India Aire
I Am Not My Hair
The History of African-American Hair Care
Ever since African slaves were brought to America we were taught to devalue ourselves. Everything about us was considered lesser from our dark skin to our tightly coiled hair. Whiteness became "good" and Blackness became "bad". We learned to hate ourselves and our hair, learning from the pain that was brought through slavery. Along with slavery came the forced mixing of races, when slave masters would have sex with their female slaves. This created the wide variety of skin tones and hair textures we see today.
Extension by Annie Lee
We would be remiss not to mention one of the black hair care icons, Madam C. J. Walker. She was one of the pioneers of African American hair care in the United States. She promoted a "wholistic" approach to African American hair care, focusing on healing, and self-pride. She is wrongly portrayed as encouraging black women to straighten their hair in order to be more like their European counterparts. This is false. Madam C. J. Walker promoted the more natural method of using the hot comb to straighten hair, rather than the damaging "hair-puller" that is similar to the flat-iron today. Her Walker Beauty System was an innovative grooming method that healed the scalp and promoted hair growth. Her techniques paved the way for many styling procedures used today.
With the end of slavery came a great need in the black community for beauticians and barbers that knew how to work with and care for black hair. During slavery, while African - American slaves learned how to do the hair of their owners, many of us lost the art of doing our own hair. Thankfully, some slaves kept up with traditional styling techniques such as braiding. Braiding is an ancient technique, older than slavery and not confined to the African culture. Those techniques have evolved into the styles and artistry you see in black hair styling today.
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