Eugene Davis Hair

Fabric of Hair Investigates:🧐
The Natural Hair Movement

Hair has always been an important part of Black history. Afro hair is so versatile and unique that it is deeply embedded into the culture.

However, because of ideas rooted in Eurocentrism, natural kinky hair preseved as “unprofessional” and smooth, straight hair became desirable.

Society has always been more accepting of Eurocentric traits—such as having straight hair—leading those who do not possess those traits to often attempt to conform to the conventional western beauty standards.

Not many people outside of the Black community are familiar with the natural hair movement. On the surface, the natural hair movement encourages men and women of African descent to embrace and celebrate there natural afro-textured hair.

However, it also allows a people rich in history to be true and authentic. To connect to their roots, and celebrate and not be shamed for natural beauty.

As important as the natural hair movement has been in past and current black history, there are some issues within the movement as well.

First and foremost, people with 4C hair, the kinkiest and coiliest texture of hair were supposed to be the face of the natural hair movement.

4C hair is often underrepresented in the natural hair movement in media because so much of the content seen within the movement focuses on looser-textured hair.

Coily hair is still not normalized and when it is praised, it is usually long, leaving no representation for girls with short hair or hair that experiences a lot of shrinkage.

So, while the natural hair movement has been through many variations and has many successes over the years there is still much work to be done in the natural hair movement to be more inclusive.

As there are a wide and vast people with textures when we think about the future of the natural hair moment it is important to show appreciation to all hair textures and let go of harmful stigmas.
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Fabric of Hair Investigates: Afro History🧐

Why is an Afro called an Afro?

This hairstyle is so elegantly called the afro because most people who can grow an afro naturally have ancestors from Africa. So growing your hair into a afrocentric style is purposed. The afro became less popular in the middle of the 1970s through the late 1990s.Then it came back pride with the natural hair movement.

Facts :
At the end of the 1950s, a small number of young black female dancers and jazz singers broke with prevailing black community norms and wore unstraightened hair. The hairstyle they wore had no name and when noticed by the black press, was commonly referred to as wearing hair "close-cropped."

These dancers and musicians were sympathetic to or involved with the civil rights movement and felt that unstraightened hair expressed their feelings of racial pride. Around 1960, similarly motivated female student civil rights activists at Howard University and other historically black colleges stopped straightening their hair, had it cut short, and generally suffered ridicule from fellow students.

Over time the close-cropped style developed into a large round shape, worn by both sexes, and achieved by lifting longer unstraightened hair outward with a wide-toothed comb known as an Afro pick.

At the peak of its popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s the Afro epitomized the black is beautiful movement. In those years the style represented a celebration of black beauty and a repudiation of Eurocentric beauty standards.

It also created a sense of commonality among its wearers who saw the style as the mark of a person who was willing to take a defiant stand against racial injustice.
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