African Hairstyles Of Olden Days

 

I was going through some old African styles and I came across these,  enjoy.

 

Woman with complex coiffure and hair ornaments

Fulani, West Africa
Photo: Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal.

A coiffure is perfected by various decorations: cowries, beads, mother-of-pearl buttons, medals, pieces of silver, amber balls, metal rings, and pins of wood, bone or ivory. In the West African Sahel, the Fulbe and Peul (Fulani) cultivate impressive hairstyles.

For purposes to do with magic, a man or woman may also attach amulets to certain hairdos. The more elaborate coiffure includes braids, crests, curls, cascades, chignons, and vertical cornrows.

Two women whose braids have been lengthened to their ankles through the use of sinew (eefipa) extensions.

Two women whose braids have been lengthened to their ankles through the use of sinew (eefipa) extensions, Mbalantu of Wambo group, Namibia, Africa
Photo: M.Schettler, 1940′s

Woman with coiffure in the form of a crest with ornaments and comb.

Igbo, Nigeria, West Africa
Photo: Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal.

A coiffure is perfected by various decorations: cowries, beads, mother-of-pearl buttons, medals, pieces of silver, amber balls, metal rings, and pins of wood, bone or ivory. In the West African Sahel, the Fulbe and Peul (Fulani) cultivate impressive hairstyles.

For purposes to do with magic, a man or woman may also attach amulets to certain hairdos. The more elaborate coiffure includes braids, crests, curls, cascades, chignons, and vertical cornrows.

Natives of Ugogo, east central Africa

Natives of Ugogo, east central Africa

The Samburu Warrior

The exact origin of the Samburu, who inhabit an area in Kenya’s northern frontier, is unknown. What can be said is that the Samburu are one of several East African Nilotic peoples, who show traits of Hamitic acculturation. The men are tall and lean.
The warriors spend many hours braiding each other’s hair into ever longer strands that fall evenly down their backs. They also smear red ochre mixed with animal fat over their hair. They wear beaded decorations across their foreheads, often entwined with their braided hair. All warriors wear ivory earplugs in the stretched holes in their earlobes.

Source:  http://nubianhairsupplies.homestead.com/hair-styles-in-africa.html

Matted Dreadlocks - Artistic expression or Neglectful lifestyle?

As an experienced dreadlock stylist, I've met people who express their dreadlocks in many different ways.

When it comes to beginners or "loc-starts" (as we call them) some people request micro-dreadz, small-medium, medium to big and so on..... often-times people would say "I don't want it BIG and chunky like Bongos" (people call Bongos the Big, Bold Rastafarian type dreadlocks) and they usually say it with a smile on their faces as if everyone with BIG dreadlocks don't clean them or couldn't be bothered about them. This piece is my way of finding out for myself.....If it's an artistic expression or a neglectful way of living, what do you think?

I was born in Barbados and funny enough from a very early age I was exposed to the Rastafarian lifestyle, not from my family but from some people who decided to "settle" (some would say squat or even steal or teef) on a piece of land to the bottom of my street.

I was around 7 or 8, and I found it very difficult to speak to these guys without looking at their hair. I wasn't really sure what was going on and my mum was as lost as me, never-the-less, they would talk to me about Rastafari Livity, Haile Selassie I, Bob Marley, Marcus Garvey and all associated Rasta tradition. My family was Christian, but I wasn't really attached to a religion of such, I was more interested in running wild through the jungle, which was the place that they had inhabited.

After a few months, they had built two grand-2-storey homes, I would mostly go to the one closer to me, his name was "Zoes" and I would have to shout for him over the Reggae music that would be constantly playing. Next to his house, he built a herb garden, there was Aloe Vera for bathing, and a fireplace for cooking. At night he lit his candles or sometimes it seems like he had electricity, which I found quite odd, because everyone knew that the land that they had settled on, had no facilities for utilities.

What?

I just couldnt understand how these guys could be in such harmony with their environment that they had all the things that we had, but wasnt working long hours like my mum was.

Just like our family, he had his guard dogs, his family, a daily routine, values and judgements, underneath it all, they were quite normal. 

Imagine......

If Zoes was a well shaven socialite, nice clean haircut with razor marks, tattoos with a 2012 mercedes convertible, as we call them " a child of materialism" would he be in-tuned with his environment in this way?
Hmm, probably .....NO!!

Could it be that the closer someone is to their creator the more "free" or natural they become?

Well, I'm not too sure if it is neglectful anymore, seeing that the only things they neglect are they things that keep humanity in suspended animation. They neglect the rat-race and all that it has to offer. I always thought to myself that they were a symbol of creativity, man in his purest form, his most animalistic expression, an image that I admire, but would reluctantly step into.

Whatever the conclusion, its obvious that they "do" have a roll in society, even if they are merely living reminders that not everyone is enslaved to material creations.

I am happy for my childhood experience and my personal opinion is: they are towers of strength, because, everytime I see them, I see a person that don't give a damn what I think of them, fully liberated, when was the last time you felt like that?

World’s Longest Dreadlocks (Dreadz)

Asha Mandela has spent the last 20+ years growing her hair into the recently crowned Longest Dreadlocks by The Guiness Book Of World Records.

