Black hair care has a long history dating back to slavery. During slavery, coarse, fragile black hair was difficult to manage, leading to the creation of specialized combs and hair care products. In the post-slavery era, some blacks straightened their hair to fit European standards, but the civil rights movement saw a return to natural afro styles. Today, black hair care is a $774 million industry, with products and protective styles helping blacks care for their natural hair amid busy work schedules. Protective styles like braids and weaves allow growth without high maintenance.

1. BLACK HAIR CARE
AUSJANAE SANDERS
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION
CARRIE MADISON
FEBRUARY 9, 2017

2. SUMMARY (HOW DOES BLACK HAIR REFLECT BLACK HISTORY?)
 Black hair care tends to repeat its self, dating all the way back to slave trade days. Hair has become a big
part of the black culture. The hair of a black is so fragile and versatile. This caused blacks to create a
comb specifically for their hair type and even came up with hair care items that made the first
millionairess in US history. When slavery ended blacks wanted to fit in more and started perming their
hair to make it easier to tame. This lasted until civil rights times when blacks wanted to regain a sense of
self and started wearing afros.

3. HISTORY
 “In early Africa civilizations, hairstyles could indicate a person’s family background, tribe and social
status.” “What’s more, many believed that hair, given its close location to the skies was the conduit for
spiritual interaction with God.” Hair has always been important to the black culture because it gives them
a sense of self. Now having such coarse, fragile, and versatile hair is hard to tame, which pushed women
to using “hot chemical mixture that would almost burn their scalp, so they could comb it back and make
it look more European and silky.”

4. HISTORY CONTINUED…
 Taming natural coarse hair is hard so Madame CJ Walker came up with a hair care line which featured
growth products, shampoo and conditioners, ointments, and hot combs. Outside of the U.S. other
places with coarse hair types have rituals. “in the 1930s, Rastafari theology development in Jamaica from
the ideas of Marcus Garvey, a political activist who wanted to improve the status of his fellow blacks.
Believers are forbidden to cut their hair and instead twist it into dread locks.” What a black person does
with their hair always has meaning, whether it’s to grow it out, show its originality, or because of beliefs.

5. CIVIL RIGHTS ERA
 During the civil rights movement, the black culture went back to their hair roots and started wearing
afros, which are still popular today. They also started using the specially designed combs that the blacks
during slavery used, they are called a “pick”.

7. PRESENT TIME
 Just like the days after slavery women and men still perm their coarse, fragile, versatile hair so that it can
be more manageable and so that they won’t stick out as much. Recently a lot of people have been going
natural to be more in touch with their roots.

8. RECENT TIME CONTINUED…
 Hair is so important now-a-days, women and men spend hundreds of dollars on shampoos,
conditioners, gels, moisturizers to keep with the the natural hair culture. “Black hair care is now a major
industry, conservatively estimated to be worth $774 million last year.”

9. BLACK HAIR CARE AND THE WORK FORCE
 Keeping up with the black hair culture takes a lot of time and energy. Times have changed since the
slave days and the civil rights movement. Jobs have become more advanced and require long hours that
start early in the day which leaves no time for maintenance of natural hair. Because of this women and
men result to protective hair styles.

10. PROTECTIVE HAIR STYLES
 Weaves, braids, dreadlocks and any other hair style that doesn't’t damage the natural curl pattern of a
black persons hair is a protective style. Having a curl pattern is very important in the black hair culture,
because that means that the hair has no chemical damage from a perm (because the person was trying
to follow European culture and fit it). In the black hair culture having the hair in its 100% natural state
means that you have connected to your roots and isn’t trying to fit in with the rest of the world.

11. PROTECTIVE STYLES CONTINUED…
 Weaves, dreadlocks, braids, and any other protective style allows for fast hair growth without all the high
maintenance that comes with afros, or twist outs, or any other natural hair style. Since the black peoples
hair is fragile these protective styles help protect against breakage and further weakening the hair.
Things like cold weather, lack of hydration, being matted up all cause breakage or damage to the state
of the natural hair.

13. CULTURE( CARE) RITUALS
 How to keep the hair healthy
 Wash hair every week or every other week-cleans hair after product build up
 When conditioning be use to coat (cover) hair with conditioner, especially at the ends, the ends are the most fragile part of the
hair
 Hot oil treatments at least 2 times a month, this adds moisture to the hair
 Be sure to keep moisturizing the hair whether it be greasing the scalp or adding oils to the hair
 When styling hair make sure its not tight, that causes breakage

14. THE WHY
 Each hair type has it own culture. Black hair is the only hair type of its kind and not many people know
how to take care of their curly, fragile, versatile hair. Black hair has it own rituals such as how to take care
of it and certain styles like the afro and dreads. Not holding onto one regimen for too long because the
hair will get used to it and start to weaken. Heroes such as Madame CJ Walker how came up with hair
products to help the black hair culture specifically. Values like not using perms because that takes away
from the naturalness of the hair, wearing protective styles to help growth and cut maintenance time, and
embracing the natural texture of the hair no matter how it looks.

15. THE WHY CONTINUED…
 In order to learn how to take care of the black hair, the culture has to network. A lot of naturalist watch
what other naturalist do and get advice from other naturalist to come up with a method that best suites
that particular hair type. Networking is big in the black hair culture because hearing what other
naturalist do to their hair can get the person started with a regimen and them help them branch off of
that and experiment with other products and styles.

16. EXCELLENT CULTURE
 Naturalist waste no time getting their hair to their standards. If there is damage then a naturalist is going
to cut it off and start fresh, this is similar to the bias for action theme.
 With the black culture reaching back to their roots, this allows people who have come up with hair care
lines to take a risk and put there business out there and hopefully one day it turns into a corporation.
This is an example of autonomy and entrepreneurship.
 The people involved with the natural hair culture always come together and come up with different ways
to help the people that want to be in the culture and those who want to learn about it, such as tips and
hacks. This is similar to the simultaneous loose-tight properties theme.

17. HOW
 Hair care is a culture within its self but most hair care lines tend to people with straighter, stronger, and
oilier hair. Black hair culture is very different from any other hair type. The hair is unpredictable, harder to
manage, and way more versatile. Black hair care had to branch off on its own and abide by different
rules than European or Hispanic hair types. The black hair culture has it own set of heroes , products,
values, rights and rituals.

18. HOW CONTINUED
 Although the black hair culture isn’t a company all of the components involved with the culture has
structure and its own ways of operating that no other hair culture can do. Everything in the black hair
culture is black hair culture specific. This culture is ran like a business and the way that this business is
ran is family orientated and relies on communication and support from one another.

19. CONCLUSION
 The black hair culture is starting to get in touch with their roots and the whole culture is on the rise. In
the future black hair care will dominate the hair industry and soon enough all people with the black hair
type will all become naturalist where it’s a male or female. The culture needs to keep the unity because
no one can help them better than each other.

20. WORK CITED
 “Black Hair Care and Culture, A Story.” Aaregistry.org,
www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/black-hair-care-and-culture-story.
 "African-American hair: Tips for everyday care." African-American hair: Tips for everyday care,
processing, and styling | American Academy of Dermatology. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Feb. 2017.
 Jahangir, Rumeana. "How does black hair reflect black history?" BBC News. BBC, 31 May 2015.
Web. 09 Feb. 2017.
 Jahangir, Rumeana. "How does black hair reflect black history?" BBC News. BBC, 31 May 2015.
Web. 09 Feb. 2017.