Natural afro-hair

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Natural hair, black hair, and afro-textured hair are terms used mainly by Western people to refer to the texture of sub-Saharan African hair that has not been altered chemically (by perming, relaxing, straightening, bleaching or coloring). It should be noted though, that not all people of sub-Saharan African descent have naturally afro-textured hair. In particular, certain groups, such as those from the Horn of Africa and the Fulbe of West Africa, tend to have hair that ranges from straight to loosely coiled due to admixture with straight haired groups from outside of sub-Saharan Africa. Nonetheless, among non-admixed sub-Saharan Africans, tightly coiled, Afro-hair is a ubiquitous trait. Adjectives such as “hard”, “kinky”, “nappy”, or “woolly” are also used to describe natural hair. This hair is typically tightly coiled and soft to the touch. Andamanese Negritos and most Melanesian people also have tightly coiled hair.

Contents 1 Adaptation 1.1 The context in which Afro hair texture arose 1.2 The evolution of Afro hair texture 1.3 The global distribution of Afro hair texture 2 History in the United States 3 Controversy over natural hair in the United States 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Adaptation

Tightly coiled hair is typically described as being an evolutionary adaptation to the warm, tropical climates of sub-Saharan Africa and Melanesia (although it does not exist in tropical regions such as India or indigenous South America and thus may have evolved for a different original purpose). Some hold that tightly coiled hair may allow for greater cooling because sweat is able to remain on the scalp.^[1] Furthermore it has been asserted that, when the sun is directly overhead, the top surface of the hair heats up while leaving a barrier of cooler air between the scalp and the top surface of the hair. This barrier of cooler air assists in cooling the brain. This effect is most prominent in people with 'frizzy' (Afro-textured) hair.^[2]

[edit] The context in which Afro hair texture arose

Evolutionary biologists suggest that the genus Homo arose in East Africa approximately 2.5 million years ago.^[2] During this time new hunting techniques were innovated.^[2] The higher protein diet led to the evolution of larger body and brain sizes.^[2] In Skin: A Natural History, Nina Jablonski postulates that increasing body size, in conjunction with intensified hunting during the day at the equator, gave rise to a greater need to rapidly expel heat. As a result, humans developed the ability to sweat and thus lost body hair to facilitate this process.^[2] Notably, Pagel et al (2003) argue against this hypothesis, stating that hominids without fur would not have been able to warm themselves as efficiently at night, nor protect themselves well enough from the sun during the day. However, it is likely that increased intelligence, combined with sophisticated hunting techniques, may have enabled humans to warm themselves at night using animal skins. Furthermore, as the furless condition slowly developed, genetic evidence suggests that dark skin color may have gradually evolved to protect the body from UV during the day (and thus compensate for the sparse hair coverage). Thus, it is still possible that pre-humans lost fur mostly for the purpose of facilitating the evaporation of sweat and the corresponding cooling of the body.

[edit] The evolution of Afro hair texture

Jablonski agrees that it was evolutionarily advantageous for pre-humans (Homo erectus of ~2 million years ago) to retain the hair on their heads in order to protect the skin there as they walked upright in the intense African (equatorial) UV light. Auxiliary hair (in the groin and underarms) was likely retained as a sign of sexual maturity. During the process of going from fur to naked skin, hair texture putatively changed gradually from being straight (the condition of most mammals, including humanity's closest cousin--the chimpanzee), to Afro-like or 'kinky' (ie tightly coiled). This is made clear in a study by Iyengar (1998) which has provided evidence that the roots of straight human hair may act as optic fibers that allow UV light to pass into the skin. In this sense, during the period in which pre-humans were gradually losing most of their straight body hair (fur) and thereby exposing the probably pale skin underneath their fur to the sun (Rogers et al, 2004), straight hair would have been an evolutionary liability. 'Kinks' in fiber optic tubes are known to prevent UV from passing through. Hence, tightly coiled or 'kinky' hair may have evolved to prevent the entry of UV light during the gradual transition period towards the evolution of dark skin and the simultaneous transition from hairiness to virtual nudity. Later, after a group of modern humans left Africa approximately 60,000 years ago, straight hair re-evolved among those members who migrated to northern Eurasia (see hair texture).

