Our Afro-Textured Hairstory

Race is not only defined by skin colour

Upon meeting someone for the first time, the person’s hair may be one of the defining physical attributes that you remember them by. Based on the texture, style, length, and colour of one’s hair, we often (implicitly or explicitly) form an impression of that person’s identity, including their racial background, gender, religion, or even socioeconomic status. For example, well-groomed hair involves frequent visits to barbershops and salons, which may be an indicator of one’s financial success. While hair can be an important reflection of one’s social identity, this is especially true when it comes to the Black community. Hair and hairstyling play a major role in structuring the Black experience as Black people’s hair has been linked to politics and cultural scrutiny for centuries.

The historical importance of hair in Black communities

However, a new set of meanings were forced upon Black people’s hair when the transatlantic slave trade began in 1526. Between 1526 and 1867, around 12.5 million enslaved men, women, and children were shipped from Africa to the rest of the world, with their traditions forcibly left behind in their native homes. All enslaved Africans’ heads were shaven by slave traders in an attempt to strip away the slaves’ connection to their African cultures. Given the cultural and spiritual significance of hair in Africa, this was a particularly dehumanizing act. Black hair was cast as “animalistic”, “deviant”, and “abnormal” and these labels were used by many Europeans involved in the slave trade to justify the “inferiority” of African heritage. As a direct psychological effect, Black people, especially Black women, have often internalized this perception of “inferiority” linked to Black hair, becoming self-conscious and even ashamed of their natural hair. The slave era precipitated the negative stereotyping around Black hair and withdrew Black people from their traditions and heritage in order to conform to the white standards of beauty and hairstyles.

“The emulation of European styles was to push back against the idea that we were inferior.”

Lori Tharps, a co-author of Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America.

Racism and Black natural hair in the 20th century

Despite the many decades that have passed since the abolishment of slavery, the societal standards of “normal” hairstyles persist today and continue to marginalize Black people living in Western society. As the number of incidents related to discrimination against Black natural hair continues to grow, it becomes evident that the struggle for acceptance is far from over.

When she replied, “I’m not interested,” in regards to changing her hairstyle, she was told the request was mandatory if she “wanted to keep [her] job” (Cox, 2014). Similarly, the United States Military recently revised their list of permitted female hairstyles to include “multiple braids,” “twists,” and “afros” (which is often the natural state in which Black hair grows) as unauthorized, in addition to calling them “matted and unkempt” (Rhodan, 2014). In light of these injustices, we can look in the past for greater strength and courage to endure the fight against racism and preserve the beauty of African heritage and black hair.

The Afro: A symbol of resistance, self-empowerment, and fight against racism

“Negroes and colored folk were becoming black people,” and for many, that meant accepting “a new, Black-identified visual aesthetic, an aesthetic that not only incorporated an alternative to straight hair but actually celebrated it.”

Ayana Byrd and Lori Tharps in Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black hair in America.

The Afro: A target of repression

The late 1960s and 1970s was the era of a movement that permeated the Black communities in America. Afros and black hairstyles were worn by college students, activists and in Blaxploitation films. Despite the positive outcomes of this liberation, many prominent activist groups were forced to go into hiding from law enforcement, becoming targets for arrests and interrogation. In “Afro Images: Politics, Fashion, and Nostalgia,” Angela Davis discusses the photographs of herself in FBI posters and how it affected the perceptions of others, specifically other natural-haired Black women:

While the most obvious evidence of their power was the part they played in structuring people’s opinions about me as a “fugitive” and a political prisoner, their more subtle and wide-ranging effect was the way they served as generic images of Black women who wore their hair “natural.” From the constant stream of stories I have heard over the last twenty-four years (and continue to hear), I infer that hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of Afro-wearing Black women were accosted, harassed, and arrested by police, FBI, and immigration agents during the two months I spent underground. One woman, who told me that she hoped she could serve as a “decoy” because of her light skin and big natural [hair], was obviously conscious of the way the photographs constructed generic representations of young Black women. Consequently, the photographs identified vast numbers of my Black female contemporaries who wore naturals (whether light- or dark-skinned) as targets of repression. This is the hidden historical content that lurks behind the continued association of my name with the Afro.

1980s to 1990s: Decline of the natural hair movement

21st Century: Going back to our roots

Crimped hair, flipped ends, ponytails, micro braids, laid edges, and hair accessories galore! Black hair has come full circle in the way of trends, expression, and styles, being used not only as a fashion statement but as a way to embrace the natural, beautiful self. Relaxer sales were in decline in the 2000s with women embracing wigs, extensions, and braids as protective styles and silk presses and blow-dried/flat ironed hair. From the mid-2010s to now, many Black folks returned to the natural hair movement, not only with afros and big curly hair but with voluminous tresses, wash-n-go’s, elaborate cornrows and braid ups.