Hot comb edit
Hair straightening methods used by African-American women vary in different ways. An older and more heat based type of styling is with the hot comb. A hot comb is a comb that has a metal end and is typically heated on the stove and then directly straightens hair. The earliest form of the hot comb was invented in the 19th century by Francois Marcel Grateau. As the forms of metal combs for hair made its way into the United States, it was reinvented and called the "pressing comb." The hot comb has a cultural significance in African-American culture, as it is primarily used on African American women. In an experience noted by Diana Turk, several African American female students listed their experiences as they "sat for hours while someone..used oil and heated on a stove to press their hair straight and make them 'presentable'".[1]
Head wrap edit
In African-American culture, protective styling is a method in which natural hair is protected from hair breakage through a variety of methods such as wigs, braids, cornrows. Another type of protective styling is the head wrap (or scarf). A head wrap is one of the types of hair maintenance primarily styled by African-American women. Though a head wrap is not specifically tied to one culture, the style and the symbolism associated with a head wrap differs in each culture. The earliest use of a head wrap is traced back to Sub-Saharan Africa, where women “tied knots somewhere on the crown of her head” with the intention of “ leaving her forehead and neck exposed.”[2]
During slavery in the Antebellum South, this type of styling as opposed to natural hair styles became markers of power dynamics, especially during slavery. African American dress was regulated throughout the South during the eighteenth century to distinguish those without power from those who did. For example, the South Carolina's Negro Act of 1735, "specifically set a standard of dress for the enslaved and free African Americans.[2]” The head wrap in the context of dress codes was to mark the social status of black women from white women. In addition, head wraps also functioned as status symbols within African American communities. Since then, following several periods of the natural hair movement the head-wrap serves as a fashion statement in many colors and fabrics. Versions of the head wrap has been utilized for being worn at night and to protect the hair and scalp from dirt.
- ^ Turk, Diana B. (2006). "What a Hot Comb Can Tell Us about History: Material Culture and the Classroom". OAH Magazine of History. 20 (1): 50–53. ISSN 0882-228X.
- ^ a b "The African American Woman's Headwrap: Unwinding the Symbols". char.txa.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2019-05-15.