African-American hair, also known as Black hair, refers to natural hair textures, styles and cultural practices associated with people of African descent in the United States. It is most commonly kinky or curly, but it can vary in texture and density. Beyond appearance, Black hair has strong cultural, historical, and social meaning. It has been used to express identity, creativity, and community, while also being shaped by discrimination and beauty standards. In recent years, movements like the natural hair movement and laws such as the CROWN Act have helped promote acceptance and protect against hair-based discrimination.
Color and texture
Color Black hair is the product of an inherited genetic trait. The most studied black hair gene is MC1R which causes the body to produce a protein called melanocortin. This protein causes hair follicles to produce a type of melanin pigmentation called eumelanin. Black hair has the highest concentration of this pigmentation with brown, blonde and red hair following behind. In old age, hair comes to turn grey due to the inability of the hair follicle to produce eumelanin. This inability happens after the pigmentation cells in hair follicles die off.
Texture
African-American hair comes in a range of textures, but it is most commonly tightly curled or coiled. This texture is influenced by the shape of the hair follicles, where more oval-shaped follicles produce kinkier hair. Hair can also vary in thickness and density, which affects how full it appears. In general Density represents the amount of hairs that grow from the head, with denser hair resulting from more hairs growing closer together from the scalp. An individual with high-density hair creates a fuller appearance of curls.
A protective oil called sebum is produced from the scalp to help strengthen and protect hair. However, because of the kink pattern, these natural oils do not easily spread from the roots to the end. As a result, African-American hair can become dry and more prone to breakage without proper moisture and care.
History African origins Since the beginning of African civilizations, hairstyles have been used to convey messages to a greater society. Before boundaries divided Africa into states and countries through colonization, the continent was divided into kingdoms and clans. Within these kingdoms and clans, different hairstyles could "indicate a person's marital status, age, religion, ethnic identity, wealth, rank," surname, health status, geographic origin and the clan to which they belonged. A Wolof man's braided beard could indicate that he was preparing for war. In the Himba tribe, dreadlocks worn down in front of a female's face was a sign that she was going through puberty, while dreadlocks tied at the back of the head were worn by women seeking marriage. Erembe headdresses signified new mothers and married women. In Yoruba culture, people braided their hair to send messages to the gods. As the most elevated part of the body, hair was considered a portal for spirits to pass through to the soul. According to a 20th-century study, the Yoruba often shaved the heads of newborns as a marker of each individual arising from the spirit world. A person's head was shaved again at death to signal the individual's return to the spirit world.
Hair maintenance in traditional Africa was a time-consuming process that aimed at creating a sense of beauty and honoring its spiritual power. According to author Sylvia Arden Boone,
Hair was considered divine due to its position at the top of the head, and to allow someone to touch it meant you could trust them. Therefore, hair maintenance was only entrusted to relatives and hairdressers for fear of enemies bringing ill-will to the person in need of hair care. The hair maintenance process could last anywhere from hours to days and involves “washing, combing, oiling, braiding, twisting, and/or decorating the hair.” The Himba people, for example, styled dreadlocks using ground ochre, goat hair, butter and hair extensions. Hair that was clean and neatly braided or arranged with adornments such as beads or shells was a sign of vitality, whereas unkempt and dirty hair signified affliction.
During slavery
Slaves were often forced by Europeans to shave their heads to prevent lice contracted from the dirty inhumane quarters of slave ships but also to strip them from their culture.
Due to North America's Indigenous population being decimated by European colonists' extreme labor conditions, insufficient diet, violence and diseases, Europeans began aiding in kidnapping and forcibly trafficking Africans to British North America in the early 1600s. Before transporting them, captors and traders shaved the heads of all African adults and children taken captive. The claimed purpose for this action was to prepare for the unsanitary conditions of the slave ships. Due to the cultural and spiritual importance of hair for Africans, the practice of having their heads involuntarily shaved before being sold as enslaved people was in itself a dehumanizing act. In Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America, Byrd and Tharps write:
Once their hair began to grow back, many enslaved people did not have the time or the tools to properly maintain their hair, and it became tangled and matted as a result. Enslaved people worked every day of the week, lived in poor conditions and faced the risk of head lice and ringworm. To protect themselves from the sun, dirt, and scalp afflictions, women repurposed unwanted fabrics into hair scarves or kerchiefs (especially if they worked outdoors), while men who worked outdoors wore sun-hats with their hair cut short or completely shaved off.
In describing runaway enslaved people in wanted ads, slaveowners proved that many enslaved people were able to style and maintain their hair after it grew back.
