Afro-textured hair

Afro-textured hair is a human hair

texture originally prevalent in many
regions with hot climates, including
in sub-Saharan Africa. Each strand of
this hair type grows in a tiny, angle-
like helix shape. The overall effect is
such that, contrasted with straight
hair, wavy hair, or curly hair, afro-
textured hair appears denser.[1]
 Woman from the island of Nosy Be,
in Madagascar, c. 1868

Terminology
English adjectives such as woolly,
kinky, or spiraled have been used to
describe natural afro-textured hair.
More formally, ulotrichous ('curly-
haired' from Ancient Greek: οὖλος,
romanized: oûlos, lit. 'crisp, curly' and
Ancient Greek: θρίξ, romanized: thríx,
lit. 'hair') refers to afro-textured hair,
its antonym being leiotrichous
('smooth-haired'). Jean Baptiste Bory
de Saint-Vincent in 1825 introduced
the scientific term Oulotrichi for the
purpose of human taxonomy.
In 1997, hairstylist Andre Walker
created a numerical grading system
for human hair types.[2] The Andre
Walker Hair Typing System classifies
afro-textured hair as 'type 4' (there
are other types of hair, defined as
type 1 for straight hair, type 2 for
wavy, and type 3 for curly, with the
letters A, B, and C used as indicators
of the degree of coil variation in each
type), with the subcategory of type
4C being most exemplary of the afro-
textured hair.[3] However, afro-
textured hair is often difficult to
categorize because of the many
different variations among
individuals. Those variations include
pattern (mainly tight coils), pattern
size (watch spring to chalk), density
(sparse to dense), strand diameter
(fine, medium, coarse), and feel
(cottony, woolly, spongy).[4]
Different genetic groups have
observable differences in the
structure, density, and growth rate of
hair. With regard to structure, all
human hair has the same basic
chemical composition in terms of
keratin protein content. Franbourg et
al. have found that black hair may
differ in the distribution of lipids
throughout the hair shaft.[5] Classical
afro-textured hair has been found to
be not as densely concentrated on
the scalp as other follicle types.
Specifically, the average density of
afro-textured hair was found to be
approximately 190 hairs per square
centimeter. This was significantly
lower than that of European hair,
which, on average, has approximately
227 hairs per square centimeter.[1]
Loussourarn found that afro-textured
hair grows at an average rate of
approximately 256 micrometers per
day, whereas European-textured
straight hair grows at approximately
396 micrometers per day.[1][6] In
addition, due to a phenomenon
called 'shrinkage', kinky hair that is a
given length when stretched straight
can appear much shorter when
allowed to naturally coil.[7] Shrinkage
is most evident when afro-textured
hair is (or has recently been) wet. The
more coiled the hair texture, the
higher its shrinkage.
The shape of the hair follicle
determines the hair's curliness. An
individual hair's shape is never
completely circular. The cross-section
of a hair is an ellipse, which can tend
towards a circle or be distinctly
flattened. East Asiatic heads of
straight hair are formed from almost-
round hair follicles producing straight
hair, and European hair follicle forms
oval shapes which produce wavy hair.
Afro-textured hair has a flattened
cross-section and is finer, and its
ringlets can form tight circles with
diameters of only a few millimeters.
In humans worldwide, East Asian-
textured hair is the most common,
whereas kinky hair is the least
common. This is because the former
hair texture is typical of the large
populations inhabiting the Far East
as well as the indigenous peoples of
the Americas.[8]
Evolution