The 46 year old women from Davenport, Florida started growing her current dreadlocked hair in 1988, four years after moving to the United States from Tinidad/Tobago while she was living in Brooklyn, New York.
(Image of Asha Mandela from UTube and Guinness Book of Records Attempt)
At one point while in New York she cut all of her naturally curly hair very short and decided to go “natural” meaning the abstinence from all hair related chemicals.
As her hair grew in she started twisting it and eventually it formed tangles and then dreads.  She loved the look as it evolved and allowed it to grow into a full set of dreads which has been growing nonstop for the past 21 years.
There are many methods for creating dreadlocks and one is to let hair become Naturally Tangled although some dread lockers refer to that method as The Neglect Method where the hair is just neglected allowing it to eventually evolve from tangles to dreads.
Asha explains she just decided to let her hair be and no longer comb it although her mother was not pleased when she made the decision.  Asha’s mother called her dreadlocks “the mop” and was unhappy because she told Asha she took good care of her naturally curly hair for so many years only to see it evolve into the dreadlocks.
As she pointed out in several interviews, including her tape on youtube, her hair is always shampooed and conditioned like everyone else.  The only difference in her hair and the next person is that her hair is never combed.
Of course Asha has to use one entire bottle of shampoo and one entire bottle of conditioner every time she cleanses her hair, which is now once a week.  Another challenge to the Guinness Book winner is how long it can take her hair to dry after she washes it.

How Long Do Asha’s Dreadlocks Measure?

Asha’s longest locks measured 8 feet and 9 inches which won her the first Guinness Book node for Longest Dreadlocks.  Of course this doens’t win her the longest hair category which has been won previously by others.
The tresses of Xie Qiuping, a Chinese woman set the record in 2004 for the world’s longest hair: 18 feet, 5.54 inches. Asha’s dreadlocks are, however, quite a bit longer than the world-record holder for longest leg hair or nose hair.  Eeewwww.  Too much information there.  Don’t even want to think about the nose hair holders.
How did Asha grow these magnificent dreadlocks she sometimes refers to as “her baby”?  She credits her ability to grow her hair so long and relatively fast is due to her hair’s “mixed texture” which is due to her origins in a “mixed family”.  Her hair is naturally curly which also helped the dreading or tangling process to progress so nicely.

How Does Asha Wear Her Hair?

Does Asha wear her hair long and flowing up on her head?  She has admitted that as much as she loves her hair it can be challenging because of how heavy it is.  Although she sometimes wears it coiled up like a hat on her head, she has confessed to getting headaches from the weight of all that hair.  She also reports it can be quite hot in the summer months.
Although my own long hair has never been dreadlocked I can relate to the challenges of hot hair in the summer at which point I wear my own super long hair pinned up.  And yes, sometimes it does give me a headache.  And my hair is not nearly as heavy as Asha’s dreadlocks.

What’s Next For The Woman With The World’s Longest Dreadlocks?

Now that Asha Mandera has been named the World’s Longest Dreadlock holder she will probably do everything in her power to keep her dreads.  As she pointed out in her UTube video, even with the various challenges, she hopes to keep her hair at least for the next 20 years.
Although Asha started a blog during her run for the Guinness Book, she has not continued to update it.  I wish she would so we can see how she is continuing to work with her hair as time continues.
Of course once records are recorded, new contenders pop up all the time.  It will be interesting to see how long it takes before someone challenges Asha Mandera’s record.
If Asha allows her hair to continue growing she may be able to hold onto the record for awhile.  I certainly hope so.  She certainly deserves the record.  Growing and caring for that much hair involves a lot of work, time and committment.  Asha mentioned in her youtube video that as dreads grow they get broken and some wear away to nothing.  In fact, she accidentally stepped on one of her locks and it broke off, shaving eleven inches off her final length.

History Of Dreadlocks

African cultures have always utilized the body as a vehicle for expression. The YORUBA, AKAN and MENDE, associate the head with physical and spiritual well being. In other African societies people with tangled hair are regarded as wizards or witches; agents of the netherworld. Among the IBO(NIGERIA) those with dreadlocks are viewed as shamans, oral history recounts cases of chosen ones being born with a full head of hair.

For the HIMBA of NAMIBIA and ANGOLA dreadlock hair is related to rights of passage that serve to establish social and marital status within the tribe in Kenya from the age of 14, the SAMBURU and MASSAI men maintain locks in very thin strands, then braid and weave these sections with decorative ornaments. Within the warrior class, MORANI, hair indicates rank in Senegal, there are people known as the BAYE FALL, followers of the Mouride movement, a sect of Islam indigenous to Senegal.They wear dreadlocks following their chief Chiek Amadou Bamba, by combining African paganism, Wolof and Sufism, Bamba created Mouridism in Ghana, over 300 years ago dreads; held pride of place in cultural mythology.

India's sadhus of the Hindu faith, have been locking their hair for centuries. Jatta(as it is called) announces that the wearer adheres to strict spiritual and sexual practices, including poverty and celibacy, ,outlined over 2000 years ago in the Naradaparivrajaka Upanishad. A divine directive descended from Upanishadic creation mythologies, matted locks are considered symbolic of a covenant between the Sadhus and SHIVA, the god of destruction and re-generation.

In Japan, Rasta-Buddhists subscribe to the belief systems of both Rasta and Buddhism.Rasta-Buddhists let their hair grow as a sign of their acceptance to nature's divine order. Urban areas of New Zealand offer unexpected pockets of cosmopolitan dreadlock communities, with their locks serving a sartorial purpose. Then theres the MAORI, of which the gang members see their locks as an exernal manifestation of their anti-socialism and general rebellion.

In November 1930, when Ras Tafari, an African prince with ancient lineage was crown Emperor Haile Selassie I of ETHIOPIA, many considered Revelation prophecy fulfilled. BAHATOWIE priests of the Ethiopian Coptic Church had been locking their hair since the 5th century.During the invasion of Italy in 1935, the Emperor was force into exile and the rebel guerrillas swore not to cut their hair until he was re-in-stated.

Hence the birth of Rastafarianism. Rastas throughout the EARTH, believe that their hair is a direct covenant between them and their creator and also a statement representing who they are as African descendants and the heritage is one to be proud of. The dreadlocks expression in all religious denominations, all hold on to the idea of a covenant between themselves and their creators.