Michelle Obama Reveals Her Struggles As The First Black First Lady… And Challenges Barack Didnt Understand

Michelle Obama has opened up about the delicate balancing act of representing her Black culture and being the First Lady.

Obama, 61, appeared on a new limited series, titled IMO: The Look, where she spoke about her hair journey as a Black woman and how her time in the White House impacted that.

Obama released her coffee table book, The Look, on November 4, which documented her style evolution during her time in the White House.

On Wednesday, Obama spoke with Cosmopolitan’s beauty editor Julee Wilson, actress Marsai Martin and hair expert Yene Damtew about the consideration taken into account by both herself and her team when her husband Barack Obama64, was elected President in 2009.

‘I knew the importance of making boarder statements about hair as the first Black First Lady,’ Obama explained.

‘But what I will tell you is that I consciously understood that – at least until people knew me, which took eight years – I needed to not make hair part of the conversation.’

She explained that’s why she has chosen to speak about her hair journey now, saying: ‘It is always such an important part of a woman and a Black woman’s journey.’

The author and podcast host admitted that her husband didn’t always understand the immense pressure that came with her styling.

‘Sometimes he wonders, “do you have to do all that?”‘ she shared.

‘He is always like “you’re beautiful no matter what you do, I don’t notice the difference in anything,”‘ Obama continued about her husband.

‘So he has always been, is always, continues to be completely affirming.’

Despite the pressures that came with the being the First Lady, Obama had some ‘fun’ with fashion in the White House. She reflected on the State Dinners, which she described as some of she and Barack’s ‘favorite times.’

‘State Dinners were fun, because there was the gown and everyone would collaborate,’ she said.

‘We’d have champagne and hors d’oeuvres for the team and we’d play music and sort of get ready because it’s special.’

Obama admitted she would get butterflies when she was getting ready, saying Barack never knew what she would be wearing and likened the reveal of her gown as the first look at a wedding.

‘We’d be getting ready in the salon and Barack would be waiting in the cross hall,’ she explained.

‘When I came out into the gown right before we were getting into the elevator for the official greet, and that’s when he would see the look.’

She joked the former President was ‘very much a man’ about some of her looks.

‘(He was like) “what does this mean?” you know if there was a long train or something fashion-y hanging off that he didn’t understand,’ she laughed.

‘He’d be like, “well, is this supposed to be like this?”‘

Obama joked it was ‘way above’ his pay grade.

‘You don’t understand, you don’t need to understand it, just understand it’s fashion,’ she said.

In her book, Obama delves into the pressures she faced as the first Black First Lady in the White House, with her style choices often picked apart.

‘I was mindful that I’d be subject to a different set of expectations as the first Black woman to fill this role,’ she wrote.

‘Barack and I were being portrayed as Black people who didn’t understand the “rules” of the rarefied world we had found ourselves in and were not unequivocally welcomed into.’

Since leaving the White House, Obama has embraced her natural hair and has been pictured wearing her hair in braids.