Much ado about ‘dos
By Lyndia Washington
For the NNPA
DALLAS – It’s twisted, braided, permed and weaved. Sometimes it’s left natural or locked and even covered with a wig. What phenomenon is so versatile? It is a black woman’s hair.
While some criticize the different coiffures and claim that styles like permanents to straighten the hair and extensions and weaves to give long locks are a suppressed desire to “look white” and claim the natural styles and braids are connection to the African heritage, others dispute both claims and have varied reasons for the choice of hairdos.
Brenda Wall, a psychologist and head of the sociology and psychology department at Grambling State University, said the variety of hairstyles worn by black women is a form of self-expression.
“Long before Madame C.J. Walker,” she said, “black women were doing things with their hair. In some cases it is ethnic expression, but for the most part it is what they choose to do.”
She said women are often categorized because of their hairstyle, but they have different reasons for what they do and the reasons are limitless.
Black women express themselves in different ways, she said. “It is a reflection of our culture and the choices people make in terms of self esteem and confirming who they are. We have so many manifestations. Some like styles to get attention and some just like change.”
Wall said, “We must embrace our beauty and not trade our beauty for someone else’s standard.”
She said standards are imposed on women, whether it’s the size dress one should wear or style of hair one should wear.
Although she usually wears her hair in braids or twisted sections, Isoke Brown said it has nothing to do with her ethnicity.
“I am a dancer and I want a hair style that I don’t have to worry about being all over my head or all sweated out when I dance,” she said.
Currently she is wearing the twisted style that involves adding synthetic hair into one’s hair and twisting the two together. Brown said the style lasts about two months and cost her about $180.
On the other hand, some women opt to go natural for other reasons.
Kimberly Myers, a hair stylist and promoter of natural hair, said she has worn dreadlocks for about seven years. Her hair had been damaged by the chemicals in the perm, so she cut her hair to about two inches, and let it be natural. Now her husband has joined her and wears “locks” too.
Myer said her inspiration was also her daughter, Kendra, who went natural after chemicals also damaged her hair. Myers said Kendra refuses to wear locks, so she pressed her hair with a hot comb, sometimes called a straightening comb.
Myers said some women do not wear natural styles because of the reaction they get from other people and the stereotypes associated with wearing one’s hair natural. “It’s not always an ethnic thing, but natural hair is not for everyone. My husband wears his locks in corporate America. At one time, that would not have happened,” she said.
Madame C.J. Walker is credited with popularizing straightening black women’s hair in the 1920s, so the concept is not new. Weaving goes back to early Egypt and different forms of wrapping hair with other material can be traced back hundreds of years. Now everything that’s old is new again.
While some women choose weaves for longer hair, Julia Harris said she wears a weave because of thinning hair. Harris, a cosmetology instructor, said one can “safely wear a weave for two to three months at a time. It then needs to be taken out and redone or the hair should be given a rest.”
Jones said the idea of trying to look white with a weave never occurred to her.
She said, in addition to thinning hair, people wear weaves to have a different color of hair without dying their own, or just to have a different look.
Hair weaving is more than going to the store and buying some glue and hair and sticking on the hair. Although hair weaving is nothing new, weaving techniques have changed and in some cases improved. For more than 30 years, cosmetologists from throughout the country have met annually at the National Hair Weaving Association convention to keep updated on the latest in hair weaving and related areas. Dallas was host to the group this year, which was founded by local cosmetology icon Velma Brooks.
The owner of Velma B’s Beauty Academy, Brooks said she developed hair weaving and hair extension processes about 40 years ago before it was popular. She also is involved in training hairdressers in the art and skill of hair weaving. She said people involved in the conventions are “a group of innovators that have think tanks to promote methods and techniques of hair weaving.”
“So many people are going to the store and getting glue and hair and damaging their hair,” Brooks said. There are differences in how the do-it-yourselfers and professionals operate. Brooks said a professional weave job will last for months, but unprofessional jobs are more temporary.
Brooks said she had customers whose hair she has weaved for years. She said there is more money in weaving than in any other area of cosmetology. Some people make up to $1,000 a day and if they have an entertainer clientele can make more.
Hair weaving is not a part of curriculum, but students can take special training and she teaches one-on-one in her personal salon.
Brooks has traveled the world teaching hair weaving and other hair-related topics.
As early as 1951, Brooks learned the “pole method” of weaving. “It was really tight. You had to take a couple of aspirin and it took all day. If you were doing the weaving you’d have to condition your mind and say, ‘Okay, I’ve got to do a weave tomorrow.’ So I tried to find an easier way. Now it can be done in about an hour or so.”
Although many comedians and others joke frequently about hair weaves and people that wear them, Brooks said if a person has a professional job, a weave is difficult to detect. Even her 30-year-old grandson was fooled by weave wearers he knows. She said he was going on and on about women who wear weaves and wanting a “natural woman.”
“I asked him if he loves his sister, his mom, and his grandmother. He said ‘Of course I do.’ And I then told him that all of us wear weaves. He couldn’t believe it.”
After a long career in the hair business, Brooks said she is ready to “just chill and help young people.” She sponsored four students to attend the hair weavers’ convention, recently held in Dallas.
Brooks said her son, Terry, is in charge of her beauty school. She said some days when she is slow to come into the school he will call and question her about when she will be in. “I tell him I’ve done that, now it’s your job.” She said young people keep her going.
Maurine “Tootsie” Jones is a former student of Brooks and now owns her own salon specialty is braiding and the care of natural hair.
Jones was mentored by Brooks early in Jones’ career and was able to attend a hair weaving convention as a cosmetology student. Like Brooks, the cosmetology profession and being an innovator is what makes Jones thrive. She said she also supports the contention that braiders and weavers need to be licensed.
“They need to know sanitation, studies of the hair, and safety,” she said. She said braiding could cost from $45 to $1,000. The owner of Tootsie’s Braiding Gallery, Jones said she also works with hair extensions. She said she has developed a line of products that have natural ingredients and that will minimize hair loss through shedding. She said she is also involved in working with a new process that is not braiding and not weaving – it’s something new and different.
“We just keep working it like we work it,” she said.
Young women choose weaves as a trend and often change hairstyles frequently.
“I wear weaves, pony tails, perms, and whatever I choose and it has nothing to do with trying to look white, said, Nila Miller, a high school student. “Black women can do whatever they want with their hair.”
