Posts tagged twists

Africans have traditionally worn cornrows for certain festivals and celebrations or as a regular daily hairstyle. Members fo the Temne and Yoruba groups in Africa might spend hours or even days creating a cornrow style and cornrowing is regarded as an art as well as a hairstyling technique. ” ³

And I would suspect that a majority of groups across the continent also spend a significant amount of time creating styles.  A member of the Nubian group of east Africa told me that while the women in her family don’t braid their hair as much any more that when they did the braids were extremely tiny and took hours to complete.

But in Sierra Leone we are talking about the Mende and Temne for the most part. On my very first morning, as I stood on the front porch of my hosts house, I watched children walk to school. This young lady was walking with a group of friends and I just had to stop her, run inside for my camera and take a “snap” *

Three things struck me about this style 1. the length of her hair (short) 2. the different techniques used to create it. 3. The center tuft down the center of her head.

I don’t want to go into the styling how-to’s, since this isn’t an instructional blog, but I do want to linger on the meaning of it all.  I think it’s obvious that the number 1 purpose of this style was for beauty. But even in that vain it illustrates several points about the significance of African styling. For example, the center tuft is a repeated theme that originates with connecting to the spirit. side note: I was all giggly inside to see this modern day representation of the style that I highlighted in my video.  

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