Though it’s been 20 years since A.J. Calloway took over our screens as the host for BET’s popular music video countdown show “106 & Park,” he’s still somehow become a trending topic. And the reason why just might crack you up!
Thanks to a now resurfaced viral video on TikTok, the former host and his hair found themselves as fodder for online debate. In it, Calloway can be seen sitting in a hair and makeup chair getting a lacefront wig applied to his head that looks exactly like the hairstyle he sported when he was BET back in the day.
In the comments, viewers were incredulous at the realization of learning that after all the years, the look they loved on Calloway was fake! Others likened it to Steve Harvey and the “man unit” he sported when he was on “The Steve Harvey Show” back in 1996.
“I’m shocked,” wrote one user.
“So is he like Steve Harvey...wearing a wig? said another.
In another video “exposing” Calloway’s fake follicles, one other user said:
“Damn son...another childhood memory was a lie.”
Added one other user, I mean that sh*t was laid, especially for that time because I had no idea.”
However, upon further review of the video some fans pushed back on the idea that his hair was fake, noting that one of the hairdressers in the video was wearing an Apple Watch. Those devices didn’t make their debut until 2015 which was 15 years AFTER Calloway made his debut on the show.
What’s more is that users claimed that the clip was actually for a skit and his then-cohost Free (legally Marie Antoinette Wright) where they dressed like how they did when they were on 106 all those years ago.
“It was a wig for a remake way after the show. It was real when the show was running,” one user said.
Another person corroborated that theory, writing: “This was for another show that was based in the 2000s.”
“No, this is not true. He was doing a segment to make him look like he used to when he was on ‘106 & Park.’ Please do y’all research,” another person said.
And the last user is right. One quick search on the internet would inform people that Calloway’s hair back then was in fact all his and not a wig, as he said when he debunked the crazy talk back in 2021.
“Why does this have me laughing so hard! My hair was real back then,” he wrote in a since-expired post to his Instagram story at the time.
So yeah, sorry to all the TikTok detectives of today, this mystery has officially been solved!