Questlove of The Roots in 2008 with an afro

Afro, sometimes shortened to 'fro and also known as a "natural", is a hairstyle worn naturally by people with lengthy kinky hair texture or specifically styled in such a fashion by individuals with naturally curly or straight hair. The hairstyle is created by combing the hair away from the scalp, allowing the hair to extend out from the head in a large, rounded shape, much like a halo, cloud or ball.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

In persons with naturally curly or straight hair, the hairstyle is typically created with the help of creams, gels or other solidifying liquids to hold the hair in place. Particularly popular in the African-American community of the late 1960s,^[3][5] the hairstyle is often shaped and maintained with the assistance of a wide-toothed comb colloquially known as an afro pick.^[2][3][4]

Etymology [link]

Afro is derived from the term "Afro-American".^[2] The hairstyle is also referred to by some as the "natural" — particularly the shorter, less elaborate versions of the Afro — since in most cases the hair is left untreated by relaxers or straightening chemicals and is instead allowed to express its natural curl or kinkiness.^[3][5]

History in the United States [link]

One of P.T. Barnum's Circassian beauties sporting "moss hair"

In the 1860s, a style similar to the Afro was worn by the Circassian beauties, sometimes known as "Moss-haired girls", a group of women exhibited in sideshow attractions in the United States by P.T. Barnum and others. These women were claimed to be from the Circassian people in the Northern Caucasus region, and were marketed to white audiences captivated by the "exotic East" as pure examples of the Caucasian white race who were kept as sexual slaves in Turkish harems.^[6][7] It has been argued that this portrayal of a white woman as a rescued slave during the American Civil War played on the racial connotations of slavery at the time so that the distinctive hairstyle affiliates the side-show white Circassian with African American identity, and thus:^[6]

resonates oddly yet resoundingly with the rest of her identifying significations: her racial purity, her sexual enslavement, her position as colonial subject; her beauty. The Circassian blended elements of white Victorian True Womanhood with traits of the enslaved African American woman in one curiosity.

African-American hairstyles prior to the 1960s [link]

During the history of slavery in the United States, most African Americans styled their hair in an attempt to mimic the styles of the predominantly white society in which they lived.^[2][8] Afro-textured hair, characterized by its tight curls, waves or kinks, has been described (sometimes pejoratively) as being kinky, coarse, cottony, nappy or woolly.^[8][9] These characteristics represented the antithesis of the Euro-American standard of beauty and led to a negative view of tightly curled and kinky hair; as a result, the practice of hair braiding and straightening gained popularity among African Americans.^[8]

The process of straightening the hair often involved applying caustic substances, such as relaxers containing lye, which needed to be applied by an experienced hairstylist so as to avoid burning the scalp and ears.^[3] In the late 1890s/early 1900s, Madam C. J. Walker also popularized the use of the hot comb in the United States.^[8][9] Those who chose not to artificially treat their hair would often opt to style it into tight braids or cornrows.^[8] With all of these hairstyling methods, if done improperly, one ran the risk of damaging the hair shaft, sometimes resulting in hair loss.^[10]

1960s and '70s [link]

The effect of the African-American Civil Rights Movement brought a renewed sense of identity to the African American community which also resulted in a redefinition of personal style that included an appreciation of African beauty and aesthetics, as embodied by the Black is beautiful movement.^[9][11] This cultural movement marked a return to more natural, untreated hairstyles. The Afro became a powerful political symbol which reflected black pride and a rejection of notions of assimilation and integration — not unlike the long and untreated hair sported by the mainly Caucasian hippies.^[2][8][9] To some, the Afro also represented a reconstitutive link to Africa,^[3] however some critics have suggested that the Afro hairstyle is not particularly African:^[3][12] In his book Welcome to the Jungle: New Positions in Black Cultural Studies, cultural critic Kobena Mercer argued that the contemporary African society of the mid-20th century did not consider either hairstyle to denote any particular "Africanness"; conversely, some Africans felt that these styles signified "First-worldness".^[3] Similarly, Brackette F. Williams stated in her book Stains on My Name, War in My Veins: Guyana and the politics of cultural struggle that African nationalists were irritated by the Afro's adoption by African Americans as a symbol of their African heritage; they saw this trend as an example of Western arrogance.^[13]

The Afro was adopted by both men and women and was a hairstyle that easier to maintain by oneself, without requiring frequent and sometimes costly visits to the hairstylist as was often experienced by people who chose to braid, straighten or relax their hair. Due to the tight curl pattern prominent in Afro-textured hair, as it grows longer it has a tendency to extend outward from the head, resulting in a domelike hairstyle which is easily molded and sculpted into the desired shape.^[2][9] While the Afro was a much less invasive and time consuming hairstyle choice for many African Americans, some chose to achieve a bushier version of the Afro by backcombing or teasing the hair, a practice which can result in damage to the hair and scalp.^[1][5]

