Now, black women have to watch as the styles we have been told were unprofessional, outdated, unkempt, ghetto and just downright inappropriate, are remixed and glorified outside of black communities. Several women and girls have told their stories, including me, about how their ethnic hair was negatively perceived in school and the workplace. Ultimately, Kim K’s “style” is nothing new to black people, we call this hair style cornrows, straight backs, dookie braids, braids your momma puts in your hair under your swimming cap, set-it-off-braids (in homage to Queen Latifah), braids to the scalp, and protective styles.īut more importantly, it is telling how we are having this conversation when schools and corporations are adding language to their uniform code to discourage African American hairstyles. And today, I wear braided styles-called protective styles-to protect my hair from the hash elements of the air, and promote hair growth. Sometimes, during the school year I would wear my hair in braids pulled into a ponytail. As I grew older, I wore these braids in the summer because of the humidity. At the time, they were used as a way to separate the detangled hair from the rest of the uncombed hair. In the early 1990s I frequently wore these braids after my mother washed my hair. MTV writes, “Whether you’re off down the gym or need a casual but polished day to night style, meet your new favourite hair do: boxer braids.” Interestingly, this isn’t the first time that an ethnic hairstyle has been appropriated by mainstream media: Kylie Jenner was cited on Marie Clare’s twitter as taking “bold braids to a new epic level,” and now Kim K receives credit for culturally appropriating a trend that African American women have worn for centuries.įor black women, hair care and maintenance is important, this is especially true in natural hair communities. They call her hairstyle “Boxer Braids” which they assume were inspired by the Hilary Swank’s character in the boxer movie Million Dollar Baby. It seems that MTV has credited Kim Kardashian for making cornrows popular.
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