Афро: история, стиль и культурное значение прически.

Hair style

The afro is a hair style created by combing out natural growth of afro textured hair, or specifically styled with chemical curling products by individuals with naturally curly or straight hair. The hairstyle can be created by combing the hair away from the scalp, dispersing a distinctive curl pattern, and forming the hair into a rounded shape, much like a cloud or puff ball. For people with wavy or straight hair, the hair style is created with the help of permanent hair structure changing creams or gels and/or other solidifying liquids to temporarily hold the hair in place. Particularly popular in the African community of the late 1960s and early 1970s, It has been argued that this portrayal of a Caucasian woman as a rescued slave during the American Civil War played on the racial connotations of slavery at the time so that the distinctive hairstyle affiliates the side show white Circassian with African American identity, and thus: Afro textured hair, characterized by its tight kinks, has been described as being kinky, coarse, cottony, nappy, or woolly. These characteristics represented the antithesis of the European American standard of beauty, and led to a negative view of kinky hair. As a result, the practice of straightening gained popularity among African Americans. Those who chose not to artificially treat their hair would often opt to style it into tight braids or cornrows.

The effect of the Civil Rights Movement brought a renewed sense of identity to the African–American community, which also resulted in a redefinition of personal style that included an appreciation of black beauty and aesthetics, as embodied by the "Black is beautiful" movement. In his book Welcome to the Jungle: New Positions in Black Cultural Studies, cultural critic Kobena Mercer argued that the contemporary African society of the mid 20th century did not consider either hairstyle to denote any particular "Africanness"; conversely, some Africans felt that these styles signified "First worldness". The afro was adopted by both men and women and was a hairstyle that was easier to maintain by oneself, without requiring frequent and sometimes costly visits to the hairstylist as was often experienced by people who chose to braid, straighten or relax their hair. Due to the kinky pattern prominent in Afro textured hair, as it grows longer it has a tendency to extend outward from the head, resulting in a domelike hairstyle which is easily molded and sculpted into the desired shape. In contrast, the afro's popularity among African Americans had already started to wane by the early 1970s; These afros would take varied forms, some incorporating elements such as braids, beads or twists, as well as various sizes, from close cropped natural hairstyles all the way to expansive afro wigs. Likewise, later in 2019 Assembly Bill 07797 became law in New York state; it "prohibits race discrimination based on natural hair or hairstyles." Aevin Dugas from Gonzales, Louisiana, USA, set a new Guinness World Record on 11 September 2022, for the largest female afro, which measures 165 cm (5.41 ft) in circumference, 25 cm (9.84 in) in height, and 26 cm (10.24 in) in width. She has broken the Guinness World Record for the largest afro three times, including in 2010 and 2021. Dugas says she began growing her afro in 1999 and learned how to style and cut it herself after an unsuccessful trip to a professional hairstylist. She states that she broke the record to personally advocate for the beauty of natural hair and to encourage self love.

A "Jewfro" (portmanteau of the words Jew and afro) or (rarely) "Isro" (portmanteau of the words Israel and afro) refers to an afro when worn by Jews. The term has its roots in the 1960s and 1970s when many prominent figures were described as sporting the hairstyle. In 1970, the Los Angeles Times called college football star Scott Marcus a flower child with "golden brown hair  in ringlets around his head in what he calls a Jewish afro style". The New York Times in a 1971 article on Harvard University's "hairy" basketball team, wrote that Captain Brian Newmark "hasn't had a haircut since last May, and his friends have suggested his hairdo is a first cousin to the Afro, the style that is popular with blacks. In the case of the Jewish junior from Brooklyn, though, the bushy dark hair, that is piled high on his head has been called an "Isro"." Novelist Judith Rossner was described in a Chicago Tribune profile as the "grown up Wunderkind with an open, oval face framed by a Jewish Afro." The Hadendoa Beja of northeastern Africa were nicknamed "Fuzzy Wuzzies" by British troops during the Mahdist War due to their large and mop like hairstyles, which they shaped by applying butter or mutton fat. In Somalia, some young men of the nomadic and sedentary communities would grow their hair long and carefully comb it into rather large bushes, which they would then hold in place with ghee. This elaborate hairstyle was quite distinct from another coiffure found among other Somalis, who would instead grow long and fluff out their fine, straight hair and place a chewing stick and comb in the center. Variations of the afro have been worn by one or both sexes in the many disparate cultures of the African continent. Due to the hairstyle's links to members of the civil rights and Black Power movements, the afro was seen by several outside cultures as a dangerous symbol of political unrest, including Tanzania where the Afro was banned in the 1970s because it was seen as a symbol of neocolonialism and as part of a "cultural invasion" from the United States. In the 1950s and 1960s, South African women were also known to wear their hair in an afro type style. The afro did not rise to the same level of popularity among the Afro Caribbean community as it did in the United States, in part because of the popularity of dreadlocks, which played an important role in the Rastafari movement. Not unlike the afro's significance among the members of the American Black Power movement, dreadlocks symbolized black pride and empowerment among the Rastafari of the Caribbean.

The long, wide teeth of the "afro pick" or afro comb were designed to dig down to the scalp, allowing the hair to be stretched out from the roots into a desired style or shape using a picking motion.