What’s the origin of your name? What about your child’s name? Sometimes, it’s easy to overlook or take for granted the history of our family, hometown, schools, favorite genres of music, and culture and the impact on our lives.
If you know the meaning or story behind your name or beam with pride as you explain your children's names, there’s purpose and significance at the root. The same is true for the history and transformation of natural hair.
The hair journey in the Black community has woven history within our strands and transcended generations. And it has and continues to represent the many aspects, experiences, cultures and traditions throughout centuries.
Representation Always Mattered
Early on, natural hair represented one’s place in society. Depending on a woman’s hair, you could identify her marital status. For young men, it signified coming into manhood. And in other instances, hair was a sign of experiencing loss.
Many women placed seeds in their braids as a means of sustenance and cultural ties during enslavement. While slave traders shaved the heads of countless women and men kidnapped and sold into slavery, the spiritual, mental and cultural agency remained.
From Banned to Bold & Beautiful
In 1786, the Governor of Louisiana passed the Tignon law, which barred Black women from showing their hair. Instead, they were forced to wear a tignon or headscarf in public to identify their enslavement, even if they, in fact, were not. And in true fashion, fierceness intended, women turned the unjust law into a fashion statement, showcasing intricate head wrap designs, individualism, resistance and beauty.
More Than a Colorful Statement
Fast-forward a few centuries, and the political activism and reinforcement of self-worth of the 1960s and 1970s would transform a generation in Black America. At the forefront was one lyric that would become the soundtrack of the times—James Brown’s “Say It Loud, I’m Black & I’m Proud.” The Civil Rights Movement and community-centered Black Panther Party organization birthed the natural hair movement, which saw women and men proudly don afros.
The acceptance of one’s natural hair and physical features continues to reemerge today. With many women transitioning from relaxed hair or those who have embraced their textured hair since birth, stories are being told about the significance of natural hair in the Black community. It is because of the past, present and future of natural hair that N Natural Hair Studio exists.
Our mission is to celebrate our hair, empower and educate others, build relationships and serve as a space where textured hair care is a branch of one’s holistic wellness.
Want to know more about the power of natural hair and how we continue to make history with our crowns?
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