Cornrow Culture
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132 The Knot 133 Article Poster showing cornrow braids in Amsterdam-West, 2016. Photo by Taufiq Hosen 2016. Photo by Taufiq in Amsterdam-West, braids cornrow showing Poster 135 Cornrow Culture 134 Walking around London and Amsterdam, I ment of any past fashion, or does the video see cornrows. Long and swinging, tight and footage of Beckham’s braided head as he If hairdressing is the simultaneous sculptural, they trace complex patterns in meets Nelson Mandela prompt a deeper lines and curves across proud heads. Neat consideration of cultural sharing and cul- or showy, cornrows are a potent cultural tural appropriation when it comes to hair? cultivation of hair, self and society, signifier of Africanicity. In the words of my niece Thea, 21, who grew up in a largely Caucasian community in Britain and is then cornrows are a bumper crop. of mixed ethnicity, wearing cornrows was a way of experiencing kinship with her For some people, these head sculp- Jamaican family, “like I was fitting in with tures mark ethnic identity and kin- that side of my heritage”. ship. For others, they represent a Floella Benjamin, 1977 Head hair is the most malleable and most flirt with the exotic. In both cases, socially visible part of the human body, so it is not surprising that the things we what we do with our hair has great do with our hair have great social and Kylie Jenner, 2015 personal meaning. I am a mixed ‘race’ Chinese/English woman — I have ‘mixed social and personal meaning. Historians can point to a continuous tra- blood’, as Chinese people sometimes say dition of cornrow braiding from ancient to me — and my hair is a dark-brown mel- African civilizations such as the Nok of ange of east and west. Though it is straight, Nigeria, through the dislocations of slavery it has a slight wave that undermines any and into the present day hairdressing skill- attempt to achieve a chic Oriental curtain set of the African diaspora. Even where of hair, yet does not constitute anything hair straightening has been the norm, the so alluring as a curl. Growing up in the practice survived through the braiding of 1970s, I was aware of cornrows as a black young girls’ hair to resurface on adult heads style, positively exemplified by the braid- as fashions as the political climate changed. ed and beaded heads of musician Stevie There is no doubt that cornrows are a Wonder and television presenter Floella highly creative and symbolically powerful Benjamin, and negatively by Bo Derek in TURE way of dressing black hair and celebrating the film10 (1979) because to me, some- the cultural identities of people of African how, it looked wrong. She was too skinny descent. But was the media furore justified and so was her hair. However, as a young when cornrows were fleetingly adopted by adult in the mid-1980s I begged a hair- white Kardashian celebrity Kylie Jenner last dresser friend for a perm so tight that my year? When David Beckham comments that hair might stand up almost like an Afro, his 2003 cornrows were a ‘mistake’, does he but not quite. At the time, I thought I was speak of the cringing personal embarrass- in pursuit of something unique — that my chemically-altered mop of corkscrew curls was an act of pure self-expression — but now, as a professional fashion historian, I am forced to reassess. At the same time as CORNROW CUL I was expressing my solidarity and person- al identification with numerous positions Actress Cicely Tyson, a trailblazer in African inspired of otherness, I realize that, like many other hairstyles, wearing cornrows ‘Pineapple’ style in the 70s. young Europeans in search of a perm, Photo by Ian Showell/Getty I was also caught up in fashion’s more dubious cultural cannibalism, though I Text by Sarah Cheang David Beckham, 2003 was blissfully ignorant of that fact. 136 The Weave 137 Cornrow Culture tural effects on the head have also been cornrows above her left ear was cited as important. To this end, braiding can be taking braids to ‘a new epic level’, a state- used to produce striking raised patterns, ment that gives no cultural credit to the a variety of textures, and further levels rich history of black hairdressing and of artistry can be achieved using the stiff instead suggests that the use of cornrows braids to create gravity-defying bunch- within mainstream fashion is some kind es, hat-like coils and loops in the air. The of improvement that African cultures have Bo Derek, 1979 inclusion of beads adds eye-catching col- never made. The braiding and beading of our, and also sometimes a delicate percus- white tourists’ hair on a Caribbean beach The Afro, also known as the Natural, is a sive sound as they swing together. is harmless enough, but the fashionable potent symbol of black power because it