HAIR HISTORY: BRAIDS

Although hair braids have been worn for over 30,000 years, they have caused controversy in American society within recent years. Why, when and where braids are worn spark major debates among people, especially when it comes to who gets to wear them. As in most situations, it is impossible to make an informed decision without hearing the facts of the case:

The Venus of Brassempouy

The oldest known reproduction of hair braiding lies back about 30,000 years: the Venus of Willendorf, now known in academia as the Woman of Willendorf, of a female figurine from the Paleolithic, estimated to have been made between about 28,000 and 25,000 BCE, discovered in Willendorf, Austria. Another Paleolithic figurine; The Venus of Brassempouy counts about 25,000 years old and indisputably shows hairstyling, it is also one of the earliest known realistic representations of a human face, discovered in Brassempouy, France. With the earliest evidence of modern humans found in Europe 43,000-45,000, it's safe to assume the early humans of Europe were braiding their hair long before replicating the style in a figurine.

According to the theory of the recent African origin of modern humans, anatomically modern humans began migrating out of Africa during the Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic around 100,000 or 70,000 years ago and began to replace earlier pre-existent Homo species such as the Neanderthals and Homo erectus. However, recent discoveries of fossils originating from what is now Israel indicate that our species (Homo sapians) lived outside of Africa 185,000 years ago; some 85,000 years earlier than previous evidence suggests. Due to the fact that Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic humans did not record evidence in the form of artifacts, there is no solid evidence that braids were worn before the replicated the styles in art.

However, between 200,000 and 250,000 years ago, humans began to create stone-tipped spears, which were the earliest composite tools, by hafting sharp, pointy stone flakes onto wooden shafts, the use of fire also became widespread for the first time in human prehistory during the Middle Paleolithic and humans began to cook their food. Given this information, we can gather hair braiding started sometime in between the huge gap of 155,000 to 205,000 years ago, either in Africa or in the surrounding areas. Continuing into the Bronze Age, it is still unclear how popular hair braids were during daily life as most artifacts created were either functional or depicting the world around them, rather than their own images.

Highly-detailed long and short

Ancient Egyptian wigs

The monuments of the Egyptian time period of the Old Kingdom (3000-2000 BC), show that shorter hair was originally the fashion for all classes, for the shepherd and the boatman as well as for the prince, and was even worn by those in court dress. At the same time the great lords possessed also a more festive adornment for their heads in the shape of great artificial coiffures. Amongst them we must distinguish two kinds of wigs, the one made in imitation of short woolly hair, the other of long hair. The long haired wigs consisted of a construction of little curls arranged in horizontal rows lapping over each other like the tiles of a roof; as a rule very little of the forehead was visible, and the ears were quite covered as well as the back of the neck.

The details vary in many particulars, though this description is correct as a whole. The curls are sometimes triangular, sometimes square ; the hair is sometimes cut straight across the forehead, sometimes rounded ; in many instances the little curls begin up on the crown of the head, in others high on the forehead ; other differences also exist which can be ascribed only to the vagaries of fashion. In the earliest times of the Old Kingdom, the master alone and one or two of his household officials wore this wig, but in the time of the 5th Dynasty we have many representations of workmen, shepherds, or servants adorned with this once noble headdress. Moving forward, the women of early Ancient Egypt of the Middle Kingdom (2000-1300 BC) kept their hair short whereas the women of the later New Kingdom (1550-1070 BC) kept their hair long, which they plaited and curled.

The wealthy women also wore elaborate wigs. Long hair was dressed as plaits or braided pony tails, and occasionally a fringe was cut. The hair of wealthy was elaborately curled and occasionally adorned with jewelry, gold strands, flowers, beads, ribbons and hair bands. The women had a preference for unique hairstyle which were kept in placed with clasps and hairpins. Some women who had thinning hair, especially of higher class, had false hair woven into to their natural hair, an excellent example of this being Queen of Egypt, Ahmose-Nefertari. Queen Ahmose-Nefertari was the first Queen of the 18th Dynasty during the Middle Kingdom. She was a daughter of Seqenenre Tao and Ahhotep I, and royal sister and the great royal wife of pharaoh, Ahmose I. It is unknown if her hair loss began later in life or was a lifelong condition, what is clear is that the Queen was buried with a head full of braided woven hair extensions with each side protected in its own bandaging.

