Talk:Natural afro-hair

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I started this page under the title Afro textured hair. 'Natural hair' doesn't make sense because White people with straight blonde hair have natural hair. The woman whos picture is displayed cannot possibly be considered as having afro textured hair, that is clearly frizzy/wavy hair. The information is fallacious and downright silly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.157.9.141 (talk) 20:59, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

since when did afro-textured hair only come in the form of an afro? it ranges from tightly coiled to completely straight. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.119.80.90 (talk) 14:55, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

I moved the article to "Natural afro-hair". If you can come up with a less awkward title go ahead and retitle it.
Wikinist (talk) 22:32, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] old

This article should also address the country's negative attitude towards natural hair. Such as The Baltimore Police Dept policy against natural hair styles (which is currently rescinded) or Six Flag's policy against "Extreme Hairstyles" which included dredlocs, cornrows, or Hampton University's ban on dredlocs, braids or cornrows for their business administration students. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.157.183.146 (talk • contribs) 08:53, 12 January 2007

It would be great if you could find some good references for that and update the article yourself. You don't even need to login. Chovain 23:07, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Please note that the term "African-American" refers to ONE particular segment of the African disapora. The term "natural hair" is used by many other peoples of African decent to refer to their hair in its unprocessed form, including Caribbean blacks, and those of European origin. For this reason, the definition of this term is incorrect in that it leads the reader to believe that popular usage of this term originated with and resides mainly with Americans of African descent. This is far from true.

[edit] The thing with the care

I just wanted to ask... I have my natural hair, it's about 10cm now and... well I actually do the opposite of the advices given in the article. I wash it about every day and I don't use some special shampoo, just plain simple stuff. And my hair is everything but broken and messed up. So I don't really get the sense of this hole care-taking thing... why did you add that? Everybody does the haircare like he/she always did it and everybody does it different. It's not like you would give some advices at the page about jacking off or something like that (I hope you get the metapher)... --ቢትወደድ 19:39, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

What the hell with the care thing ?! What did black people do before the invention of conditionner ? The section should be purely deleted or it should be mentioned that in the US it is the way some hair dressers would recommand to treat the hair. This method is far from being universal or seen as the best way to take care of hair.

I agree. I put the Essay template up because I didn't want to just delete it without soliciting a bit more input (I don't like to make big bold edits like that--I usually leave that for other, more decisive people). But I should say that type of info belongs over on Wikibooks. It might be salvageable if it can be sourced and turned into a discussion of research surrounding proper care using ATTRIBUTED SOURCES, but WP is not a place to put how-tos. cluth 08:04, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
Agree, to a point. The article is about the nature of Natural hair. The nature of care issues, definitely belongs. But the current section needs significant work. DocGratis 00:04, 14 April 2007 (UTC)
It needs to be removed. There is not one universal way to care for this hair type. Any hair care advise is subjective, not the rule. I'm deleting it as I don't think it's necessary to have a hair care section anyway. Generalhoneypot 16:36, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Picture

Thats a pretty bad, non-encyclopedic picture... did she take it herself on some webcam? There should be a better picture of the actual hair, with better resolution.

What's up with the text under the pic? Young "ape"?! Does the pic even need text? Am I being neurotic, out-of-touch -- ape is totally offensive, right? If we are going to worry about nappy. . .

[edit] Natural Hair?

That may be natural hair for some, but not all people. Rename this article to Afro-textured hair. --66.218.17.209 22:06, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

I was thinking that too. Also, when i think of natural hair i think of hair thats NOT colored/dyed or treated. ie, Natural. Coojah 07:35, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
I do not have a problem with a name change, however sources for a better term would be need. Previous discussion has pointed out how "black hair" and "African hair" are not very accurate. Additionally, the term "Natural Hair" legitimate term. DocGratis 14:05, 15 April 2007 (UTC)


I agree that the article should be renamed, and the part about not bleaching or coloring should be taken out, as coloring your hair is not the same as altering texture. The colored hair would still retain the afro, nappy, natural, etc. texture. Itsmeiam 02:36, 3 May 2007 (UTC)


I agree aswell, why is this article called natural hair when any type of hair could be natural and this article is specifically reffering to afro-texutured hair, most common to sub-saharan african descendants. The tittle is to general and it could constitute of any hair type, that's why the tittle should be cahnged to something like "Afro-textured hair" to be more accurate.

[edit] East African

You may want to modify the page a little. Many people of North Africa and also East Africa have different textured hair. See Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan.

