The Long and the Short of It : There’s No One Length--or Look--for Black Women’s Hair Anymore
A quick flip through the music television channels reveals anything but a trend in hairstyles for African American women. It seems as if the latest looks are as diverse as the songs.
Black women are at a turning point in their thinking about hair, explains Nadine LeBlanc, who describes herself as an “ethnic hair-care specialist” and owns the homey Penthouse Salon in Leimert Park. She credits singer Toni Braxton with sparking the change.
“A lot of women who have hard-to-grow hair have always believed they could only be beautiful with long hair,” she says. “Now that they see Toni Braxton and other singers with very short hair, they see how beautiful they can be. They’re not afraid to cut their hair anymore. All lengths are in fashion now.”
Braxton’s style is a geometrically cut wrap, in which the head acts as a roller to straighten the hair and keep it flat. Other recent sightings on the air waves include Vanessa Williams in a long, smooth style; the clipper cut and wrapped dos of the duo Zhane; Yo Yo rapping in the ultra-popular braided wrap--complete with braided bangs--and newcomer Me’Shell Ndegeocello, a jazz rapper who opts for a shaved head. And the members of Salt-N-Pepa and En Vogue turn out in everything from relaxed and straightened hair to finger-waves and pasted-down curls.
Professional women have been picking up the individualist direction, LeBlanc says. “I send everyone out of the salon looking different. You have to take into consideration (the) length of the face, body size and profession. . . . A judge and a student won’t wear the same look.”
Freddie Williams, a nurse, wears the “ultimate maintenance-free” style. It’s half an inch long and texturized with a relaxer to elongate the curl, which creates a soft wave in front. Williams gets a cut every four to six weeks.
Shawn Laws, who works in media relations for a television show, opts for a cut that can take on different personalities. She can wear it in an updated shag, with ends beveled by a curling iron--reminiscent of styles worn by Patti LaBelle, LeBlanc says. Or she can wrap it, like Braxton, for a closer-to-the head style.
Administrative assistant LaSondra Brass likes to keep her curly hair long. She uses thermal straightening to get the look of Carole Lombard, with the hair falling over one eye, or of Vanessa Williams. Brass says: “It reminds me of Jessica Rabbit.”
Most of the sophisticated new hairstyles involve some degree of chemical or thermal straightening, which involves heat styling with a pressing comb or blow dryer. To prepare for for such treatments, LeBlanc encourages women to stand on their heads to improve circulation to the scalp, drink lots of water to decrease brittleness and buy special hair-nourishing vitamins in health food stores.
LeBlanc expects to see some women go back to full, ‘60s-era “naturals” adopted by rappers Snoop Doggy Dogg and Ice Cube.
Snoop’s style, LeBlanc says, is a “blow out,” a look that involves braiding, unbraiding and then combing out into a natural.
The hairstylist says she recently spotted an older woman with a silver natural as long as six or eight inches.
“She wore it like a crown. It was absolutely stunning.”
A return to unprocessed hair would make sense, LeBlanc says. “If you wear ethnic-look clothes, you should have hair that’s compatible.”