Depiction of Sumerian man

with decorated braids

The Sumerians and Akkadians (including Assyrians and Babylonians) dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of written history (3100 BC) to the fall of Babylon in (539 BC), when it was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. Sumerian men had both shaved heads and faces, long hair and beards or a combination of the two. Sumerian women often had shorter hairstyles than the men or wore their hair in long elaborately- entwined braids. The Assyrians are highly regarded as the first true hair stylists. Their prowess at cutting, curling, dying and layering hair was admired by other civilizations on the Middle East. Hair and beards were often oiled, tinted and perfumed. The long hair of women and the long beards of men were cut in symmetrical geometrical shapes and curled by slaves with curl bars (fire-hearted iron bars). The Sumerians and Assyrians as Like the Egyptians, Cretans, Persians and Greeks; the Sumerians and Assyrians wore elaborate wigs which often defined status, occupation and income level.

The Egtved Girl (c. 1390–1370 BC) was a Nordic Bronze Age girl whose well-preserved remains were discovered outside Egtved, Denmark in 1921. Though her bones had disintegrated by the time of her discovery, her scalp and hair was extremely well-preserved; showcasing her fine, straight, short blonde hair. Her hair was not braided, but lying next to her head in a carved comb with a long cord attached, this shows even if her hair was not braided, the people of the Bronze Age time period were still using braiding techniques learned in their past.

The Celts (1300 B.C. - 600 A.D.) were an Indo-European people in Iron Age and Medieval Europe who spoke Celtic languages and had cultural similarities, with the first Celtic being the people Urnfield culture. Generally, the Celts wore their hair long. Soldiers were sometimes an exceptions; they also wore their hair in rounded, bowl cuts. The Celts were usually described as blond, whether naturally or through the use of chalk or lime-water to lighten the hair. Both those substances change the texture of the hair as well, which would allow soldiers to shape their hair into spikes or tufts as a form of intimidation. Both men and women wore their hair long, often braided or in curls. Women also wore their braids pinned to the head and also incorporated knots and buns in their hairstyles.

Celtic braids cut in a hair sacrifice

Decorative pins, golden beads, ribbons, and precious metals and stones were also incorporated, with the materials differing throughout the classes. During the Bronze Age and Iron Age many peoples in nearly every continent on earth are depicted in art with braided or platted hair and beards. In some regions, a braid was a means of communication. At a glance, one individual could distinguish a wealth of information about another, whether they were married, mourning, or of age for courtship, simply by observing their hairstyle. Braids were a means of social stratification. Certain hairstyles were distinctive to particular tribes or nations. Other styles informed others of an individual’s status in society.

Braid use in Africa has been, and continues to be, an extremely important part of daily live to the people who live there, especially the native and tribal people of Africa. Among the rural citizens and in the less developed areas, a person identity is shown through the styles of their hair. The Bantu people are the speakers of Bantu languages, comprising several hundred ethnic groups in sub-Saharan Africa, spread over a vast area from Central Africa across the African Great Lakes to Southern Africa. Although the geographical origin of the Bantu expansion is somewhat open to debate, it is generally agreed upon that Bantu languages derive from a Proto-Bantu language, estimated to have been spoken about 4,000 to 3,000 years ago in West/Central Africa (the area of modern-day Cameroon).

The total number of Bantu languages ranges in the hundreds, depending on the definition of "language" vs. "dialect" estimated at between 440 and 680 distinct languages. The total number of Bantu speakers is in the hundreds of millions, ranging at roughly 350 million in the mid-2010s (roughly 30% of the total population of Africa, or roughly 5% of world population). About 60 million Bantu speakers (2015), divided into some 200 ethnic or tribal groups, are found in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone. Like the many other tribal groups of Africa, each of Bantu tribes that speak these languages have their own way of showing their identity and tribal status with the use of their hair. The term Bantu is used for a recently popular American hairstyle in which multiple "knots" are created by twisting sections of hair and securing them to the head, known as Bantu knots.

Fula girl with the traditional hairstyle

However, there is little connection to this hairstyle within the Bantu people as a whole, and is based of inspiration rather than replication. Some have tried to connect the look to the Fula/Fulani tribe of Bantu people, the Fula/Fulani tribe has many sub-groups in different areas with a wide range of hairstyling with different meaning, thus the term "Bantu" in this braided style is very general. When it comes to the Fula women, it is not uncommon to see the women decorate their hair with bead hair accessories as well as cowrie shells. Their long hair is often put into five long braids that either hang or are sometimes looped on the sides, with a coiffure in the middle of the head. It is also common for women and girls to have silver coins and amber attached to their braids, some of these coins being very old and have been passed down in the family.