I agree, North Africans and East Africans have various textures present in their phenotype. I also propose adding peoples of the Sahel, who also exhibit varying phenotypes, like the Foulah, and the Tuareg. Some examples:
Somalian boy
Nigerien women
Peul
Tuareg girls —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Garnettgotit (talk • contribs) 15:59, 24 April 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Nappy

I'm wondering if the term 'nappy' is considered an offensive word? Note the recent firing of radio personality Don Imus over the use of the term "nappy headed hos" which was taken to not only be offensive to women, but also racially offensive. If this is the case, perhaps the term 'nappy' itself is considered offensive to some. If so, perhaps some comment to that effect should be included when using the word in the article. It is not a word I have ever knowingly used, but at the same time, it is not a word I knew to avoid. Is the word offensive in and of itself, or only when used in an offensive context? I'd be interested in hearing what people think.(unsigned)


I have tried to restore and expand the article to reference sections about negative connotations of nappy and other adjectives for natural hair. I do not have any sources at hand, and I can not currently find any free sources to read and site. Work is needed. DocGratis 11:36, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
Remember Eddie Murphy in Coming to America -- his hair was 'nappy'. By the way, nappy-headed ho is not exactly the same as just saying 'nappy head' or 'nappy head dread' -- see Rastafarian about how this dialectal term is considered part of the Rastafarian language. 70.5.209.207 00:46, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Incorrect article title

Really, this was surely not what I expected to read about when I saw an article named "Natural hair". It's a simple sentence really, it's hair that happens to be natural (not dyed, for example). I fail to see what this has to do with "afro-hair", or better, I fail to see how can the main topic of this article be about "afro-hair", when it could at most be just another example.

It is because "natural hair" is how many people refer to the natural texture of black hair, as many Black women, especially in America, use chemicals to alter the texture of their hair. Itsmeiam 02:31, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

The article title implies that other races cannot have "natural hair" -- that it can only be possessed by black people. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 199.43.48.129 (talk) 16:21, 8 May 2007 (UTC).


Hey, I don't know how to correct this, but the link to the Disambiguation page at the top of the screen reads "“Nappy hair” redirects here. For other users, see Nappy (disambiguation)." I think it should say "For other USES," not "For other USERS."

[edit] The article is messy

I just tried cleaning this article up. But it's quite difficult because it's trying to explain how people from across different countries/continents/cultures refer to "Afro Textured Hair". This article is trying to present one accepted world view of Afro hair and there just isn't one, not least because there are many different types of African hair. As a result, it ends up with a rambling disclaimer at the beginning, which excludes North Africans and other Africans without "Afro Textured Hair/Black Hair/Natural Hair". 99% of it then goes on to be about what Afro Hair means in relation to America, but then maybe that's the point. Maybe it should be Afro Textured Hair in America so the pretence of this article being international can be dropped. Generalhoneypot 16:54, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hampton University

Why was the part about Hampton University banning certain natural hairstyles (cornrows and dreadlocks) for their business students taken out?

[edit] Afro textured hair

this is a better title, than natural hair. Muntuwandi 00:59, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] degrees of afro texture hair?

are different degrees of afro texture hair? Plus I was wondering if any one has a better picture. The current one is not typical of afro texture hair.YVNP 01:05, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Education

I do agree that the title of the article needs to be changed. African-Americans/Black-Americans are so used to seeing life through their eyes rarely realizing that there is a whole world of African descendants outside of America. If you change the title and show that there are different types of textures to African/Black hair then it would open everyones eyes and brige a mental gap in which...African Americans sitll have a lot to learn about themselves and bring new hair care alternatives about. Its time for a new perspective. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Freeon0nline (talk • contribs) 04:01, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

I disagree with this page. First of all, I have no idea how there can be different textures of tightly curled/afro textured hair. If afro-textured hair ranges from straight to tightly curled (that alone doesn't make any sense because 'afro textured' is synonymous with tightly curled), what makes it 'afro textured'? There are three basic hair textures, straight/wavy, loosely curled and tightly curled. Only Black people have tightly curled hair and I'm very proud of that. I also have no clue how the woman whos picture is displayed can possibly be considered as having tightly curled/afro textured hair. I'm not interested going back and forth with the editing, please stop redirecting people from my ATH page to your Natural hair page (which also doesn't make sense because most human beings, Black, White, Red, Yellow or Brown, have 'natural' hair.). I started this page but I'm letting it go without arguement, I simply want my own ATH page and you can have your natural hair page. Thank you.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Do for self (talk • contribs) 19:24, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] European curly / kinky / hard

I'm pretty sure I've seen people of european ascent ascent with this sort of hair roots (well I've not actually looked at the roots). The article "Afro textured hair" apparently neglects that and actually states that it's only present on the "Black race". I think it's more common with black hair, and perhaps specially common on jews, but I've seen it in blondes and redhaired people as well. The first picture of a woman in the red hair article shows a woman with hais which are at least not quite straight; Gene Wilder also comes to my mind. I'm not quite sure whether that would be due to recent african ancestry. And even so, that would mean that in many cases they would be black only due to the silly "one drop rule" pro-slavery related thing, where even people of straight hair and blue eyes could be considered to be "black"-thus-slaves. Is there real evidence that it only exists in europeans due to recent african miscigenation? I think that only asians and amerindians have "universal" straight (and much straighter) hair. --Extremophile 17:23, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hampton University

Why was the part about Hampton University limiting its hairstyles (i.e. cornrowns/dreadlocks) for its business major students deleted? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.237.8.67 (talk) 14:05, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How did Afro-hair come about?

Greetings: I just finished an entry explaining the scientific evidence concerning why Africans (et al) may have initially developed this unique hair type. Its in the 'adaptation' section. Let me know whether it is comprehensible. Thanks. Afiya27 (talk) 17:32, 10 June 2008 (UTC)