POLISH POWER: HOW BLACK MEN TURNED NAIL COLOR INTO A NEW FLEX
Fingernail polish and its relationship with black male masculinity have arguably always been taboo. Yet a 2019 study — Nail Art, Nail Care, and Self-Expression by Davis, Khoza, & Brooks shows the tide was on the move: nearly one in four black men said they paint their nails at least once a month. As a young black boy growing up in a masculine family and household, you were taught at a young age that certain things were for men and others for women, and nail polish was one of them. As I started to hit adolescence, I began to understand the importance of male grooming and maintenance. My father would get manicures and pedicures regularly, and I would recall seeing him get clear polish on his nails. I remember one weekend, cutting and filing my nails and getting hold of some clear polish from my grandmother's fingernail polish drawer.
I did not think anything of it until I went to school the following week and sat at the front table of my math class. My teacher immediately looked down and said, "I know you do not have on clear fingernail polish." I don't remember what I responded with, but I tried to justify it by saying I saw my father do it. However, I was just a seventh grader in an all-boys Catholic middle school. They did not connect with my father's version of masculinity, and manicures were seen as a part of upkeep. The understanding of what was perceived as masculine by my fellow students and even my teacher was rooted in Hip-Hop and locker-room sports culture. Painting your nails, even with clear polish, was seen as unacceptable. The incident itself took me back to the aforementioned childhood grouping of what was for men and what was for women. Zooming out, the larger picture shows a culture finally catching up to nail polish.
Fast forward to today, and we have seen an entirely different perspective being offered within the Gen Z crop of athletes who grew up in the peak of the social media era, as well as notable black artists who have pushed the envelope on creativity and have embraced wearing fingernail polish. Artists such as Lil Yachty have launched their own nail polish color brand. In 2021, Boat launched three colors of nail polish: black, white, and gray. The colors were chosen as a play on his Concrete brand. Moreover, his introduction to having his nail polish started with him getting his nails buffed out with a coat of clear polish. He told GQ magazine, "I started doing it about three or four years ago," he said. "I got compliments instantly. I felt clean. My nails weren't dirty and nasty. I felt more mature." In an attempt to make his nail polish more inclusive, he shared with GQ that his reasoning for color selection was to help those new to the nail polish trend. He shared, "Let's just say I felt as if a lot of men may have wanted to do it, but it felt too feminine."
A$AP Rocky, aka Pretty Boy Flacko, is a fashion icon and artist. He, as well as the ASAP Mob, has carved out their place in Hip Hop fashion lure. Rocky has worn fingernail polish with different outfits and has championed nail art as something that should not carry a feminine stigma for men. He told Vogue, "I feel like men should be able to do nail art without feeling feminine." Both Boat and Rocky's stances challenge the homophobic aspects of Hip-Hop culture.
On the sports side, the wearing of nail polish becomes even more complex because of the history of black men in this country; in the beginning, not being seen as whole human beings, and sports gave them an identity of superior physical prowess and hyper-masculinity. In basketball, mainstream white media pushed a stigma of shutting up and dribbling, making it seem like the black male basketball players were incapable of reasoning or were free to express themselves without being labeled as thugs. Think of the bling era of the early 2000s, where black men dressed like Allen Iverson, rocking baggy jeans, durags, and throwback jerseys, only to have to be in dress code. In the 90s, you had five-time NBA Champion and Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman painting his nails and pushing the limits on what is masculine with his eccentric outfits. People just thought Rodman was crazy. Rodman sported all types of outfits, from dresses to leather pants to boas, sunglasses, and nail art, complementing each different hairstyle and piece of clothing. Just twenty-five years later, Jared McCain blew through the door that Rodman cracked open.
Enter Philadelphia 76ers guard and TikTok sensation Jared McCain. In addition to being an NBA lottery pick last season, he was the first male athlete to land a name, image, and likeness deal with Sally Hansen. Launching his "Most Valuable Polish" line in his May 2025 Instagram reveal, McCain laughed, "When I first started painting my nails, I never pictured my collection."
As Davis, Khoza & Brooks (2019) note, many Black men view nail care as "identity work" rather than vanity. McCain's MVP line proves that point: polish can now sit beside a jump shot or song verse. If the hands that hustle also hold color, maybe the question isn't whether polish is masculine—only how brightly we're willing to paint the lines around what we perceive as manhood in the black community.
References
Davis, L., Khoza, L., & Brooks, J. (2019). Nail art, nail care and self‐expression: Gender differences in African Americans’ consumption of nail cosmetics. Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, 6(2), 159–174. https://doi.org/10.1386/fspc.6.2.159_1
Leitch, L. (2019, October 2). Babushka Boi: A$AP Rocky on his new store, creativity, and the real reason he started wearing a headscarf (before everyone else did). Vogue. https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/asap-rocky-selfridges-store-headscarves
Tanenbaum, M. (2025, May 19). Sixers’ Jared McCain creates nail polish line with Sally Hansen. PhillyVoice. https://www.phillyvoice.com/jared-mccain-nail-polish-sixers-sally-hansen/
Wicker, J. (2021, June 3). We hung out and talked nail polish with Lil Yachty. GQ. https://www.gq.com/story/lil-yachty-nail-polish-crete
Sincerely,
By Ray Saturn