[edit] The global distribution of Afro hair texture

Afro hair is a predominant characteristic of sub-Saharan Africans, Andaman Islanders, and Melanesians. It is often posited that this hair texture (which is unique among all mammals--and most humans) is an adaptation to tropical climates. However, as mentioned, many (dark skinned) straight haired people have also been found to thrive in similar types of warm equatorial environments. Thus the distribution of the trait likely has more to do with the migration patterns of those who left Africa to populate the rest of the world within ~60,000 years ago (Quintana-Murci et al, 2004). It also has to do with the retention of that which was adaptively essential at the equator (ie dark skin) and the loss of that which was no longer essential (ie Afro hair) following admixture. Specifically, after the migration of modern humans out of Africa, those who settled in warm sunny regions similar to sub-Saharan Africa, like the Andaman Islands and Melanesia (and also remained isolated from straight haired northern migrants) did not experience adaptive (nor admixture) pressure for their hair to straighten. Thus it remained Afro-like.

Nonetheless, in places like India, South America, Australia, and Polynesia, hair is straight despite warm, UV-rich climates. This is explainable given the context in which Afro-hair likely arose (which is described above). To reiterate, this unique texture likely evolved 1-2 million years ago, just before the time that dark skin (Harding et al, 2000) is estimated to have arisen (as indicated by human MC1R genetic demographic patterns--see Harding 2000). The trait may have reached high frequency in order to compensate for the gradual process in which relatively pale hominid (pre-human) skin was being exposed to the African equatorial sun as it lost its protective fur (as indicated by Iyengar 1998--also see Rogers et al 2004). Once dark skin evolved however, the Afro-hair texture was no longer essential for protection. Nevertheless, it was not a liability either (by contrast, it was indeed a liability for those who migrated to northern Eurasia--see hair texture). Therefore, there was no pressure within Africa to re-evolve straight hair.

In addition, because intermixture within the large sub-Saharan African population remained relatively high for a significant portion of its pre-history (compared to those who migrated outside of this region), severe, sustained isolation and its associated intensive inbreeding (ie bottlenecks) did not occur (Tishkoff, 1996). Thus, straight hair also did not naturally arise by way of random mutation and isolation (ie genetic drift) among any of the subgroups of the sub-Saharan region. In fact, it is very likely, given the basically ubiquitous distribution of the Afro-hair trait among contemporary sub-Saharan Africans (the most genetically diverse macroethnicgroup on earth whose direct ancestors comprised the orignal population from which all of humanity derived), that at one time the Afro-hair trait characterized the entire human population (i.e. before the exodus from Africa and the settlement of some of the migrants in northern Eurasia).

In sum, after the re-evolution of straight hair among those who migrated from Africa to northern Eurasia ~60-50,000 years ago (see hair texture), some of these northerners then went southward (before the Holocene) to places like India (Quintana-Murci et al, 2004). Polynesian, Australian, and South American populations are also known to have been influenced (either slightly or entirely) by Northern migrants. For example, in the case of Australia (and likely India), when the northerners arrived, they intermixed with the dark skinned, Afro-haired inhabitants of the region (Redd & Stoneking, 1999). In the case of Polynesians and South American Indians, archaeological evidence suggests that (straight haired) migrants of Northern East Asian descent were to first to populate these regions (Diamond, 2005); making them the predominant inhabitants until modern times. Straight hair (combined with dark skin) thus came to dominate among these groups likely due to pre-Holocene waves of migration into these areas from the north and (in the case of India and Australia) subsequent admixture with the dark skinned, Afro-haired inhabitants.

Afro-hair is, in this sense, most likely a reminder/remnant of a crucial time in hominid evolutionary history (ie when humans became hairless). Also, while the unique texture may arguably provide additional comfort in hot areas, it did not initially evovle simply for this purpose. Furthermore, it should be emphasized that Afro-hair texture is, by far, not essential to survival at the equator given expression of dark skin. Thus, dark skinned, straight haired groups are able to survive there without this trait.

[edit] History in the United States

Black Americans have been experimenting with ways to style their hair before the nineteenth century. Between the late 1890s and the early 1900s, Annie Malone, Madam C. J. Walker and Garrett Augustus Morgan revolutionized Black American hair care by inventing and marketing chemical applications to alter the natural tightly curled texture. During the 1930s, conking (vividly described in the Autobiography of Malcolm X) became an innovative method in the U.S. for Black men to straighten kinky hair.