The Himba (singular: OmuHimba, plural: OvaHimba) are indigenous people with an estimated population of about 50,000 people living in northern Namibia, in the Kunene Region (formerly Kaokoland) and on the other side of the Kunene River in Angola. There are also a few groups left of the OvaTwa, who are also OvaHimba, but are hunter-gatherers. The OvaHimba are a semi-nomadic, pastoralist people, culturally distinguishable from the Herero people in northern Namibia and southern Angola, and speak OtjiHimba, a variety of Herero, which belongs to the Bantu family within Niger–Congo. Hairstyle and jewelry play a significant role among the OvaHimba, it indicates age and social status within their community.

An infant or child will generally have their head kept shaved of hair or a small crop of hair on their head crown, this soon is sculptured to one braided hair plait extended to the rear of the head for young boys and young girls have two braided hair plaits extended forward towards the face often parallel to their eyes, the form of wear being determined by the oruzo membership (patrilineal descent group), the style remains during preadolescence until reaching puberty. Some young girls, with exception, may also have one braided hair plait extended forwards, which means they are one of a pair of twins.

Namibian OvaHimba with

tradtional otjize plaits

From pubescence, boys continue to have one braided hair plait, girls will have many otjize textured hair plaits (otjize paste is a cosmetic mixture of butterfat, ochre pigment and occasionally goat hair), some arranged to veil the girl's face, in daily practice the hair plaits are often tied together and held parted back from the face. A young woman who is ready to marry would tie back her dreadlocks, always revealing her face. Single men wear a single plait to indicate their unmarried status, and once they marry, they cover their heads never to unveil them in public again, with the exception of funeral attendances. Otjize paste is used as a hair styler, body cleanser, sunscreen, and is considered foremost a highly desirable aesthetic beauty cosmetic, symbolizing earth's rich red color and blood the essence of life, and is consistent with the OvaHimba ideal of beauty.

The Tuareg are a large Berber ethnic confederation. They principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Algeria, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. Traditionally nomadic pastoralists, small groups of Tuareg are also found in northern Nigeria. The Tuareg speak the Tuareg languages (also known as Tamasheq), which belong to the Berber branch of the Afroasiatic family. The Tuaregs have been called the "blue people" for the indigo-dye coloured clothes they traditionally wear and which stains their skin. One common hair style of the women and girls is the style of multiple small braids securing front tufts of hair down, with larger braids surrounding the head, usually with one large braid down the center of the face. The women primarily keep their hair styles covered while the girls do not.

Tigrayans, usually referred to as simply Tägaru in Tigrinya, and Tɘgre in Amharic, are an ethnolinguistic group primarily inhabiting the Eritrean highlands and the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia. They speak the Tigrinya language, which also belongs to the Afroasiatic family. Tigrayans are predominantly followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. They make up roughly 6.1% of Ethiopia's population, numbering a little over 6.3 million of which approximately 96.6% are native to the Tigray Region. Tigrayan women and girls commonly wear strikingly intricate ‘cornrow’ styles with each style representing their age and marital status. Young girls shave their hair on the side of their head leaving some hair at the back of the head and around the head. The shaved part slowly closes over the years.

Tigrayan girl with traditional braids

By the time a young lady is married and has a kid she officially enters womanhood and she wears the fully braided hair do, multiple tiny braids covering the head, often with one braid in the middle going from the forehead towards the back of the head. There are many styles of braiding from the very fine called gilbich to a course one called albaso. Many Native American tribes adorn their hair in braided styles, often to show wealth, class, authority, and relationship status with variants through each tribe. In the Quapaw Tribe, women who were married wore their hair down loose while single women wore their hair in braids. Often they would roll these braids in coils and fasten them behind each ear. These coiled braids would then be decorated to attract a significant other.

In the Blackfoot Tribe of the Northern Plains, chiefs wore tall feather headdresses, different from the well-known long warbonnets of the Sioux Tribe. Men wore their hair in three braids with a topknot or high pompadour, and women wore their hair loose or in two thicker braids. Unlike the Sioux and Blackfoot Tribes, the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma did not wear long feathered headdresses often, they sometimes wore turban-like hats made of otter pelts. Traditionally like many other native nations, Kiowa people only cut their hair when they were in mourning. Most of the nation's wore their hair braided. Men wearing two long braids often wrapped in fur, while the women wore either two braids or let their hair loose. The men cut a piece of their hair short just over their right ear as a tradition in the Kiowa tribe.

