Prior to the invasion of European in Africa, women of the Senegalese tribe five hundred years ago, had a tradition of spending time together after the days work was done. They would sit around AHIH to talk and comb each other’s hair. During this time, hair would be often times dyed red and then combed with a wooden comb. These wooden combs were primarily made by the tribe chief. Many times the family tree was engraved in them. Each comb was a symbol of that particular tribe and or clan. The combs were passed down generation to generation – father to son, mother to daughter. There is nothing more sacred than having your hair done by a family member. Usually this is a time to talk and relax. Like the wooden combs, the act of hair combing has been a tradition that is passed down from generation to generation – grandmother to mother, mother to daughter.
The indigenous people of Africa have always loved and honoured their hair, and assigned it great social, aesthetic and mystical powers. Hair grooming and the crafting of ceremonial or art objects made for (and from) hair was an integral part of family and spiritual life in thriving villages. But when the slave traders appeared, hair care rituals, aling with so many other sacred customs, were lost. As the people were kidnapped and taken away without even the clothes on their backs, they had to leave behind everything precious and familiar to them, including their highly revered hair care tools. For the next four hundred years, the people who would come to be known as African Americans struggled with their hair, deprived of their traditions, their tools and their dignity.
Slave owners discouraged the practice of African traditions. A slave found with an African pick comb could be severely punished. Many of the tools and the rituals managed to survive, and most of modern hairstyles and styling techniques can be traced back to early Africa.
Many years after slavery, there was pressure on for mothers to try to get their little girls’ hair to look as close to the white version of Barbie as possible. The most white they looked the more people would respect them. As a way of survival, many African women took to the notion that straightening their hair was the only way to move up the corporate ladder and be accepted in society. Many of African American mothers and daughters moved completely away from traditional hair styles from their native lands.
The ‘denigration’ of natural African hair began with the idealisation of straight, smooth hair during slave times, a value perpetrated by the white upper class. In the book ‘400 Years Without a Comb,’ Dr. Willie Morrow, a historian, inventor and author who owns more than hundred hair-related patents, points out that modern tools such as straightening irons were not created by African people, but by white Europeans with curly hair who brought these tools to America. The curly-headed settlers wanted straight hair so that they would not be mistaken for having African blood in their ancestry.
While white people struggled to remove their kinks and curls, the slaves had no means at all of managing their hair, and resorted to covering it with scarves or tying it in rags. This was the ultimate degradation. This stripped away pride of self and culture.
“The hair is considered to be the most elevated point of the body, which means it is the closest to the divine. In Africa, they braided with coconut oil, and sometimes weaved in spanish moss from the trees or animal hair to give it lift,” Morrow explains. “Really big hair was important for wedding and special days. They took thread and wrapped the hair in small braids and brought the braids up to the top or back of the head to make a little basket-looking thing. Then they would cover the shorter hair with mud and draw designs of animals or other symbols, depending on the occasion.”
To Be More Beautiful 