Strictly Come Dancing professional Lauren Oakley has spoken out after being flooded with comments from viewers about her hairstyle.
Lauren – who received her first celebrity partner this year when she was paired up with newsreader Krishnan Guru-Murthy – usually sports a cropped hairstyle, but wore a wig during last weekend’s Halloween-themed live show.
Since then, she revealed she’s received a wave of messages from people telling her she “should” grow her hair out – unsolicited advice which it doesn’t sound like she’s going to be heeding any time soon.
“Alllll the comments on my long hair last week saying I ‘should’ have long hair. I’m good thanks,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“Girls don’t have to have long hair to feel pretty. Boys don’t have to have short hair to feel handsome. Nobody has to be a certain way! Just make yourself happy.”
Lauren later clarified that she was “not annoyed or offended” by people’s comments, but just wanted to give her followers a “polite reminder to have confidence in yourself”.
The British performer was one of four new additions to Strictly’s team of professionals in 2022, and while she didn’t initially get a partner in her first year, she is currently competing with Krishnan, and the pair have so far managed to avoid landing in the dreaded dance-off.
During Saturday’s upcoming live show, she and the Channel 4 News anchor will be performing a Couple’s Choice routine to You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon.
See how they and the rest of the remaining couples get on when Strictly returns on Saturday at 7.05pm on BBC One.