It has been debated whether these practices arose out of a desire to make the hair more manageable or instead to conform to a Eurocentric standard of beauty.^{[citation needed]} Supporters of the second theory believe that the same prejudice that viewed lighter skin as preferable to darker, held that straight or wavy hair was preferable to tightly curled hair; that this prejudice comes not from African diasporic peoples but from European slaveholders and colonizers as part of the rhetoric used to support slavery and racially-based social class stratifications. Some claim that the dominant prejudice for Eurocentric ideas of beauty pervades the western world.^[3]

The civil rights movement and black power and pride movements of the 1960s and 1970s in the U.S. created an impetus for African Americans to express their political commitments and self love through the wearing of natural hair. This contributed to the emergence of the Afro hairstyle into American mainstream culture, as an affirmation of African heritage, that "black is beautiful," and a rejection of Eurocentric standards of beauty. It has been used in songs, as a symbol of African heritage, notably in I Wish by Stevie Wonder. By the 1970s natural hair had evolved into a popular hairstyle.

Over the years, the popularity of natural hair has waxed and waned, but a significant percentage, approximately 75% of African American women still elect to straighten their hair with relaxers of some kind. Prolonged application of such chemicals can result in overprocessing, breakage and thinning of the hair.

In the past decade or so, natural hair has once again increased in popularity with the emergence of styles such as cornrows, locks, braiding, twists and cropped hair, most of which originated in Ancient Africa^{[citation needed]}. With the emergence of hip-hop culture and Caribbean influences like reggae music, more non-blacks have begun to wear these hairstyles as well. There has been a boom in marketing hair products such as "Out of Africa" shampoo to African American consumers. 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."

Most black women in the West, however, continue to relax their hair.^[3] Even today, people are sometimes discouraged in the workplace from wearing their hair in a natural style. Notably, the American marketing strategies that have inspired African women throughout the diaspora to straighten their hair are now being directed at sub-Saharan Africans. Thus in many urban areas of the continent, and increasingly in some rural areas, straightened hair is common among adult females.

[edit] Controversy over natural hair in the United States

Although there has been a reemergence of natural hair, there is still the underlying tone that straightened hair is a more acceptable or professional hairstyle. This is evidenced by the fact that high-profile black women in professions such as journalism and politics still wear straight hair.

A 1998 incident became national news when a teacher in Bushwick, Brooklyn, introduced her students to the book Nappy Hair by Black American author Carolivia Herron. The teacher, who is white, was criticized by parents of black children, who thought that the book presented a negative stereotype.^[4]

In December 2006, the Baltimore Police Department created a policy to create a new professional appearance, but it raised questions of racial insensitivity. The new policy was more specific. Three out of the four hairstyles banned were worn primarily by blacks^{[citation needed]}. The hairstyles include twists, locks, Mohawks, and cornrows. These hairstyles were regarded as “fads” and “extreme.” A petition was made. Currently the Baltimore Police Department has rescinded the policy against natural hair styles and a new policy was put in effect after January 15th.

In June 2006, the Six Flags amusement park chain created an employee policy against "extreme hairstyles" including locks and cornrows. This caused many of their employees to either quit or alter their hair by cutting it or straightening it.

On Wednesday, April 4, 2007 radio talk-show host Don Imus referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team playing in the Women's NCAA Championship game as a group of "nappy-headed hos" during his Imus in the Morning show. Bernard McGuirk then compared the game to "the jigaboos versus the wannabes," alluding to Spike Lee's film School Daze. Imus apologized two days later, after receiving criticism. CBS Radio canceled Don Imus' morning show on Thursday, April 12, 2007.

On April 24, 2007, mixed martial arts fighter Tito Ortiz reprised Imus' remark when he said of Rashad Evans, "He will be my nappy-headed ho." The two faced off in one of the three featured fights at UFC 73 in Sacramento, California on July 7, 2007.

During August 2007, American Lawyer Magazine reported that an unnamed junior Glamour Magazine staffer did a presentation on the "Do's and Don't's of Corporate Fashion" for Cleary Gottlieb, a New York City law firm. There was a slide show where the woman made negative remarks about black women's natural hairstyles in the workplace, calling them "shocking," "inappropriate," and "political." Both the law firm and Glamour Magazine issued apologies to the staff.^[5][6]

[edit] See also

• Afro
• Cornrows
• Dreadlocks
• Conk
• Jheri curl

[edit] References