{"id":705,"date":"2018-09-10T19:22:27","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T19:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mosaics.dickinson.edu\/steelton2001\/?page_id=705"},"modified":"2018-09-12T14:24:02","modified_gmt":"2018-09-12T14:24:02","slug":"hair","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mosaics.dickinson.edu\/steelton2001\/student-projects\/sunday-celebration-by-elizabeth-cardillo-and-jillian-tabuchi\/hair\/","title":{"rendered":"Hair"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photograph

Contemporary view of African American Hairstyles.
Photos courtesy of Hair Stylist Online.<\/p><\/div>\n

“The way we talk, the way we walk, sing, dance, pray, laugh, eat, make love, and finally and most important, the way we look, make up our cultural heritage.\u00a0 There is nothing like it or equal to it, it stands alone in comparison to other cultures.\u00a0 It is uniquely, beautifully and personally ours and no one can emulate it.”
\n-Barbara Ann Teer, 1968<\/p>\n

African American women’s search for societal acceptance often encompasses struggle between natural and socially constructed ideas of beauty.\u00a0 As an essential component in traditional African societies, cosmetic modification is\u00a0 ritualized to emphasize natural features of blackness.\u00a0 Defined by social occasion such as childhood development to maturity, indicators of marital status or the group to which you belong, beautification of the hair and body play an essential role.\u00a0 In our racially conscious society, presenting a physical image and being accepted is a complex negotiation between two different worlds.<\/p>\n

\"Photograph

Mrs. Corbin<\/p><\/div>\n

Lois Corbin, an experienced hairdresser in the Harrisburg area, has seen styles come and go. She owns and operates her own salon and caters to the many different needs of her life long customers. Not only is her salon a place where hair styles are created, but it is also where confidence and relationships are built.\u00a0 Here Mrs. Corbin talks about how hair is both a physical and emotional statement.<\/p>\n

Hair is an outward expression of culture and heritage. It also represents a sense of personal style. In the search for the African American identity, blacks have undergone many different changes in hairstyle. Hairstyles are cultural classifiers of what African Americans consider beautiful. Hairstyles are a representation of the African American soul, all of their confidence and dignity show in how they present themselves on Sundays and on a daily basis. Van Deburg text states, “Soul was the folk equivalent of the black aesthetic.\u00a0 It was perceived as being the essence of the separate black culture.\u00a0 If there was beauty and emotion in blackness, soul made it so.\u00a0 If there was a black American mystique, soul provided much of its aura of sly confidence and assumed superiority.\u00a0 Soul was sass- a type of primal spiritual energy and passionate joy available only to members of the exclusive racial confraternity” (195). Therefore, the concept of soul style aided Black America’s individual and group self-definition. Complimenting the soulful styles of women is the “natural” hairstyle.\u00a0 “During the sixties, white American youth used their hair to make\u00a0 a variety of political and philosophical statements” , young blacks joined thereafter (Van Deburg 201).\u00a0 The natural hairstyle not only was easier to care for, but also gave African Americans a closer tie to their heritage. The natural hairstyle became a trend who’s history ran deeper than merely fashion. Natural style serves as \u00e3a visible imprimatur of blackness; a tribute to group unity; a statement of self-love and personal significance” (Van Deburg, 201).\u00a0 By rejecting the white standards of beauty, black Americans halted the processes of using chemical straighteners or hot irons.<\/p>\n

\"Photograph

Black natural is beautiful. Photo courtesy of Cooper, Hair.<\/p><\/div>\n

Often women’s hair is teased, sparkled, sprayed and intricately decorated with beads and shells; styles which demonstrate the influences of traditional African techniques such hairstyles<\/p>\n

represent a tribute to their ancestors and ultimately signify an expression of Arfrocentricity.\u00a0 Proud of their roots as African’s, blacks celebrate their heritage through natural hairstyles.<\/p>\n

African American Genie McMurrick talks about her struggle. “I remember battling with the idea of going natural for several years.\u00a0\u00a0 I never had the courage because every time I pictured myself with my natural hair, I never saw beauty.\u00a0 Now my hair is natural, thick and healthy.\u00a0 Yet, it saddens me to know that at one point in my life I felt being natural wasn\u2019t beautiful.” (“Natural…”1). African American women are finding confidence within themselves to wear their hair naturally and feel beautiful about it.<\/p>\n

