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Hair News - April 2002 |
| Author: Karen Shelton |
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Date: April 2002 |
Simply Put, the 'Fro Is Back
By
MARTHA IRVINE
.c The Associated Press
CHICAGO
(AP) - Rocker Lenny Kravitz sported one, round and full, on a recent
cover of Ebony magazine. Basketball player Ben Wallace has been
known to tie his up like a pineapple stalk, much to the amusement of
his fans in Detroit.
The Afro, a hairstyle that shouted "black is beautiful'' back
in the day, is popular again. Students, young professionals and
celebrities are wearing it - many of them black, others not.
For those born well after the civil rights movement, the decision to
go naturally curly, and sometimes big and bold, is often more about
being trendy than any big political or social statement. The trend
fits right in with other popular ``retro'' styles from the 1960s and
'70s, from bell bottoms to mutton chop sideburns.
But having an Afro can also be about self-expression, says William
Humphrey, a master stylist at Loop Styles salon in suburban St.
Louis. Today's Afros come in all shapes and sizes and sometimes
incorporate braids, twists and beads.
"It's more of an accepted thing, but it's also kind of
rebellious. It's, 'Now you're letting me do it, so I'm going to go
all out with it,''' says Humphrey, who's getting more requests for
Afros lately.
Several football players and even a few cheerleaders at Ferrum
College in Virginia arrived at school last fall with Afros. And at a
recent talk given by poet and activist Nikki Giovanni in Chicago,
many young, black audience members had Afros and other hairstyles -
like braids and dreadlocks - that don't require hair to be
chemically straightened.
Jennifer Coates, a 23-year-old Chicagoan, says the trend made it
easier for her to get a short Afro - and finally make peace with
hair that, she believes, didn't look good long and straightened.
It's a decision that is an especially big deal for black women, she
says. Many spend hundreds of dollars a month to get their hair
straightened and softened - a ritual that some say is a misguided
attempt to fit a white ``ideal'' of beauty.
``We accept that our bodies don't look the same. We accept that our
facial features are often different. But our hair has been a hard
thing,'' says Coates, a marketing professional who has given talks
on images of black women in popular culture.
New Yorker Cheryl Bronson says that despite pressure from her family
to blend in with straight hair, she opted last month to have about
six inches of straightened hair cut off. Now she has an Afro, and
says the decision has been very freeing.
``Not necessarily from societal restraints,'' she says, ``but from
my own personal hang-ups of what I should look like that were passed
on to me from my family.''
Even men sometimes feel the pressure.
Dante Dottin, who lives in Orange County, Calif., says he still gets
grief from his wife about his Afro, but proclaims himself ``happy to
be nappy.''
Humphrey says black people aren't the only ones who like the style.
He has white and Hispanic customers, too.
And down in Houston, Ted Beam, who is white, sports a head of curly,
six-inch locks. Many of his friends call his hair an Afro, though he
thinks it's more ``Afro-esque.''
``It's not the classic eight-ball shape,'' says Beam, a fourth-grade
teacher and musician who wears it loud, proud - and bushy - after
school and on weekends.
He tries to keep his mane slicked back at school - and has even
gotten compliments on his hair from the principal.
His students aren't so kind.
``One asked if I was going to get a haircut,'' Beam says, chuckling.
``I told him I wasn't planning on it.''
Martha Irvine can be reached at mirvine(at)ap.org
HOT FROM FOX...
IMPACTFUL 'BOSTON PUBLIC' EPISODE
DIRECTS CHATTERS TO FOX.COM IN RECORD NUMBERS
Episode to Encore March 25 on FOXFollowing this past Monday's eventful episode
of BOSTON PUBLIC (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX, a record number of
fans clicked on to FOX.COM for an online chat to further discuss the
episode and the issues it raised.
Due to the overwhelming response, the episode "Chapter
Thirty-Seven" will air again Monday, March 25 on FOX. In
the episode, a controversy begins in the hallways and then spreads
inside Danny Hanson's (Michael Rapaport) classroom as casual use of
a racial epithet stirs powerful emotions between students and
teachers. In an effort to quell the tension, Hanson assigns his
class to read a new book which examines the connotations of the
powerful word, much to Principal Harper's (Chi McBride) chagrin.
The BOSTON PUBLIC chat is
currently the largest online chat of 2002, and among the top five
chats in the history of Internet company Lycos, which hosted the
chat. The BOSTON PUBLIC website, which has seen steady increases in
traffic on Monday evenings, saw an increase of more than 450 percent
over the previous week.
The online chat followed several on-air special
messages about the issue. The chat featured Dr. Darnell M. Hunt,
Director of the Center for African American Studies and Professor of
Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles; and Lecia J.
Brooks, Los Angeles Director of Special Projects for the National
Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ).
Commenting on the significance of
the episode, Dr. Hunt said, "Monday night's episode of BOSTON
PUBLIC plunged right in and took on one of the most contested issues
in contemporary American race relations: the 'n-word,' who can use
it, when, and at what cost. As is often the case when one deals with
such a controversial topic, the show raised many more questions than
it could possibly answer. So I'm hopeful that the dialogue will
continue, and that it will openly consider America's racial past
without minimizing the role race plays in the present. Our future as
a diverse yet integrated society depends on it."
Ms. Brooks added, "The BOSTON PUBLIC
episode was a good dramatic tool for spurring dialogue about the
impact of racial slurs. These words cut deep and are difficult to
fully understand by members of groups other than the one being
targeted by the hate speech.
The National Conference for
Community and Justice, Los Angeles region's Hate Crime Prevention
Programs were developed around the belief that through open and
honest dialogue, we can begin to understand and empathize with one
another. And in sessions with youth offenders, I've seen this truth
demonstrated time and again."
For a transcript of the record-breaking chat,
additional information from diverse focused organizations and open
message boards, please visit
http://www.fox.com/bostonpublic
through Tuesday, March 26.
HOT FROM FOX...
Friday, March 8, 2002
BACKSTREET
BOY HOWIE D AND HIS SINGING SISTER POLLYANNA TO PERFORM NATIONAL
ANTHEM AT 'CELEBRITY BOXING' MARCH 13 ON FOX
Howie D from one of today's most successful music
groups, the Backstreet Boys, and his singing sister Pollyanna will
perform the National Anthem for the all-star slugfest CELEBRITY
BOXING Wednesday, March 13 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.
Howie D and the Backstreet Boys are the multi-award
winning and record sales-breaking music group which exploded into
instant popularity in 1996. Pollyanna is a multi-talented
entertainer who writes, sings and dances to her own original songs
in Spanish and English -- from high-energy dance groove numbers to
sentimental personal ballads. She also has toured as an opening act
for the Backstreet Boys.
CELEBRITY BOXING pairs six of the nation's most infamous,
controversial and entertaining celebrities -- Danny Bonaduce, Barry
Williams, Tonya Harding, Paula Jones, Vanilla Ice and Todd Bridges -
as they slug it out inside the squared circle for pugilistic
supremacy. Michael ("Let's Get Ready To Rumble") Buffer
will serve as ring announcer.
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