In Ancient Grecian times (800 B.C. - 500 B.C.) women wore their hair long, unless they were a slave or in mourning, then they sported a bob. The long hair of non-mourning women was gathered, curled, tied and bound in bonnets and bows according to fashion. Roman women often spent hours with there hairdressers, creating elaborate coiffures and this indulgent behavior was often satirized in plays. The hair they wore could easily identify the origin of aristocratic women of ancient Greece. Athenian women wore their hair in a chignon at the back of the crown or the nape of the neck, often secured by gold or ivory handcrafted hairpins. In Sparta, women preferred ponytails threaded with pearls and beads.

A bust of a woman with a large bun

of braids and curled front piece

during the Roman Empire

Meanwhile, it was the women in Cyprus that invented some of the earliest types of attachable hairpieces. They involved a single or several wire meshes extending from ear to ear, used to support and display spiral set locks. Often these were not their own, and the meshes also served the wearer to support other decorative touches. These were most commonly used to push the wearer’s hair forward, from the occipital bone up to the apex of the head, to build up height and the shape of the soft, elliptical designs that were so popular.This silhouette was to become the inspiration for later generations, such as the opulent hair crafting of pre-revolutionary France and their British counter parts.

There are many references to braided in hair in Greek literature, including writings that some of their deities wore braids. Circe is a goddess of magic or sometimes a nymph, witch, enchantress or sorceress in Greek mythology. By most accounts, she was the daughter of the Titan sun god Helios, and Perse, one of the three thousand Oceanid nymphs. Homer (the name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems which are the central works of ancient Greek literature), when asked of her appearance said only that she wore "braided tresses". Braided hair is mentioned again in the Iliad, “In blood was (Euphorbus’) hair drenched, that was like the hair of the Graces, and his tresses that were braided with gold and silver.”

During the period of the Germanic Tribes (750 BC – 768 AD), the Suebian Knot braid was a very popular hairstyle for the tribe's warriors. According to Germania by Tacitus, the Suebian warriors combed their hair back or sideways and tied it into a knot, allegedly with the purpose of appearing taller and more awe-inspiring on the battlefield. Tacitus also reports that the fashion had spread to neighboring Germanic tribes among the younger warriors, while among the Suebians, the knot was sported even by old men as a status symbol, which "distinguishes the freeman from the slave", with the most artful knots worn by the most wealthy nobles.

Mauryan period art showing

a woman's braided hair

During the Mauryan period (322 BC -187 BC) founded by Chandragupta Maurya which dominated ancient India, terracotta figures provide a great picture for study. In the terracotta male figurine from Patna, the hair is brushed back, in apparent streaks, with a fillet on the head. There is a horn-like arrangement on the head and a knot on the right. “Arthashastra”, an ancient thesis on economic policy and military strategy written in Sanskrit by Chanakya, a philosopher, mentions two hairstyles prevalent among women. In one, the hair was arranged in braids while in the other the head was shaven. The zenith of Mauryan art can be seen in stone sculptures. A “yakshi” — the female attendee of a Hindu deity — from Didarganj in Bihar is one of the finest pieces with a beautiful hairdo. Her hair is combed and tied in a knot with a loop at the back. Many modern women of Indian descent continue to embrace the braided style in present times.

In ancient China, young women wore their hair down or in simple styles to show they were unmarried. Maidens traditionally kept their hair in braids until their fifteenth birthday, when they went through a coming-of-age ceremony call the ji-li or Hair Pinning Ceremony. During the ritual, the girl’s hair was washed, combed into a twist, and held together with a gold, jade or wood hairpin depending on her social status, called a ji. A girl who completed the ceremony was considered an adult eligible for marriage.

The Tang Dynasty (623-907 AD) was the period when a number of different styles grew, and it was especially the case for women. Starting out from the pinned bun on the top of the head, many creative shapes and variations emerged, such as the ‘dangling hoops’, ‘double screw’ and ‘twisting snake’ as well as a range of hair ornaments.

