BLACK HAIR HISTORY

Did You Know?

• Hair styles in West African societies represented a person’s rank in their community during the 15th century.

• In Sierra Leone offering to braid someone’s hair was a way of asking someone to be your friend.

• In some African cultures only family members were trusted to do each other’s hair.

• In the Yoruba tradition all women were taught to braid, but young girls who showed real talent became a “master” and assumed the responsibility for the entire community’s hair needs.

• Before a hair master died, she passed on her box of hairdressing tools to another family member in a sacred ceremony.

• When Africans arrived in America after being on slave ships for months Europeans called their hair “dreadful” because it started to loc.

• The Rastafarian religion adopted the “dreadlock” hairstyle because of the respect for the fearless resistance of the Kenyan soldiers during a rebellion against British colonizers in the 1950’s.

• Archaeologists have discovered ancient Egyptian mummies with their dreadlocks still in good condition!

Sources: Byrd, Ayana and Tharps, Lori. Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America (2014), St. Martin’s Griffin. 

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/greece/articles/does-the-origin-of-dreadlocks-stem-from-ancient-greece/