African-American hair
[11] Hair maintenance in traditional Africa was a time-consuming process that aimed at creating a sense of beauty and honoring its spiritual power.
According to author Sylvia Arden Boone,[10] A woman with long thick hair demonstrated the life force, the multiplying power of profusion, prosperity...a green thumb for raising bountiful farms and many healthy children.Hair was considered divine due to its position at the top of the head, and to allow someone to touch it meant you could trust them.
[19][18] Due to the cultural and spiritual importance of hair for Africans, the practice of having their heads involuntarily shaved before being sold as enslaved people was in itself a dehumanizing act.
[21][22] Enslaved people worked every day of the week, lived in poor conditions and faced the risk of head lice and ringworm.
[24] ...some slaves wore their hair long and bushy on top and ...others cut it short, or combed and parted it neatly, or shaved it at the back or at the front, or trimmed it to a roll.
An African American's hair might be closely cropped on the crown but left long elsewhere; it could be tied behind in a queue, frizzed, combed high from the forehead, plaited, curled on each side of the face, filleted, cut in the form of a circle on the crown, knotted on top of the head, or worn bushy and long below the ears.Men and women were often given similar clothing to wear and labor tasks to complete, so to achieve a more feminine appearance and differentiate themselves from the men, some women ironed their hair to make it sleek.
[25] They also wrapped their hair by brushing it and binding small sections of it with a material such as thread or cotton to prevent knotting.
[25] This technique, known as "wrapping" or "threading", shaped the hair into a curl pattern that women kept protected under a scarf or kerchief while working, and took down for special occasions such as church service or weddings.
[31] (In Central and South America and the Caribbean, enslaved people called the style "canerows" because of its resemblance to sugarcane fields.
[32] Racial attitudes among White people in 17th and 18th century America held a negative connotation of the afro-textured hair of enslaved Africans and African-Americans.
[34][28] Since the onset of the enslavement of Africans in British America, the slurs "kinky" and "nappy" were also used by White people to express disapproval of afro-textured hair.
[41] In her article "Hairitage: Women Writing Race in Children's Literature", literary critic Dianne Johnson notes an early 20th-century advertisement:[42] Once upon a time there lived a Good Fairy whose daily thoughts were of pretty little boys and girls and of beautiful women and handsome men and of how she might make beautiful those unfortunate ones whom nature had not given long, wavy hair...One of Winold Reiss's Brown Madonna (1925) most famous works, reimagines Black women as maternal and spiritual figures with straight hair.
[49][50] It later would be massed produced in a more simple, self-heating form[51] It could take hours to complete the straightening process, and because of the high temperature of the hot comb, burning and damaging the hair or skin were always high-risk.
[53] From the early to mid-20th century, conking was a popular style for African-American men, and required the use of a chemical treatment known as a relaxer or perm, which achieved longer-lasting straightening results.
[49] The practice of using a relaxer began during slavery, when enslaved men covered their hair in axle grease to straighten and dye it.
[59] In the late 1970s–1980s, the natural hair movement began to slow down due to the social pressures placed on African- Americans to assimilate to European Beauty Standards.
[59] The movement has since been greatly influenced by society and media, ranging from the work and appearance of textile artist Sonya Clark,[60] singer Solange Knowles,[61] poet Maya Angelou[62] and actress Lupita Nyong'o[63] to an uprising of natural hair-focused YouTube channels and blogs.
[66] The movement's popularity has also encouraged corporations and government agencies to create policies that are inclusive of natural black hair.
[70] Comedian Chris Rock's 2009 documentary Good Hair made a wider audience aware of the importance of the term within the Black community.
[72] The preference for facial hair among African-American men is due partly to personal taste, but also because they are more prone than other ethnic groups to develop a condition known as pseudofolliculitis barbae.
[74] The court dismissed Rogers' arguments that the ban was discriminatory based on race and sex, and ruled in favor of American Airlines.
[74] The ban prohibited braids and dreadlocks in favor of a bun style, which can be a challenge to achieve with afro-textured hair that has not been straightened with heat or chemicals.
[75] An unnamed hiring manager at Encore told Thornton that he needed to first trim his locks off his ears, eyes and shoulders to land the gig, court documents state.
[75] This case was monumental because it was the first time someone has accused an employer of violating California's CROWN Act since the legislation took effect in January 2020.
[77] Throughout the history of education in the United States, African American students have faced significant disparities in treatment compared to their peers.
For instance, there have been cited cases where African American students are disciplined at significantly higher rates than their counterparts, often due to dress code policies that target natural hairstyles as inappropriate or distracting..[78] Some examples include; On March 18, 2022, the United States House of Representatives passed the CROWN (Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair) Act, an act aiming to protect individuals from hair-based discrimination in the workplace.
The intent is to protect workers from discrimination related to questionable African-American styles such as afros, cornrows, Bantu knots, and Dreadlocks[83] Similar acts had already been introduced and passed in several U.S. states including California, New York, Colorado, New Jersey, New York City, Virginia, Washington, Illinois, and, Maryland.
