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An afro also known as a TONY, sometimes called a "natural" or shortened to "fro", is a hairstyle in which the hair extends out from the head like a halo, cloud or ball. This may or may not include wearing such afros long, to several times the diameter of the head. An afro requires very curly hair. For many people of Black African
Black people

Black people is a term usually referring to a Race of humans with a dark skin color, but the term has also been used to categorise a number of diverse populations into one common group....
 descent, an afro is the way the hair grows naturally. Anyone with very curly hair is capable of growing an afro.






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An afro also known as a TONY, sometimes called a "natural" or shortened to "fro", is a hairstyle in which the hair extends out from the head like a halo, cloud or ball. This may or may not include wearing such afros long, to several times the diameter of the head. An afro requires very curly hair. For many people of Black African
Black people

Black people is a term usually referring to a Race of humans with a dark skin color, but the term has also been used to categorise a number of diverse populations into one common group....
 descent, an afro is the way the hair grows naturally. Anyone with very curly hair is capable of growing an afro. For people of Black African descent, the spiraling, tightly coiled curls can be straightened out somewhat, giving the hair added volume and length, by first braiding the hair, then separating the coils using an "afro pick".The comb is extra. The afro pick is an adaptation of a traditional African grooming instrument, which is essentially a narrow comb with long, widely spaced teeth. Similarly, added volume can be achieved using an afro pick in combination with the heat from a hand-held hair dryer. The effect is called a blowout afro.

History

In the 1860s a style similar to the Afro was worn by the Circassian beauties
Circassian beauties

Circassian beauties were women of the Circassians of the Caucasus mountain range in Circassia, Northern Caucasus. A fairly extensive literary history suggests that Circassian women were unusually beautiful, spirited and elegant, and as such were desirable as slave concubines....
, sometimes known as "Moss-haired girls", exhibited in sideshow attractions in the United States by P.T. Barnum and others. These women were claimed to be from the Circassian
Circassians

Circassians is a term derived from the Turkic languages Cherkess and is not the self-designation of any people. It has sometimes been applied indiscriminately to all the peoples of the North Caucasus, including the Mamluks....
 people in the Northern Caucasus region, and were marketed to white audiences captivated by the "exotic East."

Afros in Popular Culture


The afro hairstyle became an icon of youth culture during the 1960s and into the 1970s. It was previously associated with radical movements such as the Black Panthers of the sixties but the image would mellow in the seventies to become engrained with various other icons of the disco
Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music that originated in and was initially popular among African American, gay and Hispanic and Latino Americans communities in the United States in the late 1960s....
 era. As a common hairstyle, the afro vanished in the early 1980s to be replaced by wavy shorter hairstyles or jheri-curls
Jheri curl

The Jheri curl is a hairstyle that was common and popular in the African American community in the late 1970s and throughout the 80s. It was invented by Willie Morrow and named after Jheri Redding, the man who made it popular....
. The afro currently has a slight resurgence as retro-chic, among youth of the 2000s.

See also

  • Afro textured hair
  • Natural hair
  • Big hair
    Big hair

    Big hair is a term that can refer to haircuts that emphasize large volume or largely styled hair. Big hair was popular in the 1980s. The term is also used in the Punk subculture, glam, Gothic fashion and alternative cultures and is particularly associated with fashion of the 1980s, or inspired by the period....
  • Cornrows
  • Dreadlocks
    Dreadlocks

    Dreadlocks, also called locks or dreads, are matted coils of hair which form by themselves eventually fusing together to form a single dread....
  • Jewfro
    Jewfro

    A Jewfro refers to a curly hairstyle worn by people of Jewish descent. Its name is inspired by the afro hairstyle, which it vaguely resembles....