Papuan women with afro hair

Robbins (2012) suggests that afro-

textured hair may have initially
evolved because of an adaptive need
amongst humans' early hominid
ancestors for protection against the
intense UV radiation of the sun in
Africa.[9] The author argues that afro-
textured hair was the original hair
texture of all modern humans prior to
the "Out-of-Africa" migration that
populated the rest of the globe.[9]
According to Robbins (2012), afro-
textured hair may have been
adaptive for the earliest modern
humans in Africa because the
relatively sparse density of such hair,
combined with its elastic helix shape,
results in an airy effect. The resulting
increased circulation of cool air onto
the scalp may have thus served to
facilitate the body-temperature-
regulation system of hominids while
they lived on the open savannah.[9]
Afro-textured hair requires more
moisture than straight hair and tends
to shrink when dry. Instead of
sticking to the neck and scalp when
damp (as do straighter textures),
unless completely drenched it tends
to retain its basic springiness. The
trait may have been retained and/or
preferred among many anatomically
modern populations in equatorial
areas, such as Micronesians,
Melanesians, and the Negrito,
because of its contribution to
enhanced comfort levels under
tropical climate conditions. In rare
cases, kinky hair may also be found in
populations living under temperate
climate conditions, such as
indigenous Tasmanians.[9]
History
Historically, many cultures in Sub-
Saharan Africa – in common with
cultures worldwide – developed
hairstyles that defined status, or
identity, in regards to age, ethnicity,
wealth, social rank, marital status,
religion, fertility, adulthood, and
death.[10] Hair was carefully
groomed, as the social implications
of hair grooming were a significant
part of community life. Dense, thick,
clean, and neatly groomed hair was
something highly admired and
sought after. Hair groomers
possessed unique styling skills,
allowing them to create a variety of
designs that met the local cultural
standards.
In many traditional cultures,
communal grooming was a social
event when women socialized and
strengthened bonds with their
families. Historically, hair braiding
was not a paid trade. When men from
the Wolof tribe (in modern Senegal
and The Gambia) went to war they
wore a braided style. A woman in
mourning would either not "do" her
hair or adopt a subdued style.[11]
Since the African diaspora, in the
20th and 21st centuries it has
developed into a multimillion-dollar
business in such regions as the
United States, South Africa and
among black African migrants to
western Europe. An individual's hair
groomer was usually someone whom
they knew closely. Sessions can
include shampooing, oiling, combing,
braiding and twisting, plus adding
accessories.
For shampooing, black soap was
widely used in nations in West and
Central Africa.[12] Additionally, palm
oil and palm kernel oil were popularly
used for oiling the scalp. Shea butter
has traditionally been used to
moisturize and dress the hair.
United States
Trans-Atlantic slave trade
Diasporic Africans in the Americas
have experimented with ways to style
their hair since their arrival in the
Western Hemisphere well before the
19th century. During the
approximately 400 years of the
Trans-Atlantic slave trade, which
extracted over 20 million people from
West and Central Africa, their beauty
ideals have undergone numerous
changes.
Africans captured as slaves no longer
had the sort of resources to practice
hair grooming that they had had
when home. The enslaved Africans
adapted as best they could under the
circumstances, finding sheep-fleece
carding tools particularly useful for
detangling their hair. They suffered
from scalp diseases and infestations
due to their living conditions.
Enslaved people used varying
remedies for disinfecting and
cleansing their scalps, such as
applying kerosene or cornmeal
directly on the scalp with a cloth as
they carefully parted the hair.
Enslaved field hands often shaved
their hair and wore hats to protect
their scalps against the sun. House
slaves had to appear tidy and well-
groomed. The men sometimes wore
wigs mimicking their masters', or
similar hairstyles, while the women
typically plaited or braided their hair.
During the 19th century, hair styling,
especially among women, became
more popular. Cooking grease such
as lard, butter and goose grease,
were used to moisturize the hair.
Women sometimes used hot
butterknives to curl their hair.[13]
Because of the then-prevalent notion
that straight wavy or curly hair
(which, unlike kinky hair, is common
in people of European origin) was
more acceptable than kinky hair,
many black people began exploring
solutions for straightening, or
relaxing, their tresses. One post-
slavery method was a mixture of lye,
egg and potato, which burned the
scalp upon contact.
Politics of kinky hair in the West
Wearing kinky hair in its natural state
today represents embracing one's
natural self, and for some it is a
simple matter of style or preference.
In the United States during the
1960s, kinky hair was transformed