\"Wig

African American wig advertisement. Photo courtesy of Van Deburg, Babylon<\/p><\/div>\n

“Afrylic” and “Afrilon” natural wigs were also popular alternatives to the rigors of everyday styling of real hair. Wigs are a pre-set style, easy to maintain and less time consuming.\u00a0 These wigs are often marketed under names such as “Super Afrique,” “Afro Bunny” and “Nubian Queen” (Van Deburg, 201).\u00a0 The natural hairstyle is a symbol of\u00a0 black cultural autonomy, and psychological “debrainwashing.”<\/p>\n

“Hair is a nonverbal part of communication passed on from generation to generation” -Cathy Gant-Hill.<\/em><\/h5>\n

Francis Ward experienced the legacy of being torn between African and Anglo cultures during her Sunday hair straightening sessions with her grandmother,\u00a0 her hot comb and stove burner.\u00a0 As she grew older, Ward realized she and many other women were assimilating to try to get what was closest to “good hair.”\u00a0 “Her mother or her grandmother never told her her natural hair was not suitable.\u00a0 But their actions spoke an eye-opening truth to Ward” (Cathy Gant-Hill).<\/p>\n

“Good hair” has been defined as long, straight and therefore beautiful” (African Amer. Org.).\u00a0 “Good hair was the hair that bounced and shook.\u00a0 You saw it in all<\/p>\n

\"Hair

Straight isn’t necessarily beautiful. A representation of straight hair being “good hair.”\u00a0
Photo courtesy of African American Organization.<\/p><\/div>\n

the shampoo commercials, the white lady with the hair bouncing around, and you were told that was good hair.\u00a0 No one ever defined what bad hair was” (Cathy Grant-Hill).\u00a0 Women seeking solutions come to focus on artificially changing their natural hair structure.\u00a0 African American women have been trying to manipulate, control or find solutions to their “hair problem” for years.\u00a0 Through “the process of lye, making one’s hair straight is a practice that has made textured hair and people of color somewhat acceptable in the white world” (“Rooting…2).<\/p>\n

However, many contemporary African Americans are avoiding high maintenance and feeling confident in their natural beauty. As African Americans began to realize that they were being oppressed and their natural looks were beautiful, “Malcolm X\u00a0 expresses that shame was the motivation behind blacks losing their roots and ethnic identity” (McMurrick 2).\u00a0 By being brainwashed into believing black people are “inferior” and white people are “superior” African American’s mutilated and adjusted their bodies to try to look “pretty” by white standards.<\/p>\n

\"Photograph

Braids are a popular hairstyle for African American women.
Photo courtesy of Hairstyles Online.<\/p><\/div>\n

“Now we don’t have Afro’s, but we have sisters who are bald- headed, people wearing curls and weaves.\u00a0\u00a0 I can’t even keep up with all of the hairstyles.\u00a0 It’s anything now, and that’s good.\u00a0 There should be a proliferation of style” -Francis Ward.<\/p>\n

Americans spend billions of dollars in the quest for beautiful hair. African Americans share the experience of finding their hair identity.\u00a0 Ethnic hair care products are a lucrative market in the beauty industry as companies are finally adding more products targeting black and non white women.<\/p>\n

Hair is as different as the people it belongs to. People are finally recognizing that beauty is what helps to create our individual identities. Ultimately, individual confidence shapes and strengthens the culture of the African American community.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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“The way we talk, the way we walk, sing, dance, pray, laugh, eat, make love, and finally and most important, the way we look, make up our cultural heritage.\u00a0 There is nothing like it or equal to it, it stands alone in comparison to other cultures.\u00a0 It is uniquely, beautifully and personally ours and no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":658,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-705","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mosaics.dickinson.edu\/steelton2001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mosaics.dickinson.edu\/steelton2001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mosaics.dickinson.edu\/steelton2001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mosaics.dickinson.edu\/steelton2001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mosaics.dickinson.edu\/steelton2001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/mosaics.dickinson.edu\/steelton2001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":753,"href":"https:\/\/mosaics.dickinson.edu\/steelton2001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/705\/revisions\/753"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mosaics.dickinson.edu\/steelton2001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mosaics.dickinson.edu\/steelton2001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}