To say Sasha Colby is well known for her mastery of drag is a vast understatement. Walking into the Werk Room for RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15, her fellow queens were gooped and gagged at competing against drag royalty. Formerly Miss Continental 2012, the legend stood out with fierce confidence and beauty, coupled with tight, polished performances and the ability to make us all feel like she was Mother, warm yet in command. After snatching the RuPaul’s Drag Race crown, Colby became the fourth transgender queen to win, confirming her already solidified icon status across the globe.
So what’s next for America’s Reigning Drag Superstar? Sasha Colby Hair, a line of hair extensions embodying her iconic ponytail style, which, in Sasha’s words, allows anyone to “unleash and embrace their fierce inner diva.” Yas, queen! In collaboration with Salon Xtensions, the line is available in 10 exciting colors of 28-inch ponytails, each made of a unique fiber blend for a human hair look and feel at an accessible price point ($99). “Making this ponytail not only user friendly but affordable was really important to me,” Sasha tells StyleCaster over Zoom, explaining that developing an inclusive and accessible collection was of the utmost importance. An easy, affordable way to become an honorary member of the House of Colby? Add to cart!
Below, Sasha dishes on hair, the power of transformation, and feeling snatched.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
StyleCaster: You looking stunning.
Sasha Colby: Thank you! How are you? Nice to meet you.
StyleCaster: I’m great. Congratulations on the launch. It’s such a big deal! You’re launching with the pony, your signature style. Why is that the first product, and how did you come up with the idea?
Sasha Colby: My pony has always been my signature. It’s been my activation piece for myself to like, feel activated in drag. And I love how it makes me feel pulled up and snatched, like a little kitten with a whip. It’s gotten me through 20 years of great drag, and I just thought that it would be so fun. This is more a response to a lot of the fans and people who watch the show and love the ponytail. They want to know how to do it. They want a ponytail tutorial. So all of these people and fans asking really got me thinking about, how do I make this accessible to the masses?
StyleCaster: Do you have tips for people who are new to wigs or extensions or any sort of hair?
Sasha Colby: I mean, the hair journey is a fun journey. It’s a way to really express what you’re feeling. And especially nowadays, there are so many varieties and different venues of hair choices that you can really play and be so many different characters or alter egos, just to have a little more spice in your life.
StyleCaster: Totally. I always joke when I have my gay friends over, or even my straight friends, I always bust out the wigs and we just start playing around with them.
Sasha Colby: Oh, we do that all the time! I mean, especially when you have a wall of wigs and people come to your house.
StyleCaster: And the straight boys always want to try one.
Sasha Colby: They want the longest, like, diva hair.
StyleCaster: Do you have any thoughts on the power of transformation, or the power of drag in that regard? It’s like a superpower.
StyleCaster: Absolutely. The idea of having the ponytail is an extension of what drag is, which is being able to transform yourself into whatever you need. Actually, that’s the fun thing about drag, to transform yourself into whatever you may need at that point in your life. If you feel like you’re not very confident or a little shy, putting on drag, transforming yourself, and giving yourself the confidence that you feel is exterior actually brings out what is already inside you, which is beautiful.
My pony has always been my signature … I love how it makes me feel snatched and pulled, like a little kitten with a whip.
Sasha Colby
StyleCaster: The line is very reasonably and accessibly priced. Why was that important for you?
Sasha Colby: Making this ponytail not only user friendly but affordable was really important to me. I make my own ponies. My best friend and I, we’ve kind of came down to this formula, but we use human hair. We were buying bundles, and it’s great for drag and Drag Race, but not really feasible for everyday life or the traveling drag we need. So I really wanted to make sure that the hair quality was easy. Just pull it out, brush it, shake it out, and it’s brand new.
Whereas with human hair, you’re gonna have to be a little more careful with it and prep it more. So that saves time. And that helps with a lot of people who are maybe intimidated with using a lot of tools and all of that. This could just be for them. And those are the same people that I feel that watch Drag Race and that this particular price point fits for: the younger drag queens, maybe single moms, who knows! That’s the lovely thing about this ponytail, is it can cater to everyone and I really wanted that.