into a revolutionary political
statement that became synonymous
with Black Pride & Beauty, and by
default a fundamental tool in the
Black Power Movement; "[h]air came
to symbolize either a continued move
toward integration in the American
political system or a growing cry for
Black power and nationalism."[14]: 51 
Prior to this, the idealized Black
person (especially Black women)
"had many Eurocentric features,
including hairstyles."[14]: 29  However,
during the movement, the Black
community endeavoured to define
their own ideals and beauty
standards, and hair became a central
icon which was "promoted as a way
of challenging mainstream standards
regarding hair".[15]: 35  During this
time, afro-textured hair "was at its
height of politicization", and wearing
an Afro was an easily distinguishable
physical expression of Black pride
and the rejection of societal
norms.[15]: 43  Jesse Jackson, a
political activist, says that "the way
[he] wore [his] hair was an
expression of the rebellion of the
time".[14]: 55  Black activists infused
straightened hair with political
valence; straightening one's hair in an
attempt to 'simulate Whiteness',
whether chemically or with the use of
heat, came to be seen by some as an
act of self-hatred and a sign of
internalized oppression imposed by
White-dominated mainstream media.
At this time, an African-American
person's "ability to conform to
mainstream standards of beauty
[was] tied to being successful."[14]: 148 
Thus, rejecting straightened hair
symbolized a deeper act of rejecting
the belief that straightening hair and
other forms of grooming which were
deemed 'socially acceptable' were the
only means of looking presentable
and attaining success in society. The
pressing comb and chemical
straighteners became stigmatized
within the community as symbols of
oppression and imposed White
beauty ideals. Certain Black people
sought to embrace beauty and affirm
and accept their natural physical
traits. One of the ultimate goals of
the Black movement was to evolve to
a level where Black people "were
proud of black skin and kinky or
nappy hair. As a result, natural hair
became a symbol of that pride."[14]: 43 
Negative perceptions of afro-
textured hair and beauty had been
passed down through the
generations, so they had become
ingrained in Black mentality to the
point where they had been accepted
as simple truths. Wearing natural hair
was seen as a progressive statement,
and for all the support that the
movement gathered, there were
many who opposed natural hair both
for its aesthetics and the ideology
that it promoted. It caused tensions
between the Black and White
communities, as well as discomfort
amongst more conservative African-
Americans.
The style of kinky hair continues to
be politicized in contemporary
American society. "These issues of
style are highly charged as sensitive
questions about [an individual's] very
'identity'."[16]: 34  Whether an
individual decides to wear their hair
in its natural state or alter it, all Black
hairstyles convey a message. In
several post-colonial societies, the
value system promotes 'white bias',
and "ethnicities are valorized
according to the tilt of whiteness—
[which] functions as the ideological
basis for status ascription."[16]: 36  In
turn, in this value system, "African
elements—be they cultural or
physical—are devalued as indices of
low social status, while European
elements are positively valorized as
attributes enabling individual upward
mobility".[16]: 36  This value system is
reinforced by the systematic racism
that was, and still is, often hidden
from the public eye in Western
society. Racism 'works' by
encouraging the devaluation of self-
identity by the victims themselves,
and that re-centering of a sense of
pride is a prerequisite for a politics of
resistance and reconstruction.[16]: 36 
In this system, "hair functions as a
key 'ethnic signifier' because,
compared with bodily shape or facial
features, it can be changed more
easily by cultural practices such as
straightening."[16]: 36  Racism
originally "'politicized' [kinky] hair by
burdening it with a range of negative
social and psychological
'meanings'"—categorizing it as a
problem.[16]: 37  Ethnic difference that
could be easily manipulated, like hair,
was altered in order for ethnic
minorities to assimilate into a
dominant, Eurocentric society.
Natural hairstyles, such as the Afro
and dreadlocks, "counter-politicized
the signifier of ethnic DE valorization,
redefining Blackness as a positive
attribute".[16] By wearing their hair as
it naturally grows, individuals with
kinky hair were taking back agency in
deciding the value and politics of
their own hair. Wearing one's hair
naturally also opens up a new
debate: Are those who decide to still
wear their hair straightened, for
example, less 'Black' or 'proud' of
their heritage, than those who decide
to wear their hair naturally? This
debate is an often-ongoing topic of
discussion within the community. The
issue is highly debated and disputed,
creating almost a social divide within
the community between those who
decide to be natural and those who
do not.
Emancipation and post-Civil War

