African Hair Braiding

Archive for the ‘Origins & Evolution’ Category

Hair braiding began to take over the world a couple of decades ago. Starting with the 1960’s it became a very popular fashion statement. Women from America, regardless of their race started to really appreciate African American hair braiding. It represents a hair style that sums up the character, the likes and the dislikes, and the way of living of a certain person.

This type of art from might seem relatively new, because it is so popular in many hair style saloons, but actually the history behind is as long as the human one. African American hair braiding has his history starting from more than 5000 years ago. When we talk about Africa the number is even higher. This form of hair weaving has been very popular amongst many types of culture, no matter the region. Tribes from Africa and from America, clans from Asia, pharaohs from Egypt and communities from Europe all took a liking for this fashion statement. If we talk for example about Africa, we can say for sure that hair braiding took a social event form. Women and young girls asked their female relatives to help them braid their hair, and afterwards they themselves practiced on the people they knew and their younger sisters, until they become accustomed to all the amazing styles of hair braiding. In Europe on the other hand, women who lived in Germany or France, liked to braid their hair as tight as possible, especially when they didn’t have to possibility to take a bath very often.

Women from the American continent, like the Aztec ones, used to braid their hair by adding to the weave colored strips of cloth and afterwards wrapping them around their heads. Even Egyptians like to braid the hair from the wigs they wore, especially royalty and priests.

African American hair braiding is one of the oldest hair styles, but its popularity still is pretty amazing. It is a fashion statement and also a practical style.