The Liao Dynasty was a state that ruled the northern part of China from 907 to 1125 AD. This dynasty was also known as the Khitan Empire, which was named after the ethnic group that its rulers belonged to. The distinctive Khitan hairstyle features two long strips of hair, often braided, one on each side of the head resembling the modern "pig-tail" style. This two-sided hairstyle continued long into the time period of the Mongol Empire (1206 – 1380 AD). During the cultural integration of the Manchu Qing dynasty and the Han Chinese of the area (1644-1911 AD), one thing that the Manchus brought with them was their traditional hairstyle of the Queue.

Man with Queue hairstyle

Infamously, two years later, the Qing rulers ordered that all Han Chinese men would have to adopt the long iconic plait as a sign of submission to their new rulers. Such was the resistance that the crime of not cutting your hair was declared as treason, punishable by death. The queue became a symbol of the struggle between the two parties in many products of literature at the time. Throughout the time period of the Middle Ages of Europe (476 AD – 1492 AD), women's hair had been strongly associated with sinfulness and temptation, and with medieval life centering heavily around the church, it was the general opinion that the less it was displayed, the better.

Plaited and braided hairstyles were extremely popular during the medieval period for women of all ages and all classes. One of the most popular medieval hair style for women workers was two plaits brought from the nape of the neck and crossed over the top of her head and tied together. Not only was this style easy to dress at home oneself without assistance, it looked pleasing to the eye, was considered modest and kept the hair tied up and clean when performing manual chores. Often these plaits were interwound with ribbon for decoration and also for securing purposes. Very often, these ribbon-encased plaits are mistaken for a padded roll of some kind with ribbon woven around it, which was not the case. Later in the 15th century, some padded rolls attached to heart shaped hennins did have decorative features, but they are entirely different.

By the early decades of the 14th century, fashionable women in England discarded the barbette and fillet combination in favor of plaits worn in front of the ear on each side of the face. The hairstyle originated in France before the end of the 13th century. According to codices, the Aztecs ( 1345 A.D. - 1521 A.D.) had a wide range of hairstyles that were worn by people of different professions and ranks throughout the empire. Whilst the vast majority of commoners wore their hair in a similar fashion, warriors distinguished their rank by wearing elaborate styles or hair ornaments. Whilst officials also showed their position through ornaments and special cuts, priests grew their hair long.

Xochiquetzal in the Codex Borgia

How a person wore their hair could demonstrate what tribe they belonged to; in much the same way as Mexican indigenous textiles nowadays help to indicate a person’s village of origin. Married women wore a style that was typical throughout all Náhua towns and cities, two protroduding twists of hair at the crowns of their heads. These were made by seperating long, loose hair, twisting it, and bringing the tips to rest at the top. The bulk of the hair rested at the neck's base. The Codex Borgia shows the fertility goddess, Xochiquetzal, with her hair styled in this way. Some investigators have revealed that women belonging to the noble class arranged their hair in "horn like plaits, crossing the ends of their hair over their foreheads." These hairstyles have been named 'Axtlacuilli' or 'Neaxtlaualli' in Náhuatl.

The Inca Empire, or Incan Empire (Quechua: Tawantinsuyu), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The Inca civilization arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early 13th century, and the last Inca stronghold was conquered by the Spanish in 1572. The Quechua are a group of indigenous people now scattered throughout areas of South America that speak the Quechua languages, including the Incans descendants. One of the most significant aspects of the Quechua woman’s look and culture is her hair. Throughout Peru, it is common to see the native women of all ages wearing long braids, which is used to represent marital status. Two braids reveals that a woman in the tribe is married, while one or many braids mean that she is single. Long, virgin hair is considered beautiful in Quechua tribes and is a symbol of health and well-being. When women start losing hair due to aging, they incorporate yarn into the braids to lengthen and thicken the hair. The yarn is attached into the braid where the braid ends as to make it difficult to tell the difference.

It can be seen in many frescos, woodcuts and paintings that throughout the sixteenth century, European women often wore nothing on the head at all, except their up-styled, often braided hair. There was a time when this was the exception, rather than the rule. The beginning of the Carpaccio era is one such time. During the years 1490 to approximately 1500, it is difficult, though not impossible, to find an image of a Venetian woman who is not wearing something on the head to accompany their braids, be it a simple velo or veletto da testa  (veil)... a ghirlanda (a garland or circlet of varying style)... a reta (a netted head dress or hair net)... or a scuffia (a cap, coif or caul of varying style). It must be noted, however, that most of the images collected of this time period show women engaged in activity outdoors. This is an important point, because there is some indication that going outdoors, out into the public arena, was a time for donning one's best outer garments - including headwear.

