, Daddy?'," Smith recounted.
Despite his attempts to console her, the situation remained unresolved. The following morning, with Jada Pinkett Smith away, Will was in for a bigger surprise. "We go back to the hotel, and Jada had just left, so I'm there, it's my first night of daddy duty," he explained.
When Willow emerged, she had shaved her head. "In the middle of her 'Whip My Hair' tour, she had shaved her head bald. And it was like a magical moment. I was like, 'Got it.' "
Willow herself once reflected on the experience in a 2022 interview with The Guardian, describing it as a quest for control. "I felt like I had no control," she said. "That was the part that wasn't cool for me. I felt so powerless."
The incident left a lasting impact, requiring time for her to rebuild trust with her parents. "I definitely had to forgive you and Daddy for that whole 'Whip My Hair' thing," she admitted to her mom during a 2018 episode of "Red Table Talk". "It was a couple of years, honestly. Trying to regain trust for not feeling like I was being listened to or like no one cared how I felt."
