What does natural Black/African Ancestry hair look like, is it an afro?

No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 34 points – 1 years ago

Obviously there are many ways different hair types can be worn, combed, braided, cut, etc., but is natural, untouched Black/African decendent or ancestry hair an afro like in the 70s or was that styling? I imagine if it is natural, it's normally like any hair cut shorter to make it easier to manage so that's why one might see many lengths?

My hair for example. My hair 1 My hair2 my hair 3 My hair 4

Thank you, how kind of you to provide these. Looks great!

Thank you.

Kinda, but it’s also as diverse as people are. In the States we usually talk about hair types (2a-4c) which has to do with the shape of the curl. Each type has different characteristics. https://www.carolsdaughter.com/curlhub.html

That's helpful to understand, thank you.

I heard once that there is more human genetic diversity within Africa than the rest of the world combined. Even without that, it’s a big place. So there are probably many many answers to your question, unless you can make it more specific.

It's indeed true. African populations have the highest levels of genetic variation among all humans. Studies of these populations are used to understand demographic changes in Africa and to identify disease-related genes (e.g., APOL1).

Any natural untouched hair is a matted mess. Even brushing guides how the hair lays and what style it takes. Everyone is styling their hair, including those with afros.

Follow-up No Stupid Question: what does matting look like?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgF6IvqRibg

This is a video of someone who didn't brush their hair for 4 months. It's not as matted as it can get but you can see it's pretty matted.

I don't have a good direct answer, but if you're interested in this topic you might enjoy watching Good Hair.

This was cool, I have heard the word weave my whole life and finally know what it means. Thanks Chris rock

I dunno, people have been doing their hair in fun ways for a looooong time. Braiding, cutting, even coloring can be done with pretty primitive tools. I would bet that even the earliest humans had some cool hairstyles.

But no one's hair is styled all the time, right? I think OP is interested in the state of the hair in between the cool styles.

Not too many Bushmen with afro picks. Honestly my first guess would be dreads. Probably would greatly depend on the kind of tools available since the timeframe would be extremely long.

This is something I've been interested in as well lol

https://youtu.be/ONjFmv4PURg

Watch and learn

Excellent, will check that out.