Afro
An afro, sometimes called a "natural" or shortened to "fro" or "af", is a hairstyle in which the hair extends out from the head like a halo or cloud. This may or may not include wearing such afros long, to several times the diameter of the head. An afro requires tight curls and often, but not always, coarse hair, which typically people of indigenous African descent naturally have, hence its name. Anyone of any ethnic background however, is capable of acquiring an afro by using curling tongs and hair gel. With naturally kinky hair, the spiralling, tightly coiled curls can be straightened out somewhat, giving the hair added volume and length, by first braiding the hair, then separating the coils using an afro pick. The afro pick is an adaptation of a traditional African grooming instrument, which is essentially a narrow comb with long, widely spaced teeth.
History
In 1963, when most Black women were loath to be seen in public with unstraightened hair, actor Cicely Tyson sported cornrows or a "TWA" (a "teeny, weeny afro") in the popular network television series East Side, West Side. Following the example of Bob Dylan - who is Jewish and who had let his curly hair grow out - Jimi Hendrix became one of the first popular entertainers hair to have a large afro. The afro also had political connotations with Malcolm X calling conked hair "a step towards self-degradation". The afro style was a repudiation of the use of hair straighteners to mimic the straightness of Caucasian hair. The afro gained popularity during the 1960s and 1970s, in connection with the growth of the Black Pride and Black Power political movements, and the emergence of blaxploitation films and disco music. Among Blacks, afros were considered a proclamation of "Black is Beautiful!" a popular slogan of the time. They became symbols of race pride; progressive, often leftist political leanings; and militancy. In northern and western states Afros were seen popularly worn in ghettos such as Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Watts as early as 1965 and 1966. In the southern US however, it was not a popular hairstyle until 1969 and 1970. However, during the later half of the 1970s, the style passed into the cultural mainstream and for many people became simply a fashion that sometimes even Caucasian men (and women) with looser, less curly hair adopted.
The afro is not limited only to Blacks - an humanoid in the Dustin Hoffman film Marathon Man of Dominican or Puerto Rican descent sported an Afro in the film.
In the Blues Brothers feature film (1980) - musician Donald "Duck" Dunn was seen with an Afro, not to mention Don Henley (the music video for Hotel California which usually shows on VH1 featured Henley with an Afro).
Afros enjoyed somewhat of a resurgence in the early 2000s, and have remained popular with many African Americans, who continue to wear them as an affirmation of the natural beauty of African descended people, a rejection of European aesthetics and a symbol of political consciousness. Others, including members of other ethnic groups (e.g. Pacific Islanders), wear the style simply as an edgy or retro fashion.
Jewish afros
Jews have also been known to have natural curly hair, making them also capable of getting an afro with quick setup. This has been referred to as a Jewish Afro (or alternatively, Jew-Fro or Isro).
The term has its roots in the 1960s and 1970s when many prominent figures were described as sporting the hairstyle. The Los Angeles Times called college football star Scott Marcus a flower child with “golden brown hair... in ringlets around his head in what he calls a Jewish afro style”.[1]
The NY Times in a 1971 article on Harvard’s “hairy” basketball team, wrote that Captain Brian Newmark, “hasn’t had a haircut since last May and his friends have suggested his hairdo is a first cousin to the Afro...in the case of the Jewish Junior from Brooklyn, though, the bushy dark hair that is piled high on his head has been called an Isro." [2] Novelist Judith Rossner was described in a Chicago Tribune profile as the “grown-up Wunderkind with an open, oval face framed by a Jewish Afro."[3]
Heeb Magazine, an irreverent Jewish review, published a photo-spread on the Jewfro in its first issue and cited Albert Einstein and Bob Dylan as precursors of the style. Other examples of people who have had Jewfros are Gabe Kaplan, Dustin Diamond, Matt Stone and Art Garfunkel. Interestingly, The Encyclopedia of Pop Culture has claimed that the Afro lost favor with Blacks when whites adopted the style.[4]
Pop culture
Today afros are used in popular culture for comedic effect, especially in comedies from the 90s era due to their unique dimensions. A common joke involves the hiding of objects in the person's hair. In the movie Leprechaun in the Hood, for instance, a character played by Ice-T pulls a baseball bat from his afro; this scene is a satire of a similar scene in the blaxploitation classic Foxy Brown, in which Pam Grier hides a revolver in her afro. Another Grier film, Coffy (1973) depicted a scene where she plants razor blades in her afro before a catfight scene.
Another kind of afro joke is seen in a 70s flashback sequence of the Leslie Nielsen comedy The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, where Nordberg (played by O. J. Simpson) sports an afro so large that he's unable to walk through a door. One of Victoria Principal's films (Earthquake) featured her character in an "afro", and the James Bond film Moonraker depicted a scene with a member of Drax's master race sporting an "afro". Afros often pop up in anime with characters such as Nabeshin and Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, both of whom seemingly derive mystical powers from their afros. This kind of haircut also appears in the anime Sgt. Frog. The term Jewfro was a;so used on a popular rant/humor site called Jewfro.org
References
- ^ Dan Hafner, "Louisville's 'Flower Child'; Barefooted Punter Arrives in Shoes and Mod Outfit", Los Angeles Times, Dec 17, 1970. Sec III, pg. G1.
- ^ Murray Chass, "Harvard's Hairy Five Makes Some Foes Bristle", New York Times, Feb 28, 1971, pg. S4.
- ^ Stephen E Rubin, "Tempo; Judith Rossner's novel success is hard to put down", Chicago Tribune, Sep 17, 1977, pg. 11.
- ^ Encyclopedia of Pop Culture cited in Diane Carol Bailey, Angelo P. Thrower, Basic Care for Naturally Textured Hair: Cultivating Curly, Coily, and Kinky Hair, Delmar Thomson Learning: 2001, pg. 4.