Successful entrepreneur Madam C. J.

Walker invented a method that
relaxed textured hair. Photo taken
c. 1914.

After the American Civil War and

emancipation, many African-
Americans migrated to larger towns
or cities, where they were influenced
by new styles. The photos below
show 19th-century women leaders
with a variety of styles with natural
hair. Others straightened their hair to
conform to White beauty ideals. They
wanted to succeed, and to avoid
mistreatment including legal and
social discrimination. Some women,
and a smaller number of men,
lightened their hair with household
bleach. A variety of caustic products
that contained bleaches, including
laundry bleach, designed to be
applied to afro-textured hair, were
developed in the late 19th and early
20th centuries, as African Americans
demanded more fashion options.
They used creams and lotions,
combined with hot irons, to
straighten their hair.
The Black hair care industry was
initially dominated by White-owned
businesses. In the late 19th century,
African-American entrepreneurs such
as Annie Turnbo Malone, Madam C. J.
Walker, Madam Gold S.M. Young, Sara
Spencer Washington and Garrett
Augustus Morgan revolutionized hair
care by inventing and marketing
chemical (and heat-based)
applications to alter the natural
tightly curled texture. They rapidly
became successful and dominated
the Black hair care market. In 1898,
Anthony Overton founded a hair care
company that offered saponified
coconut shampoo and AIDA hair
pomade. Men began using pomades,
among other products, to achieve
the standard aesthetic look.
During the 1930s, conking (vividly
described in The Autobiography of
Malcolm X) became an innovative
method in the U.S. for Black men to
straighten their kinky hair. Women at
that time tended either to wear wigs,
or to hot-comb their hair (rather than
conk it) in order to temporarily mimic
a straight style without permanently
altering the natural curl pattern.
Popular until the 1960s, the conk hair
style was achieved through the
application of a painful lye, egg and
potato mixture that was toxic and
immediately burned the scalp.
Black-owned businesses in the hair-
care industry provided jobs for
thousands of African-Americans.
These business owners gave back
strongly to the African-American
community.[17] During this time,
hundreds of African-Americans
became owner-operators of
successful beauty salons and
barbershops. These offered
permanents and hair-straightening,
as well as cutting and styling
services, some to both White and
Black clients. In this era, men
regularly went to barber shops to
have their beards groomed, and
some Black barbers developed
exclusively White, elite clientele,
sometimes in association with hotels
or clubs. Media images tended to
perpetuate the ideals of European
beauty of the majority culture, even
when featuring African-Americans.
African-Americans began sponsoring
their own beauty events. The
winners, many of whom wore straight
hair styles and some of whom were
of mixed race, adorned Black
magazines and product
advertisements. In the early 20th
century, media portrayal of traditional
African hair styles, such as braids and
cornrows, was associated with
African-Americans who were poor
and lived in rural areas. In the early
decades of the Great Migration,
when millions of African Americans
left the South for opportunities in
northern and midwestern industrial
cities, many African Americans
wanted to leave this rural association
behind.[18]
Scholars debate whether hair-
straightening practices arose out of
Black desires to conform to a
Eurocentric standard of beauty, or as
part of their individual experiments
with fashions and changing styles.
Some believe that slaves and later
African-Americans absorbed
prejudices of the European
slaveholders and colonizers, who
considered most slaves as second-
class, as they were not citizens.
Ayana Byrd and Lori Tharp say that
they believe the preference for
Eurocentric ideas of beauty still
pervades the Western world.[19]
Rise of Black pride
Afro hair has been through many
different cycles. Slavery played a
major role in the ups and downs of
the pride that African-Americans take
in their hair. "Everything I knew about
American history I learned from
looking at Black people's hair. It's the
perfect metaphor for the African
experiment here: the price of the
ticket (for a journey no one elected
to take), the toll of slavery, and the
costs remaining. It's all in the hair.
Like Jamaica Kincaid, who writes only
about a character named Mother, I've
decided to write only about hair:
what we do to it, how we do it, and
why. I figure this is enough", said Lisa
Jones in an essay titled Hair Always
and Forever.[20]

