Here is a fantastic blog, Black Girl with Long Hair, which resonates with the Mercer reading for next week on black identity and hairstyles.
http://bglhonline.com/category/vintage-natural/page/3/
In this entry, she describes Madam C.J. Walker, known for bringing hair care to a black population in the late 19th and early 18th century.
The article is interesting not only for its content, but also in the anxieties inherent in it when talking about Walker's legacy. Walker's great-great-grandaughter, interviewed in the blog, is very careful to distance Walker from the hair-straightener, instead focusing on Walker's interest in cultivating/ a culture of "healthy-well groomed hair".
I quote: "Madam Walker’s true legacy is the development of a system of hair care for black women at a time when few people were addressing our specific hair care needs. She was focused much more on conditioning and grooming than on straightening."
The blog goes on to feature an article from a 1966 Ebony Magazine about African American women rejecting straighteners and embracing the afro, espousing the discourse of the 60s. And then, quite interestingly, there is also a Tinz ad from the 60's exhorting black women to colour their hair, whether or not its straight or curly. Racial discourse of beauty seems to be displaced from the hair straightener to the dye bottle....
http://bglhonline.com/category/vintage-natural/page/3/
In this entry, she describes Madam C.J. Walker, known for bringing hair care to a black population in the late 19th and early 18th century.
The article is interesting not only for its content, but also in the anxieties inherent in it when talking about Walker's legacy. Walker's great-great-grandaughter, interviewed in the blog, is very careful to distance Walker from the hair-straightener, instead focusing on Walker's interest in cultivating/ a culture of "healthy-well groomed hair".
I quote: "Madam Walker’s true legacy is the development of a system of hair care for black women at a time when few people were addressing our specific hair care needs. She was focused much more on conditioning and grooming than on straightening."
The blog goes on to feature an article from a 1966 Ebony Magazine about African American women rejecting straighteners and embracing the afro, espousing the discourse of the 60s. And then, quite interestingly, there is also a Tinz ad from the 60's exhorting black women to colour their hair, whether or not its straight or curly. Racial discourse of beauty seems to be displaced from the hair straightener to the dye bottle....
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