Val Chmerkovskiy Cornrows Backlash, Explained

The Val Chmerkovskiy cornrows backlash lit up Dancing With the Stars fandom before a single step was danced this week. The veteran pro showed off fresh cornrows on TikTok over the weekend ahead of the show's Mariah Carey Night on October 6, then appeared on Tuesday's broadcast with his usual hairstyle after days of heated criticism in his comments. Accusations of cultural appropriation turned a tribute gesture into one of the week's signature celebrity-internet pile-ons, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Chmerkovskiy posted several TikToks on October 3 from Sistah's Beauty salon in Los Angeles, where a stylist braided his hair while Mariah Carey's "Heartbreaker" played over the clips. One caption read, "POV: It's Mariah Carey Night on DWTS," while another joked about how far back he and the singer go. In a follow-up post, he shared selfies with a new silk bonnet and thanked the salon for the care and the lessons on maintaining the braids. Fans noticed right away, and the reaction was not the one he had hoped for.

The Ukrainian-born dancer is one of the show's longest-tenured pros and a three-time mirrorball champion, no stranger to fan debates. This one played out differently because it unfolded almost entirely in his own TikTok comments before ever reaching television. The preview became the story, and the episode became the cleanup.

The comments that started it

Commenters questioned the choice within hours. "And what about Mariah requires cornrows answer quickly," one wrote, while another posted, "Val you know damn well this didn't need to happen." Others joked that he had been "invited to the cookout," and a handful of defenders called the style a win. The pushback carried extra weight because it came from inside the DWTS world as well: season 35 competitor Ciara Miller weighed in with a reply saying he had annoyed her. Across TikTok and X, the central charge was cultural appropriation, the sense that a traditionally Black hairstyle was being worn as theme-night costume.

By the time Mariah Carey Night aired, the braids were gone. Chmerkovskiy opened the show alongside his fellow pros to "Heartbreaker" with his regular hairstyle, then danced a rumba to "My All" with celebrity partner Jenna Dewan. The judges handed the pair all 8s, a total of 24 out of 30 and their strongest score of the season so far. Viewers watching at home clocked the hair switch instantly, with one fan noting that he had taken the braids out and another writing, "He said YALL HAPPY NOW."

Why he says the braids came out

Chmerkovskiy addressed the removal directly in his comments. Answering a follower who said she had been obsessed with the cornrows and wished he had kept them, he wrote that he loved how they looked and planned to get them redone at Sistah's Beauty once the season wraps. For the night itself, he said, the spotlight belonged to his partner and her dance, and he did not want the hairstyle, praised or criticized, to pull attention away from her moment.

After the show, he pushed back on the idea that there was anything to apologize for. In a post-episode interview reported by USA Today, Chmerkovskiy said there was nothing to discuss beyond the fact that he loved the look. He described learning about the significance of the style during the process, said he had been glad to support a local Black-owned business, and praised the salon's work. He also acknowledged how strange it feels to absorb criticism in the modern internet, where the accounts piling on may not even be real people, and described an online environment that runs on outrage.

The uproar also exposed the fault lines that make these moments so combustible. Carey herself is multiracial: her father Alfred was African American and Afro-Venezuelan, and her mother Patricia is Irish American, as Entertainment Weekly noted. That left some fans asking what exactly made the tribute inappropriate and others arguing that her heritage did not make cornrows his to wear. That tension is what gives online drama its afterlife. No apology was issued, no verdict reached, just a hairstyle quietly reversed before showtime and a debate that kept generating takes long after the braids came out.

For readers following the Val Chmerkovskiy cornrows backlash, Entertainment Weekly has the detailed account of the removal and his defense, and USA Today covered his response to the criticism.