StyleCaster: It comes in a variety of colors. Do you have one that you gravitate towards or is a favorite?
Sasha Colby: For myself, I have Pele on right now. This is a pony that you will get when you order your Sasha Colby ponytail. It’s 28 inches long, and it’s a nice, full pony. I definitely have my tutorials up on my Instagram and my social media so you can always check that out. It’s really easy to do. This one just matches perfect for any ginger, but I do have a bluer tone that’s more for that auburn, darker red girl. Also, a bunch of blondes, a bunch of browns, just like the basic colors right now, 10, which is an amazing selection. But stay tuned because we definitely have more colors coming for you.
StyleCaster: That was my next question: What else can hair fans expect?
Sasha Colby: We can expect a lot with this ponytail line. We’re working on new colors. We’re going to have a lot more variations of colors (fun colors also), and I’m working on ombrés. So if you have darker hair, and you want to be blonde that day, it’ll make sense with the ombré pony. And also, we’re gonna have a lot more textures we’re playing [with]. So even though this is heat-safe and you can style the straight one, we’re going to have a lot of different beach layers, beach curls, big round curls, and a lot of textures for our POC girls. So we’re really excited for that.
StyleCaster: You are obviously iconic for your hair and the pony. Do you have any other drag inspiration or celebrity inspirations that you look up to for hair?
Sasha Colby: Oh, celebrity hair-spirations… I love a ’90s model. I love a layered cut. That’s just like my go-to. I’m actually currently under this ponytail rocking the Rachel from Friends. Yesterday, I had my hair in a claw, half up, half down and I looked like Sarah from The Craft. So I think I’m in my ’90s era right now.
StyleCaster: You’re going on tour next year, so what can we expect?
Sasha Colby: Oh, yes, we will be going on tour. My one woman show called Stripped. We’ll be hitting 22 cities all over the continental U.S. (and Hawaii!), so I’m very excited to be performing at home. You can expect a really stripped down version of what I always show you. What Sasha Colby is. I like to say it’s a peek behind the inner workings of my mind. What inspires me, what I live for. And just sharing stories and getting to know the audience, which I think is really stripped down and what a lot of people are craving right now.
StyleCaster: Over the past few years on Drag Race, and in the drag world period, we’ve seen the boundaries being pushed—from inclusivity and identity to more avant garde performance. What is your hope for the future of drag?
Sasha Colby: That it just keeps on expanding everyone’s perceptions of what art, beauty, gender, and really, to be alive is. From being a safe haven for queer people that were kind of ostracized and we couldn’t be in everyday society, we found this, this thing called drag, to give us a sacred place. And it was very much for the queer community, but is now opening up and really expanding the perceptions of queer community and of art for cis people, straight people, heterosexual people. It’s like the new sports, you know?
StyleCaster: All my straight friends love it. My family loves it.
Sasha Colby: It’s a great a common denominator.
StyleCaster: I think we all crave having fun. And that’s what it is.
Sasha Colby: You cannot not feel like you want to be yourself or do something daring when you’re watching someone else dare.
StyleCaster: You took home the crown on your season. I was obviously rooting for you. What was it like watching your daughter, Kerri Colby, on the previous season when she competed?
Sasha Coby: Watching Kerri in Season 14 was so fun. I love her. It was so nice to watch the world fall in love with her and her personality and being like the narrator of the show. She’s just so fun to watch and so relaxing and such a star.
StyleCaster: You recently attended your first fashion week. Do you see yourself getting more involved in the world of high fashion?
Sasha Colby: I definitely feel inspired, since I was young, with high fashion and the fashion industry. Not just the beauty aspect or the models, but really fashion, the clothes. I just love learning about fashion through history. And I would love to be more in the fashion world, be a fashion girly. It’s a lot of fun. It’s like watching drag, really! When you go to these fashion weeks, everyone’s in their order. Everyone’s in their artifice. And they project who they want to be and are just these fantastical people.
StyleCaster: One final question. What else are you looking to accomplish in the future?
Sasha Colby: Oh, you know, just, sky’s the limit for me right now. I’m really excited to travel more, perform more, meet more fans, and make more connections. And also, just getting into telling more stories through my music and through acting.
Jonathan Borge
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