Black hair: A visual Identity.
Black hair is undoubtedly one of the most unique ways we represent ourselves. Throughout history, black hair represented identity, age, religion, tribe, status, etc. In fashion and lifestyle culture, Black women and men portray their identity and visual perspective of themselves with their hair.
In 2022, I wanted to use my artistic talent to showcase and celebrate the beauty of black hair. So I created an art challenge dubbed ‘Black Hair’ (#BHMblackhair). I launched this drawing challenge on Instagram with a prompt of 14 hairstyles that celebrated the variety of styles in the Black/African Hair Community.
This set of hairstyles does not even begin to showcase the vast variety of black hair. But we can start somewhere, right? Let’s get into these hairstyles.
1. Cornrows
Cornrows are an African style of braiding where the hair is braided flat against the scalp to make a continuous, raised row. It was visually compared to cornfields. During slavery, slaves used to braid up their hair to use as maps to escape to freedom & also as a sign of resistance.
2. Bantu Knots
The word “Bantu” was a term used to identify about 600 ethnic groups living within southern Africa. This style originated from the Zulu tribe, with historical relevance tracing back to the 2nd millennium BC. It was said that the curls and coils of Black hair were resembling shapes in the cosmos.
When the Dutch colonized Southern Africa, they used the word Bantu as a derogatory term to marginalize southern Africans. South Africans, however, reclaimed the Zulu Word, which means “people.”
Many famous people, like Rihanna & Lupita Nyongo, rock this hairstyle. It will forever be a sacred hairstyle that reminds us to reclaim the beauty of our African roots.
3. Box Braids
Braids or ‘Plaits’ date back to 3500 BC. The origin of braids can be traced back 5000 years in African culture to 3500 B, started by the Himba people of Namibia. Many African societies used braided styles as an identity marker of wealth, marital status, power, religion, and tribe.
Braiding was and still is a source of art.
4. Amasunzu
The Amasunzu hairstyle dates back over 500 years from the Tutsi and Hutu people in Rwanda. The hairstyle embodied a traditional African heritage worn by warriors, symbolizing their strength and bravery. Single young girls wore it as a symbol of their virginity, and many more people wore this hairstyle.
Lupita Nyongo has worn this style iconically, bringing its history to the limelight and showcasing the beauty of this African hairstyle.
5. Fulani Braids
Fulani Braids originated from the Fulani (Fula) people in West Africa and the Sahel region. They were nomadic people who continued to pass on their traditional way of doing hair throughout the generations. Many of the Fulani people were brought to America through slavery between the 16th and the 19th century during the slave trade. Fulani braids are a mixture of half cornrows and half box braids.
6. African Threads
Popularized by the Yoruba tribe and gained popularity across Africa, African threading is a common way of styling black hair in many African societies.
Many African women use threading to achieve a straighter hair texture. They also use this as a protective style to grow their hair.
7. Beaded Braids
The wearing of hair jewelry in the form of beads, shells, and coins was a way to interpret someone’s identity. Some of the earliest beads used as adornment for braids were made from shells that date back 76,000 years.
For example, in Ancient Egypt, white glazed pottery or jasper rings were used in wigs, symbolizing status, wealth, and authority. In West African societies, hair embellishments denoted tribal lineage and marital status. Fulani women across the Sahel region adorn their braid styles with silver or bronze discs.
In today’s modern world, hair beads and adornments are more stylistic than used as a status symbol.
8. Dreadlocks
Lock hair strands together by twisting them or leaving them to matte until individual ropes. That is the tapestry that forms dreadlocks.
Dreadlocks are popularly associated with Rastafarians and the Jamaican culture, but they originated in Africa.
From Ancient Egyptian pharaohs to people of the Himba tribe in Namibia, locks are worn in various ways. Some lock types include Sisterlocs, micro locs, free-form locs, traditional, wick locs, faux locs, and more.
9. High Top Fade
The 80s gave birth to Hip Hop, which had a huge cultural impact on style. The High-Top fade became a fan favorite amongst black men because of icons like Grace Jones and Will Smith in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
10. Afro
By the ’60s and ’70s, the natural hair movement & the black power movement inspired many African Americans to accept their natural hair instead of using harmful products to achieve straighter textures.
Wearing your afro loud and proud symbolized black beauty and pride. It was a way to reject the European standards of hair beauty and pave the way for a new generation of people who would love and accept their hair.
Activists such as Angela Davis were among the women who fought for the right to bear our hair as is and battled against the unprofessional stereotype others had labeled it with.
11. Headwraps
Headwraps go as far back as the 13th century, in a location that would be modern-day Iraq. In African society, headwraps have multiple names. They’re known as ‘Dukus’ in Ghana, ‘Geles’ in Nigeria, ‘Doeks’ in South Africa, and so on. During the early 1700s in Sub-Saharan Africa, women wearing headwraps took on a different meaning. For some cultures, headwraps symbolized a high social status. In other tribes, married women wore headwraps in the presence of their in-laws as a sign of respect. Headwraps served as a prominent mechanism to protect women’s hair from the Sahara sun. During the slave trade, captured African women were forced to wear headwraps to signify their servitude.
In modern times, headwraps are used by multiple black women across the globe in many ways. Headwraps are used as protective styling, protecting your hair from harmful things, as adornments to celebrations and fashion statements.
12. Twa’s
TWA Stands for Teeny weeny afro. Most women who have gone through the big chop boldly style their short afros to show their renewed start to grow their natural hair instead of having their hair chemically straightened by hair relaxers.
Black Hair is a canvas, and we are the artists — Unknown
Thank you for taking the time to read through this celebration of black hair.
If you want to know more about the history of black hair, check out some of these articles below;
The History of African women Hairstyles