Afro textured hair (also casually referred to as "nappy" hair, "kinky" hair or "wooly" hair) is the texture of hair found among most people of sub-saharan African descent as well as Black Melanesians and Negritos of the Pacific and Andaman Islands/South East Asia respectively. Young Girl Fixing her Hair, by Sophie Gengembre Anderson Hair is a filamentous outgrowth of dead cells from the skin, found only in mammals. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa. ...

Overview

It is extremely tightly coiled hair that gives it a thick and compact appearance and feel. Its texture is similar to that of thick wool or cotton. It is usually black in color, but can be brown, blonde, or bright red. The streotype of a clown with a bright red afro and very white skin (such as Ronald McDonald, or Bozo the Clown) is in fact Russian origin, because Eastern Europeans (Ashkenazic Jews) have this kind of hair, and are sometimes also redheads. Racially Black people usually have this hair texture, to the point that it is termed "afro hair" even when Caucasians and Asian people also display this hair type. Some people, unaware of the definition of "syndrome" (a group of seemingly unrelated symptoms with a single underlying cause), believe that wooly hair on Caucasians automatically means the person has a disorder referred to as "wooly hair syndrome." This disorder does exist, however non-white people can also have this disorder, and despite its name, not everyone with this disorder actually has wooly hair; hair texture itself cannot medically be termed a "disorder," there are plenty of people who do not have african heritage that do have this type of hair. the syndrome includes heart disease, mental retardation, hormone imbalances, and sometimes deformities of the extremities, and hair loss. Afro textured hair is also casually referred to as 'nappy' hair, 'kinky' hair or 'wooly' hair because, again, of its wool or cotton like texture or appearance, although these names also hold other meaning as well.

Examples of Afro textured hair:

Nigerian author Wole Soyinka http://www.sooderso.net/bilder/zeitung/magazin02/wsoyinka01.gif

Black Siddi woman from India http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/women/fair_sex/11834.jpg

George Jackson http://panafrican.tv/images/George%20Jackson%20-%20BPP%20-%20Black%20Power,White%20Blood.jpg

Not all people of African descent have Afro-textured hair, however. Many members of some North East African groups as well as some Melanesian groups and some non-Andamanese Negritos have loosely curled or even straight/wavy hair as opposed to the tightly curled hair found among most African descended and racially Black people.

Black people with Afro-textured/tightly curled hair are found in large numbers throughout the United States of America, the Caribbean, and Latin America as a result of the Atlantic slave trade and in smaller numbers throughout parts of the Middle East and India as a result of a lesser known Islamic/East African slave trade. In addition to the Atlantic and Islamic slave trades that dispersed people of African origin to these parts of the world there are the Negrito Pygmies of the Andamanese Islands ( of whom there are less than 1000) and the Melanesian populations of the Pacific who often have tightly curled/Afro textured hair. Melanesians generally have kinky hair and the Andamanese Negritos (who share some similarities with the African Khoi-San as well as Melanesians, scientists use them as a model as to what the early human settlers of Asia might have been like ) do as well.Outside of sub-saharan Africa the countries with the largest Black populations include the U.S.A, Haiti, Brazil and Papua New Guinea.Through African/Afro-Caribbean immigration ( as well as other parts of the world like Latin America), there are significant numbers of Black people found in Canada, Europe and Australia as well. A geographical map of Africa, showing the ecological break that defines the sub-Saharan area A political map showing national divisions in relation to the ecological break Sub-Saharan Africa or is the term used to describe those countries of the African continent that are not considered part of political... For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ...

Walter Lini, late prime minister of Vanuatu http://www.info-regenten.de/regent/regent-d/pictures/vanuatu-lini-walter.jpg

Various styles

During the late 1960s and 1970s, Black Power and pride movements in the United States brought about the emergence of the 'Afro' hairstyle. Black men and women would grow their African textured hair out to several diameters (note to author: diameter in this sense tells us nothing about the average length worn during this period) away from their head. This was a rejection of Eurocentric standards of beauty, an embrace of African heritage and roots and a confirmation of the idea that 'Black is Beautiful'.