Civil rights activist Angela Davis

wearing an Afro in 1973

Cheryl Thompson writes, "In 15th-

century Africa, hairstyles were used
to indicate a person's marital status,
age, religion, ethnic identity, wealth
and rank within the community (see
Byrd & Tharps, 2001; Jacobs-Huey,
2006; Mercer, 1994; Patton, 2006;
Rooks, 1996).[10] For young black
girls, Thompson says, "hair is not just
something to play with" – it is
something that sends a message, not
only to the outside public but also a
message on how they see
themselves.[10] "In the 1800s and
early 1900s, nappy, kinky, curly hair
was deemed inferior, ugly and
unkempt in comparison with the
flowing, bouncy hair of people from
other cultures", says Marcia Wade
Talbert in Black Enterprise.[21]
Chemical relaxers increased in
demand throughout the 1800s and
1900s. These relaxers often
contained sodium hydroxide (lye) or
guanidine hydroxide which result in
hair breakage, thinning of the hair,
slowing of hair growth, scalp damage
and even hair loss, according to
Gheni Platenurg in the article, "Black
Women Returning to Their Natural
Hair Roots".[22]
In the United States, the successes of
the civil rights movement, and the
Black power and Black pride
movements of the 1960s and 1970s,
inspired African-Americans to
express their political commitments
by adopting more traditionally
African styles. The Afro hairstyle
developed as an affirmation of Black
African heritage, expressed by the
phrase, "Black is beautiful." Angela
Davis wore her Afro as a political
statement and started a movement
toward natural hair. This movement
influenced a generation, including
celebrities like Diana Ross, whose
Jheri curls took over the 1980s.
Since the late 20th century, Black
people have experimented with a
variety of styles, including cornrows,
locks, braiding, hair twists and short,
cropped hair, specifically designed
for kinky hair. Natural hair blogs
include Black Girl Long Hair (BGLH),
Curly Nikki and Afro Hair Club. With
the emergence of hip-hop culture
and Jamaican influences like reggae
music, more non-Black people have
begun to wear these hairstyles as
well. A new market has developed in
such hair products as "Out of Africa"
shampoo.
The popularity of natural hair has
waxed and waned. In the early 21st
century, a significant percentage of
African-American women still
straighten their hair with relaxers of
some kind (either heat- or chemical-
based). This is done despite the fact
that prolonged application of such
chemicals (or heat) can result in
overprocessing, breakage and
thinning of the hair. Rooks (1996)
argues that hair-care products
designed to straighten hair, which
have been marketed by white-owned
companies in African American
publications since the 1830s,
represent unrealistic and
unattainable standards of beauty.[23]
Sales of relaxers took a great fall
among African-American women
from 2010 to 2015. Many African-
American women gave up relaxers to
go back to their natural roots.
Celebrities like Esperanza Spalding,
Janelle Monáe and Solange Knowles
have worn natural hair looks. During
the same time period, the number of
natural-hair support groups has
increased. "I see a lot of women who
have started to accept themselves
and their hair".[24] "They're
encouraging their children to start
accepting themselves. This is entirely
new", according to Terry Shrosphire
in the article "Black Hair Relaxer Sales
are Slumping Because Of This".[24]
Research has shown that relaxer
sales dropped from $206 million in
2008 to $156 million in 2013.
Meanwhile, sales of products for
styling natural hair continued to rise.
Chris Rock's documentary Good Hair
has shown what many women go
through to achieve the "European
standard" of hair. "Weaves that cost
thousands of dollars and relaxers
that take way too much time. Black
woman has finally decided that it was
simply too much", according to the
documentary.[25]
Modern perceptions and
controversies

