3. We should keep our hair stretched and protected to increase the length of the hair
‘From these observations, it could be proposed that any procedure that reduces knotting of hair and/or the need for combing would result in an increase in the length of the hair by reducing the incidence of breaks in the hair shafts.’
Konishi, S. (2008). tied in rolled knots and powdered with ochre’: Aboriginal hair and eighteenth-century cross-cultural encounters. Borderlands.
4. Taxonomer Carolus Linnaeus is responsible for how race and people are identified. This means that the concept of ‘race’ is completely manmade. Africans are classified as Homo afer or ‘black frizzled’
Through the influential work of the great taxonomer, Carolus Linnaeus, Homo europaeus ‘yellow, brown, flowing’, Homo asiaticus ‘abundant black’, and Homo afer ‘black, frizzled’ (cited in Rosenthal, 2004: 2).
This eighteenth-century definition and conceptualisation of African hair as ‘woolly’ intersected with slavery discourses which dehumanised the African body in order to justify its abject treatment.
The Oxford English Dictionary indicates that this derogatory term signifying ‘the short, tightly-curled hair of Negroid peoples’ was first used in a runaway slave advertisement in 1697.
This type of hair was also ascribed sexual connotations, for according to Allan Peterkin, ‘frizzy’ hair was seen as ‘demonic, licentious, and pubic.’
‘Negro’ possessed ‘wool instead of hair’, and that this difference, in concert with others concerning skin and facial features, suggested that they ‘appear to constitute a new species of man.’
Source (in Diderot and d’Alembert, 1765, v. 11: 76). uaresma, M. V., Martinez Velasco, M. A., & Tosti, A. (2015). Hair Breakage in Patients of African Descent: Role of Dermoscopy. Skin Appendage Disorders, 1(2), 99–104. http://doi.org/10.1159/000436981
5. Our hair is naturally dry
‘In addition to these properties, the water content in African descent hair is slightly lower than in Caucasian hair, and the sebaceous glands often secrete an inadequate amount of sebum, which has an uneven distribution along the shaft due to its spiral shape, leaving the hair with a dry appearance. M [17,20]’
Additional discussion points include the fact that the more the hair clumps the shiner the hair if your hair does not clump it will appear less shiny. It is all dependent on how light is reflected from your hair and not based on how healthy your hair is.
Please watch this awesome video below:
Jennifer M Smith says
Thank you
Jennifer M Smith says
Thank you! Very informative.
Teresa Edelglass says
Wow! Very interesting! And you sound good, too! 🙂 I am doing research on how fast hair grows and came across this. You don’t see a lot of info re “race”. Thank you for this! Jolly good!