All cultures borrow from one anoth- framing of Bo Derek and the Khardashians exploits the natural texture of African hair. er in search of artistic inspiration, design overwrites the creative genius of the This texture was regarded in derogatory Cornrows are a highly distinctive solutions and cosmopolitan consciousness. African diaspora. terms as ‘woolly’ by supporters of slavery practice that is indisputably part Fashion cultures use ‘foreign’ or ‘exotic’ in the 19th century, and ‘nappy’ or even ‘bad’ of African tradition motifs, shapes and materials to produce within 20th-century African-American hair- a novel or edgy look, but in the process dressing cultures that favoured hair-straight- the originating cultures are mythologized ening. ‘Nappy’ hair was finally accorded or even ignored. In the fashion media, positive value in America in the context of non-western cultures as a whole are the Black Rights movement of the 1970s. frequently regarded as the providers of Black beauty was reclaimed with refer- traditional, timeless raw materials that ence to the natural qualities of the African western designers can claim to ‘discover’, body as an emancipatory source of identity. ‘improve’ and make aesthetically viable But, at the same time, the Afro was a fash- without needing to credit or financially ion statement, influencing a generation of reward the skilled artistry of the cultures ‘groovy’ as well as politically active white that created them. Having social permis- Ludacris, 2003 people to adopt Afro-inspired styles. sion to flirt with the exotic with no neg- of my search for something beyond the ative effects on status and opportunity is Dress historian Carol Tulloch writes in her nice-girl’s perm, something rebellious also a key aspect of white privilege when latest book The Birth of Cool that black cool and cool. Like the blackface style of the it comes to the history of Caucasian corn- has historical depth; it is an act of black Japanese gangura girls or the dreads of rows. While some white women wore them aesthetics as well as a tool for being black Japanese ‘Yellow B-Boy’ rappers in the as a fashion statement in the Bo Derek era, in everyday life. Both my niece Thea and 1990s, what is ‘cool’ and ‘just fashion’ might court cases reveal that African-American her brother Joshua knew that their corn- seem like harmless play, but it is still part women were facing dismissal from the rows were a cool way to mark their specific of an important conversation about racial workplace because their well-groomed, ethnic identities in a sea of British white- politics and body styling. Often, it is a practical and culturally appropriate corn- ness at school and experience their sense historical underpinning that is absent from rows were being branded an ‘extreme’ of otherness in a way that drew admiring Lionel Ritchie, 1983 the fashionable consciousness. style by their employers. and envious glances. As a young mixed- Not everyone can wear their hair in race male, Joshua remembers that his By the 1980s the Afro became outmoded a glorious Afro — even the most vigorous point of reference was the rapper and actor and the Jheri Curl ruled supreme, a change perm could not really achieve that — but Ludacris. But going to his mother to ask for in hair fashions that can be demonstrated any hair type can be woven into cornrows. gangsta-style cornrows also involved him in by simply comparing Michael Jackson With skill and patience, the hair is divided hours of weekly braiding sessions that wove album covers across the period. The Jheri into multiple sections, and each section more than just hair. The time, attention and Curl was a chemical treatment originally is tightly and often painfully braided physical proximity of this kind of hairdress- designed to create tight curls in Caucasian against the scalp to form a closely held ing enables the creativity of mothers, sisters, straight hair, but which was subsequently line. While many cultures can lay claim to aunties and friends to be interwoven with adapted to make looser curls in black kinky the plaiting of hair, cornrows are a high- Venus and Serena Williams, 2000 close relationships and a sense of connec- hair. It was undoubtedly a crucial factor ly distinctive practice that is indisputably tion, at home or in the salon. Hairdressing in the styling of a generation of young part of African tradition. In common with The argument that Caucasian cornrows is, after all, the simultaneous cultivation of Caucasians with corkscrew perms in main- most cultures throughout history, hair- honour black culture rather than exploit- hair, self and society. A fine crop of corn- stream fashion. To my 18-year-old self, dressing in Africa has been closely tied in ing it is also hard to sustain where much rows is personal as well as spectacular.