"Hair Like Mine", a 2009 image of a

White House staffer's African-
American son touching President
Barack Obama's head, checking to
see if their hair felt the same, went
viral in 2012.[26][27][28]
Black hairstyles have been utilized to
promote the idea of African-
American identity. There have been
numerous events in history that have
shown disapproval of Black hair
styles.
In 1971 Melba Tolliver, a WABC-TV
correspondent, made national
headlines when she wore an Afro
while covering the wedding of Tricia
Nixon Cox, daughter of President
Richard Nixon. The station
threatened to take Tolliver off the air
until the story caught national
attention.[29]
In 1981 Dorothy Reed, a reporter for
KGO-TV, the ABC affiliate in San
Francisco, was suspended for
wearing her hair in cornrows with
beads on the ends. KGO called her
hairstyle "inappropriate and
distracting". After two weeks of a
public dispute, an NAACP
demonstration outside of the station,
and negotiations, Reed and the
station reached an agreement. The
company paid her lost salary, and she
removed the colored beads. She
returned to the air, still braided, but
beadless.[30]
A 1998 incident became national
news when Ruth Ann Sherman, a
young White teacher in Bushwick,
Brooklyn, introduced her students to
the 1998 book Nappy Hair by
African-American author Carolivia
Herron. Sherman was criticized by
some in the community, who thought
that the book presented a negative
stereotype (although it won three
awards), but she was supported by
most parents of her students.[31]
On April 4, 2007, radio talk-show
host Don Imus referred to the
Rutgers University women's
basketball team, who were playing in
the Women's NCAA Championship
game, as a group of "nappy-headed
hos" during his Imus in the Morning
show. Imus's producer Bernard
McGuirk compared the game to "the
jigaboos versus the wannabes",
alluding to Spike Lee's film School
Daze. Imus apologized two days later,
after receiving widespread criticism.
CBS Radio canceled Don Imus's
morning show a week after the
incident on April 12, 2007, firing both
Imus and McGuirk.
During August 2007, The American
Lawyer magazine reported that an
unnamed junior Glamour Magazine
staffer gave a presentation on the
"Do's and Don'ts of Corporate
Fashion" for Cleary Gottlieb, a New
York City law firm. Her slide show
included her negative comments
about Black women wearing natural
hairstyles in the workplace, calling
them "shocking", "inappropriate", and
"political". Both the law firm and
Glamour Magazine issued apologies
to the staff.[32][33]
In 2009, Chris Rock produced Good
Hair, a documentary film which
addresses a number of issues
pertaining to African-American hair.
He explores the styling industry, the
variety of styles now acceptable in
society for African-American women's
hair, and the relations of these to
African-American culture.
The Kenyan model Ajuma Nasenyana
has criticized a trend in her native
Kenya that rejects the indigenous
Black African physical standards of
beauty in favour of those of other
communities. In a 2012 interview
with the Kenyan broadsheet the Daily
Nation, she said,