Afro sheen advertisement in Swahili http://lfa.atu.edu/Brucker/advertisement%20presentation/img001.gif

The Afro was/is sometimes texturized so it isn't in its true African state, but straightened with a more 'frizzish'/wiry appearance that springs out. Rapper Ludacris with a texturized Afro

http://www.misionurbana.com/artistas/Ludacris/wallpapers/ludacris4_1024.jpg Eventually, this hair style grew away from its political and cultural connotation and was embraced by the mainstream.'Afros' became popular even among non-Blacks with loosely curled hair. Other hairstyles often worn by wooly haired people of African descent are cornrowns, braids and dreadlocks. Cornrows and braiding traditions have survived in the Black diaspora where they were brought to from African slaves. Dreadlocks is a tradition among the Rastafari movement of Jamaica, who werw inspired by the Mau Mau freedom fighters of Kenya. Dreadlocks also has a long history in India. These hairstyles associated with people of African descent have become popular with non-Blacks with the emergence of hip hop culture and Caribbean influences like reggae music.

Young Black men with cornrows http://www.supersites.ca/venessasstylestudioinc/nss-folder/braids1cornrowsdreds/cornrows.jpg

Young boy with dreadlocks http://www.howtodread.com/dreadlocks.jpg

There has been a movement among African descended women to wear their hair naturally, most in the West continue to relax/straighten their hair. During the 1930s, 'conking' ( where Black men straighten their kinky hair) as depicted in the Autobiography of Malcolm X, was common in the United States. Some people of African descent in the Western world are discouraged from wearing natural hair in the workplace and among some African descended people themselves, kinky hair is sometimes seen as something inferior or to be ashamed of compared to straight or 'good hair' ( old southern American term for loosely curled hair ). Afro textured hair is usually handled and combed with an 'Afro pick' which comes from the traditional African grooming instrument that has long separated 'teeth' to part out tightly curled hair.

http://www.framed-african-art.com/art/c06/a/k%E4mme.gif http://www.african-tribal-arts.com/images/tribalarts/Hg04_lg.jpg - traditional African combs

There has been a boom in marketing to target hair products at African descended people ( ie. African Pride for women, or Out of Africa shampoo etc. ) Slogans that promote a pan-African appreciation of Afro textured hair include "Happy to be nappy" , "Don't worry, be nappy" as well as "Love, peace and nappiness". When African descended people wear natural hair this is sometimes humorously referred to as going 'napptural'.

See Also:

Afro hairstyle An afro, sometimes called a natural or shortened to fro, is a hairstyle in which the hair extends out from the head like a halo, cloud or ball. ...

Natural hair Woman with a natural hair style. ...

Black people A Kenyan man This article is about the different definitions of the term black people. For other terms related to black people, see Black people (terminology). ...

African diaspora The African diaspora or Afro diaspora is the diaspora created by the movements and culture of Africans and their descendants throughout the world, to places such as the Americas, (including the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America) Europe and Asia . ...

Sub-saharan Africa A geographical map of Africa, showing the ecological break that defines the sub-Saharan area A political map showing national divisions in relation to the ecological break Sub-Saharan Africa or is the term used to describe those countries of the African continent that are not considered part of political...

Melanesian Melanesia (from Greek black islands) is a region extending from the west Pacific to the Arafura Sea, north and north-east of Australia. ...

Negrito The Negritos include the Ati, the Aeta and at least 4 other tribes of the Philippines, the Semang of the Malay peninsula, and 12 Andamanese tribes of the Andaman Islands. ...

Siddis (Afro-Indians) Not to be confused with the Hindu term Siddhi (though sometimes spelt in the same way). ...

Afro-Arabs This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Afro-Latin Americans An Afro-Latin American is a person from Latin America who has black ancestry. ...

Black Americans African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan and West Africa. ...

Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean may refer to: the British Afro-Caribbean community other members of the African diaspora in or from the Carribean This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ...