Blonde dreadlocks, black buns – Those with frizzy hair want to de-frizz it. But among whites, braids, buns, and the wild afro are becoming increasingly popular, says author Mireille Liong-A-Kong.
Blonde dreadlocks, black buns
Those with frizzy hair want to de-frizz it. But among whites, braids, buns, and the wild afro hairstyle are becoming increasingly popular, says author Mireille Liong-A-Kong.
In agony, Malcolm X pushes his head into a toilet bowl. His hair is on fire and the water supply is turned off that day. He can only cool off in the toilet water. In the feature film about the life of this American black leader, you see how the young Malcolm X smears his hair with a nasty chemical substance to defrizz it. The substance has to be rinsed out immediately, otherwise it burns right through the scalp.
The scene is funny to white viewers, but even funnier to people with curly hair. Ask black women about their hair care and you’ll quickly hear a “history of my baldness.” An estimated 90 percent of black women relax their hair, or have done so. Many have suffered the side effects: irritated scalp, breakage, hair loss.
If you spend an afternoon walking around the Albert Cuypmarkt in Amsterdam, you will see many variations in curly hairstyles in addition to relaxed hair: braided hair, ringlets, twists (simply two strands twisted together) or cornrows (mathematical patterns like an artfully mown cornfield). Also trendy are the bantu knots; a head full of small buns. The most common variant is braided or wavy hair: fake hair tied to your own hair that you can buy in all kinds of colors and variations.
Amsterdam's Mireille Liong-A-Kong wrote the book Kroeshaar, a guide to caring for black hair. "I started it because I was at my wits' end. It never looked right. And when I relaxed it, my hair broke off. I watched my own troubles with increasing amazement, until I had to conclude: you have a complex." Now Liong-A-Kong never relaxes again.
By writing the book she discovered that a lot of knowledge about the care and styling of frizzy hair has been lost due to the sad history of the blacks. And also what fun things are possible with frizzy hair. She now wears braids herself. She has also had an afro hairstyle, and cornrows.
According to Liong-A-Kong, there is a negative image of frizzy hair among black people: "They say: 'frizzy hair is a curse'. Or: 'frizzy hair is bad hair'. Ridiculous. I also sometimes hear someone say: 'frizzy hair doesn't run in our family'. As if it were a disease." This feeling of inferiority is also the origin of defrizzing.
According to Liong-A-Kong, black slaves initially had to hide or shave their hair, because the white masters could not stand it. Blacks who lived in Europe or America adopted the dominant – white – beauty ideal. That means: the lightest possible skin, and hair without curls. Those who wanted to advance in the white world had to dress and act as white as possible. However, because a black person never becomes a white person, this leads to self-hatred.
In the black emancipation movement of the sixties, this schizophrenic situation was denounced. Blacks had to become proud of their own culture and appearance again: Say it loud: I'm black, I'm proud! Famous soul singers like Sam Cooke refused to straighten their hair any longer. Liong-A-Kong: "For whites that was often a shock. They were afraid of that wild hair." Blacks let their hair grow freely, which resulted in the famous afro hairstyles, enormous round tufts of hair, as their African ancestors would have worn it.
But unlike their forebears, European and American blacks did have their afros neatly cropped, giving them the famous microphone shape. In the film Naked Gun 2 1/2, this trend is parodied by OJ Simpson, who wears such an enormous afro wig that he can't get through the door of a disco.
The opposite of Michael Jackson, who had his appearance made 'whiter', is Bob Marley, the reggae singer who let his hair grow even more naturally than in an afro. Marley was a follower of the Rastafarian faith, which prescribes that hair may not be cut or combed. The long frizzy hair then automatically tangled together in thick rope-like strands: "Since I threw the comb away/ I'm a rastaman ever since that day." Another famous ambassador of the dreadlock hairstyle was footballer Ruud Gullit in the eighties. Liong-A-Kong: "Dreadlocks are the most natural way to wear your frizzy hair. Many people think that dreadlocks are dirty. But you can just keep them clean."
The rise of hip hop was important for the development of black hairstyles. Rappers usually do not relax their hair but cut it in daring variations. In popular culture, the ideal of beauty is now slowly being reversed: white children want to look like black rappers. White, alternative anti-globalists walk around with blond dreadlocks.
Mireille Liong-A-Kong: Frizzy Hair, Contact, 13 euros.