[I]t seems that the world is

conspiring in preaching that
there is something wrong with
Kenyan ladies' kinky hair and
dark skin[...] Their leaflets are
all about skin lightening, and
they seem to be doing good
business in Kenya. It just
shocks me. It's not OK for a
Caucasian to tell us to lighten
our skin [...] I have never
attempted to change my skin. I
am natural. People in Europe
and America love my dark
skin. But here in Kenya, in my
home country, some consider it
not attractive.[34]
In November 2012, the American
actress Jada Pinkett Smith defended
her daughter Willow's hair on
Facebook after the girl was criticized
for an "unkempt" look. "Even little
girls should not be a slave to the
preconceived ideas of what a culture
believes a little girl should be", the
actress said.[35]
In 2014, Stacia L. Brown related her
story of feeling anxious about how
her hair was styled prior to walking in
for a job interview in her article "My
Hair, My Politics". Brown begins her
story describing her "Big Chop", a
phrase used to indicate cutting off
the relaxed or processed hair. A
couple months after her big chop,
she entered the job market and
became very nervous about how her
hair would appear to interviewers.
Luckily, none of the interviewers
acknowledged her hair in a
discriminating way. Brown later
discussed the first appearance of
"the bush" as a political statement
and related it to her situation,
worrying that her hair could be seen
as a "professional liability". She then
compared her natural hair, which is
easier to style, and her relaxed hair,
which is more accepted. Brown also
incorporated examples of workplace
discrimination toward Black hair
styles. She recalls how "the
Congressional Black Caucus took the
U.S. military to task for its grooming
policies, which barred cornrows,
twists, and dreadlocks."[36](Brown 17)
Brown followed up with another
example from the same year in which
the Transportation Security
Administration has "come under fire
for disproportionately patting down
black women's hair—especially their
Afros."[36](Brown 17) She continued,
stating, "It's a practice TSA only
agreed to stop a few months ago,
when the agency reached an
agreement with ACLU of Northern
California, which had filed a
complaint in 2012."[36](Brown 17)
The perception of kinky hair, in the
eyes of one with this hair type, may
prefer to style their hair in a way that
accentuates their racial background
or they may conform to a more
European hair style.
In 2016, the article "Beauty as
violence: 'beautiful' hair and the
cultural violence of identity erasure"
discussed a study that was
conducted at a South African
university. 159 African female
students looked at 20 pictures of
various styles of afro-textured hair
and categorized these styles as one
of four types: African Natural Hair,
Braided African Natural Hair, African
Natural Augmented Braid, and
European/Asian Hairstyles. The
results showed that "only 15.1% of
respondents identified the category
of African natural hair as
beautiful."[37](Oyedemi 546) Braided
natural hair had 3.1%, braided natural
augmented hair had 30.8%, and
European/Asian hair had 51%. Author
Toks Oyedemi speaks on these
findings as, "evidences the cultural
violence of symbolic indoctrination
that involves the perception of
beautiful hair as mainly of a
European/Asian texture and style and
has created a trend where this type
of hair is associated with being
beautiful and preferable to other hair
texture, in this instance, natural
African hair."[37](Oyedemi 546) This
article shows the telling truth of how
African girls feel about their own hair,
a perception that demonstrates a
lack of self acceptance.
This perception is reversed in another
experiment, this time performed in
the United States.
Published in 2016, the article entitled
"African American Personal
Presentation: Psychology of Hair and
Self Perception" summarized an
experimental procedure conducted in
America, using data from five urban
areas across the country and females
ages 18–65. A questionnaire was
administered which determined how
"African American women internalize
beauty and wearing of hair through
examination of locus of control and
self-esteem."[38](Ellis-Hervey 879)
The results showed a positive
correlation between high internal
locus of control and wearing hair in
its natural state. American women
have a feeling of empowerment when
it comes to wearing their natural hair.
In 2019, the California State
Assembly unanimously voted to pass
the CROWN Act, a law that would
prohibit discrimination based on
hairstyle and hair texture.[39] This was
followed in coming years by similar
laws in New York, New Jersey,
Washington, Maryland, Virginia, and
Colorado.[40] In 2022, a similar law,
the CROWN Act of 2022, was passed
in the US House of
Representatives.[41][42]
In other diasporic African
populations

Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize–winning

American author, with dreadlocks

During the 19th century, throughout

the West Indies, the teachings of
Jamaican political leader Marcus
Garvey encouraged an active
rejection of European standards of
beauty. The resulting Rastafari
movement of the 20th century has
maintained that the growth of
freeform dreadlocks is related to
spiritual enlightenment, largely
informed by the Biblical Nazirite oath.
The Rastafari movement has been so
influential in the visibility and
subsequent popularity of dreadlocks,
throughout the Caribbean and in the
global African diaspora, that the term
rasta has become synonymous with a
dreadlocked individual. Today,
dreadlocks are common among Afro-
Caribbeans and Afro-Latin
Americans.
Styling

