1. By Evelyn Lamelle Shaw
Student ID: 494039
Course: Media Production Skills
Course Number: 15PANH050
Tutor: Ricardo Leisaola
Date: April 22, 2013

2. Hair has always been an important part of adornment in African cultures. It
denoted class, status, and wealth, over the years it has become intricately
tied to identity, beauty and politics.
Historically, the difference of black hair texture has symbolized the inferiority of black
people in the minds of some whites and even some blacks.
Naturally kinky hair was viewed as dirty, unkempt and unattractive into the mid-20th
century.
In the 1960s and later, as blacks began to reclaim natural styles, afros, braids and
dreadlocks were associated with political radicalism in dominant American culture to the
extent that some black women were threatened with the loss of their jobs for wearing
braids to the workplace.
Over the years, black women (and men) have turned to numerous products and
processes in an attempt to tame their locks into looks more fitting for American society –
from twists and ties to pomades and gels to straightening combs and chemical relaxers.
Tiya Miles – CNN.com
Photos by J.D. Okhai Ojeikere

3. Relaxing: Chemically and permanently straightening
hair becomes fashionable in spite of the damage this
can cause. Products flood the market, even for kids.
Weaving: A hair weave is human or artificial hair
utilized for the integration with one's natural
hair. Weaves can alter one's appearance for long
or short periods of time by adding further hair to
one's natural hair or by covering the natural hair
all together with human or synthetic hairpieces.
(Wikepedia.org) (usually sewn or glued)

5. Angela Davis, Black Panther
Activist
In the 1970’s the afro made a comeback and was seen as
revolutionary and resistant to mainstream culture. Black Panther
activist Angela Davis was at the forefront of this movement of self-
acceptance. This did not last long. By the 1990’s weaves, extensions
and straighteners were back as the most popular choice of styles.
In the noughties, natural hairstyles returned as more black women
embraced their natural curls. But the transition from long and
straight to short and curly is a difficult journey and involves serious
introspection of self. Many books, films and you tube clips have
been created to assist with this process.

6. Hair Resources
Transitioning - a documentary
by Zina Saro-Wiwa about
returning from chemically
straightened to naturally curly
hair
http://www.nytimes.com/vide
o/2012/05/31/opinion/100000
001579773/transition.html

8.  1400s - Europeans trade on the west
coast of Africa with people wearing
elaborate hairstyles, including locks,
plaits and twists.
 1800s: Without the combs and herbal
treatments used in Africa, slaves rely on
bacon grease, butter and kerosene as
hair conditioners and cleaners. Lighter-
skinned, straight-haired slaves
command higher prices at auction than
darker, more kinky-haired ones.
Internalizing color consciousness,
blacks promote the idea that blacks
with dark skin and kinky hair are less
attractive and worth less.

9.  1865: Slavery ends, but whites look
upon black women who style their hair
like white women as well-adjusted.
“Good” hair becomes a prerequisite for
entering certain schools, churches,
social groups and business networks.
 1880: Metal hot combs, invented in
1845 by the French, are heated and
used to press and temporarily
straighten kinky hair.
 1900s: Madame C.J. Walker develops a
range of hair-care products for black
hair popularizing the press-and-curl
style. She is criticized for encouraging
black women to look white but
becomes a millionaire.
 1920s: Marcus Garvey, a black
nationalist, urges followers to embrace
their natural hair and reclaim an African
aesthetic.
 1954: George E. Johnson launches the
Johnson Products Empire with a
“permanent” hair straightener for men.
A women’s chemical straightener
follows.
Madame CJ Walker
Using hot comb to straighten

10.  1962: Actress Cicely Tyson wears
cornrows on the television drama
“East Side/West Side.”
 1966: Model Pat Evans defies both
black and white standards of beauty
and shaves her head.
 1968: Actress Diahann Carroll is the
first black woman to star in a
television network series, “Julia.” She
is a darker version of the all-
American girl with straightened,
curled hair.
 1970: Angela Davis becomes an icon
of Black Power with her large afro.
 1971: Melba Tolliver is fired from the
ABC affiliate in New York for wearing
an afro while covering Tricia Nixon’s
wedding.
 1977: The Jheri curl explodes on the
black hair scene. Billed as a curly
perm for blacks, the ultra-moist
hairstyle lasts through the 1980s.
Actress Cicely Tyson
Bo Derek takes cornrows
across the color lines

11.  1979: Braids and beads cross the
color line when Bo Derek appears
with cornrows in the movie “10.”
 1980: Model-actress Grace Jones
sports her trademark flat-top fade.
 1988: Spike Lee exposes the good
hair/bad hair light-skinned/dark-
skinned schism in black American
in his movie “School Daze.”
 1990: “Sisters love the weave,”
“Essence” magazine declares. A
variety of natural styles
and dreadlocks also become more
accepted.
 1997: Singer Erykah Badu poses on
the cover of her debut album
“Baduizm” with her head wrapped,
ushering in an eclectic brand of
Afrocentrism.
Erykah Badu
Grace Jones

12.  1998: Carson Inc., creator of Dark & Lovely
acquires the black-owned beauty
company Johnson Products of Chicago in
1998. L’Oreal purchases Carson two years
later and merges it with Soft Sheen.
 1999: “People” magazine names lock-
topped Grammy award-winning artist
Lauryn Hill one of its 50 Most Beautiful
People.
 2001: Rapper Lil’ Kim wears a platinum
blonde weave, while singer Macy Gray
sports a new-school afro. Some black
women relax, some press, and others go
with natural twists, braids and locks.
 2006: Baltimore Police Department’s new,
more rigid professional appearance
standards prohibit such hairstyles as
cornrows, dreadlocks and twists. These
natural hairstyles are deemed to be
“extreme” and a “fad” by the department.
Lauryn Hill

13.  . 2007: MSNBC Radio Host Don
Imus loses his job when he calls
the Rutgers’ women’s basketball
team “some nappy-headed hos.”
 2006: Black hair-care is a billion-
dollar industry.
 2008: “The New Yorker” draws
heat when a cover photo portrays
Michelle Obama with an Afro and
an AK 47 machine gun and and
Barack Obama in a turban doing
the fist bump. Many felt the
cartoon reinforces negative
stereotypes about both Muslims
and natural hair.

14.  2009: Comic Chris Rock unveils his
movie “Good Hair” at the
Sundance Film Festival, exploring
the way black hairstyles impact the
activities, pocketbooks, sexual
relationships, and self-esteem of
black people.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=1m-4qxz08So
Watch ‘Good Hair’ Trailer

15. 2005 - Singer India Arie launches hit single
‘I am not my hair’ liberating countless Black
women to wear their hair as they choose.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E
_5jIt0f5Z4
Janet Jackson
Beyonce
The Supremes
Alicia Keys
Lauryn Hill

16.  In the last 10 years there has been a
return to natural hairstyles and a
move towards self acceptance as we
Black women were made without any
chemical alterations. Those who
choose to use relaxers are also less
and less being looked down on by
those who choose to go natural. The
debates about hair texture still
continue and some will never change
their beliefs that straight hair makes
you more acceptable to society but at
least there has been some shift in the
minds of Black women. We now have
a good mix of celebrities with different
hair types that young Black girls can
look up to. We still remain our own
worst critics.