What were slave hairstyles?

Answer 1

Diasporic black Africans in the Americas have been experimenting with ways to style their hair since their arrival in the Western Hemisphere well before the 19th century. During the approximately 400 years of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade that forcibly extracted over 20 million people from their indigenous homes, chaining them to sell as human capital, the Black person's beauty ideals pertaining to their own natural hair changed drastically. The visibility, and pride, seen in pre-colonial Africaregarding the afro-hair texture became sparse. Imported slaves were mostly young, generally between the ages of 10 and 24. Upon arrival to the Americas, slaves lacked the skills, tools and ability to meet local aesthetic standards. The issue was most particular to women. Furthermore, there was no time for hair grooming as slave masters worked their subjects 12-15 hours a day, 7 days a week. The barbaric and desperate social climate left slaves with little concern for grooming and personal well-being. The carefully crafted combs and tools available for hair grooming in their homeland were no where to be found in the new world. American slaves wore matted and tangled locks, instead of the well maintained, long, thick and healthy tresses worn by their brethren left in Africa.

To resolve this, slaves began using sheep fleece carding tools to detangle their hair which resulted in wide spread scalp diseases such as lice and dandruff. Slaves invented remedies for disinfecting and cleansing their scalp such as applying kerosine or cornmeal directly on the scalp with a cloth as they carefully parted through the hair. In the fields, Male slaves shaved their hair and wore hats to protect their scalps against the sun; female slaves wore scarves andhandkerchiefs. The aesthetic norm for house slaves was to appear neat and clean. The men sometimes wore wigs mimicking their white masters, and even wore hairstyles resembling theirs, while the women plaited and braided their hair. Women with long and/or wavy hair were prone to becoming objects of jealousy by the master's wife and were often forced to cut their hair, making them look less feminine