2:09
An example of a braid-out tutorial on natural hair

Over the years, natural hair styles

and trends have varied from media
influences and political climates.[15]
The care and styling of natural Black
hair has become an enormous
industry in the United States.
Numerous salons and beauty supply
stores cater solely to clients with
natural afro-textured hair.
The Afro is a large, often spherical
growth of afro-textured hair that
became popular during the Black
Power movement. The Afro has a
number of variants including afro
puffs (a cross between an Afro and
pigtails) and a variant in which the
Afro is treated with a blow dryer to
become a flowing mane. The hi-top
fade was common among African-
American men and boys in the 1980s
and has since been replaced in
popularity by the 360 waves and the
Caesar haircut.
Other styles include plaits or braids,
the two-strand twist, and basic
twists, all of which can form into
manicured dreadlocks if the hair is
allowed to knit together in the style-
pattern. Basic twists include finger-
coils and comb-coil twists.
Dreadlocks, also called dreads, locks
or locs, can also be formed by
allowing the hairs to weave together
on their own from an Afro. Another
option is the trademarked
"Sisterlocks" method, which produces
what could be called very neat
micro-dreadlocks.[43] Faux locs, a
type of synthetic dreadlock which is
obtained using extensions, are
another style.[44]
Manicure locks—alternatively called
salon locks or fashion locks—have
numerous styling options that
include strategic parting, sectioning
and patterning of the dreads. Popular
dreadlocked styles include cornrows,
the braid-out style or "lock crinkles",
the basket weave and pipe-cleaner
curls. Others include a variety of
dreaded mohawks or lock-hawks, a
variety of braided buns, and
combinations of basic style elements.
Natural hair can also be styled into
"Bantu knots", which involves
sectioning the hair with square or
triangular parts and fastening it into
tight buns or knots on the head.
Bantu knots can be made from either
loose natural hair or dreadlocks.[45]
When braided flat against the scalp,
natural hair can be worn as basic
cornrows or form a countless variety
of artistic patterns.
Other styles include the "natural"
(also known as a "mini-fro" or "teenie
weenie Afro") and "microcoils" for
close-cropped hair, the twist-out and
braid-out (in which hair is trained in
twists or braids before being
unravelled), "Brotherlocks" and
"Sisterlocks", the fade, twists
(Havana, Senegalese, crochet), faux
locs, braids (Ghana, box, crochet,
cornrows), Bantu knots, bubbles
(where hair elastics are used to hold
the hair and create bubbles), custom
wigs and weaves or any combination
of styles such as cornrows and Afro-
puffs.
A majority of Black hairstyles involve
parting the natural hair into
individual sections before styling.[46]
Research shows that excessive
braiding, tight cornrows, relaxing,
and vigorous dry-combing of kinky
hair can be harmful to the hair and
scalp. They have also been known to
cause ailments such as alopecia,
excessive dry scalp, and bruises on
the scalp. Keeping hair moisturized,
trimming ends, and using very little
to no heat will prevent breakage and
split ends.
See also
Afro
Artificial hair integrations (Hair
weaves)
Bad Hair
Conk
Cornrows
Dreadlocks
Hair iron
Hair Like Mine
 Hair loss (Alopecia)
Hair straightening
Hair twists
Hi-top fade
Hot comb
Jheri curl
List of hairstyles
Natural hair movement
Nubian wig
Polish plait
Relaxer
Waves (hairstyle)
Woolly hair, an unrelated condition
Notes
1L G (A t 2001) "Af i
1. Loussouarn G (August 2001). "African
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(https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusI
D:29264439) .
2. Walker, Andre (2 May 1997). Andre Talks
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What Type of African/Black Hair Do You
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3373/1/LOIS-HAIR-SYSTEM-What-Type
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ge1.html) . From Grandma's Kitchen.
Archived from the original (http://fromgr
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5. Franbourg; et al. (2007). "Influence of
Ethnic Origin of Hair on Water-Keratin
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doi:10.1111/j.1473-2165.2007.00326.x
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External links
Media related to Afro-textured hair
at Wikimedia Commons
The dictionary definition of afro-
textured hair at Wiktionary
Image of a woman modeling a
hairstyle inspired by the 50s, 1972. (h
ttp://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewIte
m.do?ark=21198/zz0002nnfk) Los
Angeles Times Photographic Archive
(Collection 1429). UCLA Library
Special Collections, Charles E. Young
Research Library, University of
California, Los Angeles.
Image of a woman modeling a
straightened, short hairstyle by Mitch
Pasqualie, 1972. (http://digital2.librar
y.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz
0002nnd2) Los Angeles Times
Photographic Archive (Collection
1429). UCLA Library Special
Collections, Charles E. Young
Research Library, University of
California, Los Angeles.
Image of a woman modeling a short
and curly hairdo by hair stylist Eddie
Mitchell, 1972. (http://digital2.library.
 ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0
002nng3) Los Angeles Times
Photographic Archive (Collection
1429). UCLA Library Special
Collections, Charles E. Young
Research Library, University of
California, Los Angeles.
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Afro-textured_hair&oldid=1166819172"

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