The history of the African head wrap is steeped in rich culture and tradition. The headwrap is such an important part of the African diaspora it's practically inseparable from the people who wear it.
In this article, we will trace the history of the African head wrap, looking at how its meaning and significance has changed over time, and how it has shaped black beauty and culture. No matter where you go in the diaspora, whether it be the Caribbean, Africa, South America or places in the US, you'll see head wraps and head wraps have been here since the beginning of time and remains an important part of black culture.
Stunning Headwrap Style | A Step-by-Step Tutorial
Defining the Head Wrap
Cambridge dictionary defines headwraps as: “head covering made from or looking like a piece of cloth wrapped around the head and fashion traditionally worn in many African cultures.”
According to Paula, a headwrap is a head covering that is more than an accessory just like a fly accessory like a headband, rooted in culture and history and whoever wears it needs to understand that because the head wrap makes you feel taller, it makes you stand taller, it gives your presence another meaning.
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A Brief History of Head Wraps
Over two hundred years ago, during the early 1700s, head wraps were worn by women in Sub-Saharan Africa as a way to designate their age, marital status, and lineage. Even men in Africa wear head wraps to symbolize wealth and social status. Head wrapping is literally a way that Africans for centuries have been able to non-verbally communicate their place in life.
The headwrap of a woman walking down the street will tell you if she’s a widow, a grandmother, or if she’s a married young woman. It’s an element in the daily living of an African woman. The fabric used in these early head wraps was often rich, elaborate, and patterned with exotic flowers. Fast forward to Nigeria in the mid-1900s, where head wraps were reserved for special occasions and made from lighter fabrics.
The Head Wrap was also used as a sign of respect for elders and royalty. In fact, many African cultures use the head wrap as a symbol of respect: the Ethiopian Queen wore one wrapped around the crown of her head while married women would wear it tied on top of their heads to show their marital status.
In Western culture, the head wrap has become a symbol of empowerment for women. It represents a rejection of modern Eurocentric beauty standards that favor straight hair over natural curly or kinky hair.
The Head Wrap as a Symbol of Resistance and Identity
The headwrap has become an iconic symbol of black women. Historically, it was worn by slaves in America as a way to maintain their modesty and preserve their identity, despite the dehumanization that came with servitude. It also served as a way for them to communicate messages of love and longing, as well as spirituality.
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During slavery era, slave owners were responsible or preferably in charge of blacks' dress code. These women were responsible for catering to their masters' children, their mistress, and their masters. The 'mammies,' as they were well known as back then, were more or less a mother figure. However, these women weren't going to be put down easily or let their inferior status tarnish them.
In West Africa, headwraps have been worn for hundreds of years by both men and women as a symbol of strength and power. During colonization, Europeans tried to ban Africans from wearing the traditional headscarves-they were considered a sign of rebellion and a refusal to assimilate into the Western world.
Evolution of Head Wrap Styles
Today, the headwrap has evolved into many different styles, shapes, and materials. For example, N'deye Diop-Bovet has created her own take on them: she uses her scarves to reflect her modern African heritage and express herself through artistry and fashion design.
Common Names for Head Wraps in Different Regions:
- Nigeria: Geles (Yoruba)
- Ghana: Dukus
- South Africa & Namibia: Doeks (Afrikaans)
Headwraps are traditional attire in many Sub-Saharan African cultures. The Yoruba in Nigeria call their artfully folded wraps geles. Ghanaian women call theirs dukus. South African and Namibian women often use the Afrikaans word doek. Where, when, and how headwraps are styled may represent wealth, ethnicity, marital status, mourning, or reverence.
Despite the dispersal of African communities due to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, emancipation, the Great Migration, and globalization, this black hair fashion has stood the test of time and space.
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Head Wraps in the American South
Throughout the antebellum American South, South America, and the Caribbean, many slave masters required enslaved black women to wear head coverings. Headscarves served functional purposes like protecting women’s scalps from the sun, sweat, grime, and lice. They were also symbolic markers, indicating a slave’s inferiority in the social hierarchy of the time period.
But, enslaved black women found many creative ways to resist. In Afro-creole culture, headwrap traditions are a classic example of turning lemons into lemonade despite oppression. In 18th-century Louisiana, free mixed-race Creole communities served as a buffer class between powerful whites and enslaved blacks. But as French and Spanish men sought and forced relationships with women of color, race and class lines became increasingly obscure.
In 1785, Spanish colonial governor Esteban Rodriguez Miró mandated that Afro-Creole women wear tignons, a turban-like headwrap, to undermine their “exotic” allure. Tignon Laws aimed to reaffirm the social order by marking women of color as different. Afro-Creole women protested, decorating their tignons with jewels, ribbons, and feathers.
The Resurgence of Head Wraps
After the United States abolished slavery in 1865, some black American women continued to wear headwraps creatively. However, the style ultimately became associated with servitude and homeliness. The mass production of mammy images like Aunt Jemima wearing a checkered hair tie reinforced such stigmas. To assimilate into the dominant culture, many middle-class and upwardly mobile black women began embracing Eurocentric standards for beauty and professionalism.
As a result, wearing headscarves in public largely fell out of favor in early 20th-century black communities. During the 1970s, headwraps became a central accessory of the Black Power uniform of rebellion. The headwrap, like the Afro, defiantly embraced a style once used to shame people of African descent.
In the 1990s and 2000s, artists like Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and India Arie popularized colorful and towering wraps for a new generation. Just as the neo-soul genre repackaged black music styles like jazz, hip-hop, and R&B, these artists’ head coverings paid tribute to a long, rich history of black hair culture.
While the style was new and unfamiliar to many outside the African diaspora, headwraps quickly entered the mainstream. Today, headwraps are in vogue yet again. As the natural hair movement gains momentum, many women turn to them as a fashionable protective style option. Tucking kinky and curly hair away under fabric reduces the need to manipulate one’s curls, and less manipulation means less hair breakage.
