Many of you will be familiar with the iconic fist afro comb. Romani in Mass production, largely from China, has introduced more flexible, plastic designs with a splash of colour, reducing the popularity of those original rigid wooden combs. The exhibition lovingly wove together history, politics and socialism whilst leaving room for personal experience too. For most Black people, hair grooming is a communal experience and this exhibition actively encouraged visitors to share those stories and become a living, breathing part of the showcase.
One of the exhibits recreated the typical hair salon complete with the iconic hair dryer Unlike your standard dryer that blows hot air or steam, this one tickled the auditory senses with hair stories from ordinary people piped through the dryer helmet.
A perfect end to a great day. Many of us have our own intimate hair stories to tell, whether that involves being sandwiched between your mother's legs or Saturday outings to the hairdresser. What does the afro comb mean to you? Previous Post Next Post. The exhibition also has multiple partners including the Petrie Museum where workshops and talks have been held relating to hair and combs. Here you can take a trail around the Museum to explore objects related to hair and hairstyling from Ancient Egypt.
It is apparent that this exhibition is ground-breaking and very much worth seeing, but another reason to see this exhibition is that it provides a unique opportunity to see 28 combs from the Petrie collection which shows pieces not generally seen in the Museum.
Filed under Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. Great article, thanks. Name required. Mail will not be published required. Conventional black men and men with middle-class aspirations kept their hair short and did not straighten it. In the late s and early s, awareness of newly independent African nations and the victories and setbacks of the civil rights movement encouraged feelings of hope and anger, as well as exploration of identity among young African Americans.
The Afro originated in that political and emotional climate. The style fit with a broader generational rejection of artifice but more importantly, it expressed defiance of racist beauty norms, rejection of middle-class conventions, and pride in black beauty. The unstraightened hair of the Afro was simultaneously a way to celebrate the cultural and physical distinctiveness of the race and to reject practices associated with emulation of whites.
Dancers, jazz and folk musicians, and university students may have enjoyed greater freedom to defy conventional styles than ordinary working women and were the first to wear unstraightened styles. In the late s a few black modern dancers who tired of continually touching-up straightened hair that perspiration had returned to kinkiness, decided to wear short unstraightened hair.
Ruth Beckford, who performed with Katherine Dunham, recalled the confused reactions she received when she wore a short unstraightened haircut. Strangers offered her cures to help her hair grow and a young student asked the shapely Miss Beckford if she was a man. Around , in politically active circles on the campuses of historically black colleges and in civil rights movement organizations, a few young black women adopted natural hairstyles.
Though these women are primarily known as performing artists, political commitments were integral to their work. They sang lyrics calling for racial justice and performed at civil rights movement rallies and fund-raisers. In and Abbey Lincoln toured with Grandassa, a group of models and entertainers whose fashion shows promoted the link between black pride and what had begun to be called variously the "au naturel," "au naturelle," or "natural" look.
When the mainstream black press took note of unstraightened hair, reporters generally insinuated that wearers of "au naturelle" styles had sacrificed their sex appeal for their politics.
They could not yet see unstraightened hair as beautiful. Though they received support for the style among fellow activists, the first women who wore unstraightened styles experienced shocked stares, ridicule, and insults for wearing styles that were perceived as appalling rejections of community standards. Many of these women had conflicts with their elders who thought of hair straightening as essential good grooming.
Ironically, a few black female students who were isolated at predominantly white colleges experienced acceptance from white radicals who were unfamiliar with black community norms. More mainstream whites, however, saw the style as shockingly unconventional and some employers banned Afros from the workplace. As more women abandoned hair straightening, the natural became a recognizable style and a frequent topic of debate in the black press.
Increasing numbers of women stopped straightening their hair as the practice became emblematic of racial shame. At a rally, the black leader Stokely Carmichael fused style, politics, and self-love when he told the crowd: "We have to stop being ashamed of being black.
A broad nose, a thick lip, and nappy hair is us and we are going to call that beautiful whether they like it or not. We are not going to fry our hair anymore" Bracey, Meier, and Rudwick , p. The phrase "black is beautiful" was everywhere and it summed up a new aesthetic ranking that valued the beauty of dark brown skin and the tight curls of unstraightened hair.
Increasing numbers of activists adopted the hairstyle and the media disseminated their images. By the Afro was firmly associated with political activism. Women who wore unstraightened hair could feel that their hair identified them with the emerging black power movement. Televised images of Black Panther Party members wearing black leather jackets, black berets, sunglasses, and Afros projected the embodiment of black radicalism.
Some men and many women began to grow larger Afros. Eventually only hair that was cut in a large round shape was called an Afro, while other unstraightened haircuts were called naturals. As larger numbers of black men and women wore the Afro, workplace and intergenerational conflicts lessened.
In Kent cigarettes and Pepsi-cola developed print advertisements featuring women with large Afros. Decorative Afro picks with black power fist-shaped handles or African motifs were popular fashion items.
While continuing to market older products for straightening hair, manufacturers of black hair-care products formulated new products for Afro care. The electric "blow-out comb" combined a blow-dryer and an Afro pick for styling large Afros. Wig manufacturers introduced Afro wigs. Though the Afro's origins were in the United States, Johnson Products, longtime manufacturer of hair-straightening products, promoted its new line of Afro Sheen products with the Swahili words for "beautiful people" in radio and print advertisements that stated "Wantu Wazuri use Afro Sheen.
In British Vogue published Patrick Lichfield's photograph of Marsha Hunt, who posed nude except for arm and ankle bands and her grand round Afro.
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