Woman with a braid in

The Departure of Ceyx (1502)

Despite this though, there are depictions of women outdoors with no head covering - including an older (presumably married) woman in The Departure of Ceyx, also by Carpaccio, who wears her hair in one braid wrapped around the top of her head, as well as a few others. After 1500, we start to see images of uncovered braided hair, or even uncovered hair pieces! These appear to have started as a length of hair entwined with ribbon which was worn coiled at the top of the head, as seen in Carpaccio's painting "Courtesan", circa 1510, and also in a more solid form in "Two Venetian Ladies" (also known as "Two Venetian Courtesans", circa 1505. These hair pieces appear in scenes within the home, or in portraits. Until around 1710, fontanges were worn with the front hair piled up high, but the height gradually declined until low, simple hairdos took their place around 1720.

Even short curls (à la mouton, i.e. sheep-style) were worn. Most pictures of Madame Pompadour (including the famous green portrait) show her with a simple braid originating at the neck and going up the back of the head and locks around the forehead. Quite a few of the popular hairstyles through the 19th century featured plaits (or braids) combined with rolls. These were twisted and woven together into patterns. Though women’s magazines of the day recommended certain ways of doing this, there was no hard and fast rule about the exact placement of the plaits. The rolls, however, were usually situated at the nape of the neck or at the sides of the face. As an example, the below image from Godey’s Lady’s Book depicts “a very graceful style of coiffure for a young lady, suitable for the new side combs.” Often, the roll at the nape of the neck was built up in size over a pad of false hair and secured with a thick plait.

This plait was frequently made of false hair as well. Alternatively, the roll itself could be made of false hair secured with a lady’s own hair plaited around it. Godey’s advises on how to implement false hair in the below coiffure, stating: “The front coiffure consists of a full roll and a plait of three strands. The fall at the back can be of false hair, pinned on, and the front plaits twisted round it, which gives it a perfectly natural appearance. When false hair is used for these styles of coiffure, they are arranged with but little trouble.” Rolls and plaits could be left plain or adorned with combs, flowers, feathers, beads, ribbons, or lace. For balls and evening wear, ladies also adorned their hair with wreathes of flowers such as orange blossoms, rosebuds, or verbena.  Flowers could also be attached to a decorated bandeaux or hair ribbon. 

Frida Kahlo in a pink braid

Through the entire 20th century, braids have never gone out of style in America, with only the size, shape, style, and amount of braids on the head. Frida Kahlo de Rivera, born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón; July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954) was a Mexican artist who painted many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico, known for often including her long, braided hair in her imagery. Frida Kahlo cut off her long hair after she was divorced from Diego Rivera in 1939. By doing this she rejected her femininity and ease her pain over the divorce. After they remarried in December of 1940, she painted a new self-portrait and in it, using her hair to express her feelings about their relationship.

The strands hair which were cut off as shown in her another self-portrait, "Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair", was gathered up and braided to an endless loop. Veronica Lake (born Constance Frances Marie Ockelman; November 14, 1922 – July 7, 1973) was an American film, stage, and television actress. Lake won both popular and critical acclaim for her role in Sullivan's Travels and for femme fatale roles in film noirs with Alan Ladd, during the 1940s. While she was also well known for her peek-a-boo hairstyle, Veronica modeled many different styles of braids. Including a photoshoot with "milkmaid braids" in Life magazine, as well as promoting the pig tail braided hairstyle as an army nurse in the 1943 film "So Proudly We Hail", which remains a popular hairstyle today.

Though not exclusive to the black American community, the black community was, and continues to be, an indispensable contributor to the American hair braiding community in general. The origins of American hair braiding started with the Native Americans, then had the addition of the European braiding styles, African styles brought with the enslaved people sent to America, combined with Asian styles from early immigrants, to present day America, which has a giant mixture of hairstyles from around the world, leading to completely original and unique braiding creations. A common present-day braiding style is box braids; the hair is sectioned off (usually into small "box" shapes) and braided with loose false hair to create a full head of braids.

American woman with a

braided faux-hawk

Micro braids are very similar to box braids, with the only visible difference being the dramatic size difference, occasionally the hair at the end of the micro braids are left out. A very simple and popular braiding style is cornrows, multiple rows of braids are tightly braided to the head to create a very flattened hairstyle, usually using the wearer's own hair. Cornrows can be placed in extremely complex designs that can take hours to create, be very simple as a protective style, or be used as a base for sewing in a wig or hair extensions. Braids are often incorporated in to popular American hairstyles such as ponytails, buns, and mohawks, with the only limit being creativity.