Men and women were often given similar clothing to wear and labor tasks to complete, so to achieve a more feminine appearance and differentiate themselves from the men, some women ironed their hair to make it sleek. They also wrapped their hair by brushing it and binding small sections of it with a material such as thread or cotton to prevent knotting. This technique, known as "wrapping" or "threading", shaped the hair into a curl pattern that women kept protected under a scarf or kerchief while working, and took down for special occasions such as church service or weddings.
Plaits, braids and cornrows were the most convenient hairstyles to keep their hair neat and maintained for a week. Enslaved people who worked indoors were forced to wear their hair in one of those styles or a style similar to that of their slaveowner if they did not cover their hair with a scarf, kerchief or wig. By the early 19th century, Sunday was legally declared a day of rest and religious observation, and on Sundays, enslaved people braided each other's hair using the grease or oil they had available, such as butter or goose grease. They used wool carding tools to detangle their hair, kerosene, and cornmeal to cleanse the scalp. Fats, oils and eggs were used as conditioner. Enslaved people in North America named cornrows for their resemblance to rows of corn in a field. (In Central and South America and the Caribbean, enslaved people called the style "canerows" because of its resemblance to sugarcane fields.) Braid patterns became symbols for freedom, and different styles and patterns were used as guides to plantations, resembling roads and paths to travel or avoid.
Racial attitudes among White people in 17th and 18th century America held a negative connotation of the afro-textured hair of enslaved Africans and African-Americans. They called afro-textured hair "wool" in an effort to deem it inferior to the texture of their own hair. Since the onset of the enslavement of Africans in British America, the slurs "kinky" and "nappy" were also used by White people to express disapproval of afro-textured hair. It was also mocked through caricatured stereotypes of Africans and African-Americans in the media, which motivated women especially to keep their hair covered. Although the practice of wearing head scarves was forced upon women by law or by slaveowners, the type of head covering worn came to symbolize respectability, and could distinguish a married woman from an unmarried woman or a fieldworker from a houseworker.
After slavery After slavery was abolished in the United States, negative attitudes about the appearance of Black Americans and derogatory terms for afro-textured hair persisted into the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras because Black people were still considered inferior to White people. During this time, wig manufacturers were the only companies that advertised a Black standard of beauty. Afro-textured hair worn in its natural state was still considered undesirable, and media promoted a Eurocentric beauty ideal that included straight hair. In her article "Hairitage: Women Writing Race in Children's Literature", literary critic Dianne Johnson notes an early 20th-century advertisement:
One of Winold Reiss's Brown Madonna (1925) most famous works, reimagines Black women as maternal and spiritual figures with straight hair. The image serves as the frontispiece of The New Negro, a text written to counter negative Black stereotypes and redefine Black people during the New Negro Movement.Arnold Rampersad, introduction to The New Negro: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance, 1992
For some African Americans, the notion of assimilation in to White American society was ideal, because it held a perceived promise of better socioeconomic status. One way they attempted to assimilate was by straightening their hair to fit the White American beauty ideal.
To straighten their hair, African-American women used a hair product and wide-bristled pressing or hot comb, a metal tool that was heated in an oven or on a stove before it was passed through the hair. It was later mass-produced in a simpler, self-heating form. It could take hours to complete the straightening process, and because of the high temperature of the hot comb, burning and damaging the hair or skin were always high-risk. Because it easily absorbs moisture, afro-textured hair straightened with a hot comb can quickly return to its tightly coiled state if exposed to too much moisture, such as rain or humidity. African-American men typically wore their hair relatively short, and they avoided passing a hot comb through their hair, because it was more difficult and dangerous to do so.
From the early to mid-20th century, conking was a popular style for African-American men, and required the use of a chemical treatment known as a relaxer or perm, which achieved longer-lasting straightening results. The practice of using a relaxer began during slavery, when enslaved men covered their hair in axle grease to straighten and dye it. Before the late 1960s, there were no publications that explained how to straighten afro-textured hair with chemicals. The earliest chemical straighteners caused severe hair breakage and dyed the hair red, so it was not until the mid-20th century that relaxers became a popular and longer-lasting alternative to hot combs for African-American women. Both men and women coated their hair with a strong acid that stripped the outer layer and altered the shape of the hair shaft, causing it to "relax" or straighten, and the longer the chemical was left on the hair, the straighter the hair would become. If left on the hair too long, the relaxer could burn the scalp and cause sores to form.
Civil rights era
The Afro, which hit its stride in the 1960s, was an expression of pride, connection, power, revolution and differentiation. The Afro first gained popularity with performers, artists, activists, youth and nationalists.Sieber, Roy, and Frank Herreman, eds. Hair in African Art and Culture. New York: Museum for African Art and Prestel, 2000. Print.