In the mid-1960s, the Afro hairstyle began in a fairly tightly coiffed form — such as the hairstyle that became popular among members of the Black Panther Party. As the 1960s progressed towards the 1970s, popular hairstyles — both within and outside of the African-American community — became longer and longer; this resulted in an expansion in the overall size of Afros.^[1] Such large Afros were famously sported by African American entertainers and sociopolitical figures; political activist Angela Davis, actress Pam Grier, rock musician Jimi Hendrix, and the members of the musical groups The Jackson 5 and The Supremes.^[4]

Singer Lauryn Hill wearing an afro wig during a performance in 2005

In contrast, the Afro's popularity among African Americans had already started to wane by the early 1970s;^[1][5] the introduction of the Afro to the mainstream and its adoption by people of non-African descent caused the Afro to lose its radical, political edge.^[2] The 1970s saw an increase in the popularity of braided hairstyles such as cornrows among both sexes of African American — hairstyles which up until that time had traditionally been worn by only African American women.^[1][14] R&B singer Stevie Wonder adopted a cornrow haircut, and soul singer Isaac Hayes shaved himself bald. Among those who still sported them, Afros were generally worn in smaller, shorter form and did not approach the large versions worn by people such as Angela Davis.

1990s and 2000s [link]

The Afro saw popular resurgences in both the 1990s and 2000s.^[4][11] These Afros would take varied forms — some incorporating elements such as braids, beads or twists — as well as various sizes — from close-cropped natural hairstyles all the way to expansive Afro wigs.^[11]

Some African-Americans who have been known for wearing Afros or Afro wigs during these two decades include NBA basketball players Ben Wallace, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Beasley, as well as musicians Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Macy Gray, Ludacris, Questlove, Cindy Blackman, Webbie, and Lenny Kravitz. Beyoncé Knowles also donned a large Afro wig for her role as Foxxy Cleopatra in the 2002 film Austin Powers in Goldmember.

Similar styles internationally [link]

A young adult male sporting a Jewfro

A Jewfro (portmanteau of the words Jew and afro) or Isro (portmanteau of the words Israel and afro) refers to a curly hairstyle worn by certain people usually of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Similar hair worn by non-Jewish people is usually considered, with humor, to be a Jewfro. Its name is inspired by the afro hairstyle, which it resembles, and also builds on a history of racial discrimination.^[15]

The term has its roots in the 1960s and 1970s when many prominent figures were described as sporting the hairstyle. The Los Angeles Times called college football star Scott Marcus a flower child with "golden brown hair...in ringlets around his head in what he calls a Jewish afro style".^[16]

The New York Times in a 1971 article on Harvard University's "hairy" basketball team, wrote that Captain Brian Newmark, "hasn’t had a haircut since last May and his friends have suggested his hairdo is a first cousin to the Afro...in the case of the Jewish Junior from Brooklyn, though, the bushy dark hair that is piled high on his head has been called an Isro."^[17] Novelist Judith Rossner was described in a Chicago Tribune profile as the "grown-up Wunderkind with an open, oval face framed by a Jewish Afro."^[18]

A curly-haired Hadendoa Beja warrior with a fuzzy-wuzzy hairstyle

The Hadendoa Beja of Northeast Africa were called Fuzzy-Wuzzies by British colonial troops during the Mahdist War of the late 19th century due to their oftentimes large and elaborate hairstyles, which they shaped with the assistance of butter. Similarly, young males of nomadic clans in Somalia were known to tease their hair into rather large bushes, which they would also hold in place with butter. As they aged and got married, they would tend to cut their hair.^[1]

Variations of the afro have been worn by one or both sexes in the many disparate cultures of the African continent. Due to the hairstyle's links to members of the African-American Civil Rights and Black Power movements, the Afro was seen by several outside cultures as a dangerous symbol of political unrest, including Tanzania where the Afro was banned in the 1970s because it was seen as a symbol of neocolonialism and as part of an American cultural invasion.^{[1][2][19][20]} In the 1950s and 60s, South African women were also known to wear their hair in an Afro-type style.^[2]

The Afro did not rise to the same level of popularity among the Afro-Caribbean community as it did in the United States, in part because of the popularity of dreadlocks, which played an important role in the Rastafari movement.^[2] Not unlike the Afro's significance among the members of the American Black Power movement, dreadlocks symbolized black pride and empowerment amongst the Rastafari of the Caribbean.^[3][10] The hairstyle was also banned in Cuba during the 1960s.^[21]

Tools [link]

An Ashanti Comb, an example of an Afro pick

The long teeth of the afro pick or afro comb were designed to dig down to the scalp allowing the roots of an Afro to be stretched straight into a desired style or shape using a picking motion.

See also [link]

• Caesar cut
• Conk
• Crew cut
• List of hairstyles
• Jheri curl
• Nubian wig

References [link]

External links [link]

• Media related to Afro at Wikimedia Commons
• The Wiktionary entry for afro