The idea of cultural appropriation has always been a confusing one to me, seeing as every single culture has been created by taking traditions and inspiration from another's original culture and turning it into their own. I don't believe in cultural appropriation; I do believe in using tradition as a prop for racism, this is when you use someone's cultural identity/artifacts/traditions to make fun of a person or group, or stereotype them in a negative way. Which is never okay! There's been a lot of talk of people "culturally appropriating" when it comes to specific hairstyles, in this case braids; a hairstyle traditionally thought to be purely African hairstyles but when you look into the history of these things, you begin to see that it's not purely African at all! Braids are a human hairstyle.

That's made obvious by the fact that the first instance of braided art, was found in Europe before we were even the only humanoid group! There were still Neanderthals when braids were invented, there were still Homo Erectus besides us, Homo Sapiens. There was no races, there were no land borders, there was only us, Human. The fact is, it doesn't matter what continent you're from, what your is nationality, what race you are; there's almost a guarantee that some point in your lineage, there is braiding because it goes back to the original human. We can't appropriate braids, in the same way we can't culturally appropriate fire from each other; because we all were there together, we all created that when we were one group.

I often wear different types of braids and I assume because of my mixed or so-called "ethnic" appearance, no one has tried to challenge me on my being able to wear them, something many other people have dealt with. If anyone ever had, I feel proud in knowing that I would be able to give them to history of braids, and give them knowledge to what they were ignorant about. In fact, I'd be quite welcome to someone trying to tell me that I can't wear a certain hairstyle or hairstyles because they came from a certain place, as I have a mixture of 3 continents in my blood, with many different nationalities and I like to express who I am through my hair, as well as my clothing, like many other cultures do. I celebrate my Native American and African history through braids, I cool off in the hot summer using braids, I use braids as a hairstyle, I use braids to show my fashion sense.

The type of person who judges another for their hair when they are not being racist/making fun of/being stereotypical in any way, is an ignorant one and needs to be taught the difference between appreciation and racism. I truly hope that more people can learn about the history of braids, especially those who feel the need to tell other people what styles they can and cannot wear on their heads, and realize that braids is not what separates us or pushes us further apart from each other, it's what unites us as humans. All of us do it, all of us braid hair, it's just human nature to do it. With all the divide going on in this world right now, the last thing we need is another separation. Use the braid for unity, not division.

Sources:

https://www.digitalmedievalist.com/opinionated-celtic-faqs/bog-bodies/

https://www.shenyunperformingarts.org/blog/view/article/e/QfDb-EMLzYk/asian-hairstyles-lifehack-ancient-chinese-haute-coiffure.html%20

http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2015/07/hair-raising-history/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elling_Woman

http://monumentsinegypt.blogspot.com/2013/02/hairstyles-during-old-kingdom.html

http://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub367/item2020.html

http://salontreuvis.com/history-of-hairstyling-ancient-greece/

http://www.rwaag.org/hair

http://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub363/item1521.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suebian_knot

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https://gulfnews.com/culture/arts/hairstyles-from-ancient-and-medieval-india-1.1653120

http://gwcaia.com/beauty/25-changes-of-braided-hairstyles-from-the-early-20th-century

http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/aztec-life/aztec-hairstyles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andean_civilizations

https://aroundtheworldbeauty.wordpress.com/2014/05/20/peru-the-cultural-significance-of-braids/

http://indians.org/articles/braids.html

http://horsehints.org/IndianBlackfoot.htm

http://realmofvenus.renaissanceitaly.net/library/headwear.htm

https://blogs.haverford.edu/celticfringe/2017/02/17/celtic-hair-history/

https://www.africa.com/history-african-womens-hairstyles/

https://bglh-marketplace.com/2015/03/5-uniquely-beautiful-hair-styles-worn-around-africa/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himba_people

http://www.marquise.de/en/1700/howto/frisuren/frisuren.shtml

https://www.mimimatthews.com/2016/11/21/a-fashionable-coiffure-rolls-plaits-and-other-popular-hairstyles-of-1863/

https://www.fridakahlo.org/self-portrait-with-braid.jsp

https://www.allthingshair.com/en-us/hairstyles-haircuts/natural-hairstyles/womens-african-american-hairstyles/