Simone Biles Loves Her Hair, Thank You Very Much: ‘We Don’t Have to Look Like Everybody Else

Simone Biles has landed a new hair partnership.

The elite athlete was recently named a new brand ambassador for haircare brand K18, and kicks off the appointment as the face of its Inside-Out campaign (which will appear in all Sephora stores and Sephora at Kohls until Sept. 4). For her campaign looks, the Olympian was styled by her personal hair pro Jasmine “Jazz” Johnson, who is joining the brand as an ambassador as well.

For Biles, the appointment is another step in her journey to embrace her hair — and let go of the hate from the outside world.

When I was younger, I was in braids, beads, berets, all of that stuff,” Biles recalls.

For the most part, the star was unfazed by her hair and the looks her mother created. “There were a couple of styles I didn’t want her to do as I was getting a bit older. Like, ‘Mom, please don’t do the three [buns] that look like a dinosaur,’” she recalls.

However, there became a time when her thick, coarse hair began to feel “unmanageable” and she was in need of an easy solution.

It was then that Biles remembers feeling like she didn’t particularly like her hair, and compared it to others, including her sister’s. “She had fine, thin hair, so it took a lot less time to get pressed out. So I was like, ‘Why can’t I have hair like my sister?’” Biles says.

“So, I started [relaxing] it, because that’s how every girl’s hair looked, and I wanted to look like all the other girls. Everyone went through that phase where if it’s not relaxed, it’s not right.”

Eventually, Biles decided to quit relaxing her hair and go natural again. Her secret to success has been to love her hair first and foremost, and to treat it right using the correct products.

That’s where K18 comes in. “There’s so many different hair types and textures that you can use these products on, whether your hair is natural or you wear it in braids or weaves,” she explains.

Her favorite, K18’s Molecular Hair Repair Oil, which she says is the secret to scoring a shiny, sleek look. (The oil also fortifies hair from the inside out thanks to the brand’s patented peptide technology.)

Wearing her hair in the aforementioned protective styles has allowed Biles to experiment more with colors and looks, which in turn has led to her strengthening her hair as well as her relationship with it.

“Now I’ve been natural for so many years and I don’t really care what people say,” Biles states

Not only does she not care what people say, she’s not holding back when it comes to shutting down negative comments about how she looks.

During the Paris Olympics, Biles posted an Instagram Story documenting a 45-minute, air conditioner-less bus ride and captioned the pic, “Next time you want to comment on a Black girl’s hair, just don’t.”

She tells PEOPLE that she knew in posting the photo, certain people would focus on her edges — hence the comment.

“We were on the bus and it was 97 degrees and we were sweating bullets and I’d just freshly pressed out my edges and I was like, ‘Oh God, I just know they’re going to want to start with my hair, so I’m going to set the record straight.’”

Biles questions, “Who cares what my hair looks like?”

If it wasn’t already clear: it’s how she competes that matters.

“I feel like everyone not only has different hair textures, but [different ways] they like to wear their hair. Whenever I’m [competing], I know my hair is crazy. My gymnastics, clean; hair, messy.”

She continues, “[Even if] my hair is all over the place, I’m still performing because that’s not what I’m worried about when I’m on a world stage. And if you don’t like it, you don’t like it.”

Biles finds that it’s often other Black people who comment on her hair, which is especially disheartening.

We know how hard and how annoying and irritating that is, so why would you go and comment on another girl? It’s beyond me, but it doesn’t really bother me like it did whenever I was younger because I know when I need to pop out and look right, then I’m going to look right.”

Biles has another message for the critics of her hair game: “We don’t have to look like everybody else.”

With her now-viral post, Biles also wanted to assure other natural girls “it’s okay that your hair is a little bit messy or all over the place.