On a cold, sunny afternoon, February 15, 1990, a workshop on African-inspired hair braiding attracted a standing-room-only crowd at the Library of Congress. Members of the American Folklife Center staff who planned the event were amazed at the enthusiastic turnout. Elderly women, former residents of Georgia and the Carolinas, recalled wearing their hair wrapped in black thread, a nearly forgotten technique - which is still widely practiced throughout Africa - brought to the Untied States during slavery and which has gained broader appeal in the contemporary wave of interest in Afro-centric hair-styles.
Discussions on the art and aesthetic of African hair braiding are taking place beyond the boundaries of beauty salons. Ivy-covered towers, city council chambers, and even courtrooms serve as venues for discourse on the suitability of cornrows in a professional environment. More and more African-American women wear braided and beaded styles, and many of them, along with stylists and other concerned parties, lobby for alternatives to the harsh, damaging chemical straighteners offered by most neighborhood beauty salons.
When queried about the meanings and values of wearing her hair in braids, Diane Green, a Smithsonian employee who has encountered no complaints at work, answered, "I've been wearing my hair in its natural state since I was nineteen years old. The reason I wear cornrows is not heavy or political. It's about acceptance of myself. I feel good about it." She added, "My wearing cornrows is a function of utility and expediency as well as an extension of cultural expression. It works! It shows my features to the best degree. It's easier to keep up than anything else."
Early origins
Coiffure has always been central to he African's cultural aesthetic. Traditionally hairdressing had more significance than just enhancing personal appearance. Age, sex, place of birth, wealth, occupation, marital status, place of origin, and social standing could be defined by a hairstyle and its adornments. Special rites of passage - into adulthood, marriage, motherhood, or priesthood, for instance - merited special hairdos to mark the occasion. As such, the skilled stylist, whether a family member, friend, or professional practitioner, transmitted cultural values as well as created a pleasing appearance.
Art history books reveal that Africans have been braiding their hair for at least 5,000 years. Also, there is evidence to suggest that many preferred the natural appearance of hair, today called dreadlocks. Sculptures and artifacts of some early pharaohs appear to depict them. The back of the head of the famous Sphinx reveals braids. Diane N'Diaye writes in her exhibit brochure for the Brooklyn Community Museum "Arts of Adornment" that the mummy of Akhenaton - the predecessor of Tut-Anhk-Amen - was discovered with his hair in the natural state, neither combed nor shorn. Some of the earliest Nok and Benin busts from Nigeria show intricate braided hairstyles.
Rastafarians, who originated the appellation dreadlocks, did not adopt the style to create a new vogue; based on a Nazarite vow (Numbers 6:5), they declared that they will never allow a comb or scissor to touch their locks. To achieve this hairstyle only requires shampoo, water, and hair oil; the natural disposition of African hair is that when wet, it assumes the tight coils
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