Cornrow
Encyclopedia
Cornrows, also known as braids, are a traditional African style of hair grooming where the hair is braid
Braid
A braid is a complex structure or pattern formed by intertwining three or more strands of flexible material such as textile fibres, wire, or human hair...

ed very close to the scalp, using an underhand, upward motion to produce a continuous, raised row. Cornrows are often formed, as the name implies, in simple, straight lines, but they can also be formed in complicated geometric or curvilinear designs.

Often favored for their easy maintenance, cornrows can be left in for weeks at a time if maintained through careful washing of the hair and regular oiling of the scalp. If the scalp is not oiled properly, prolonged styling with cornrows can result in dandruff
Dandruff
Dandruff is the shedding of dead skin cells from the scalp . Dandruff is sometimes caused by frequent exposure to extreme heat and cold. As it is normal for skin cells to die and flake off, a small amount of flaking is normal and common; about 487,000 cells/cm2 get released normally after...

 and major hair loss however.

Cornrowed hairstyle
Hairstyle
A hairstyle, hairdo, or haircut refers to the styling of hair, usually on the human head. The fashioning of hair can be considered an aspect of personal grooming, fashion, and cosmetics, although practical, cultural, and popular considerations also influence some hairstyles.-History of...

s are often adorned with beads or cowry
Cowry
Cowry, also sometimes spelled cowrie, plural cowries, is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries...

 shells, in the African and Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 tradition. Depending on the region of the world, cornrows are typically worn by either men, women or both. Cornrows are known as canerow in parts of the Caribbean.

History

A traditional way of styling hair across the Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

n continent, depictions of women with cornrows have been found in Stone Age
Stone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...

 paintings in the Tassili Plateau of the Sahara that have been dated as far back as 3000 B.C. Historically, male styling with cornrows can be traced as far back as the early nineteenth century to Ethiopia, where warriors and kings such as Tewodros II and Yohannes IV of Ethiopia were depicted wearing cornrows.

In the African diaspora, cornrows survived for centuries in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and other parts of the New World as a traditional style of hair preparation. In the United States the cornrow style regained popularity in the late 1960s and 1970s as part of the Black Nationalist Movement, which encouraged African Americans to embrace hairstyles that highlighted their natural hair texture and reject straightening with lye-based relaxers. In the wake of the Black pride
Black pride
Black pride is a slogan indicating pride in being black. Related movements include black nationalism and Afrocentrism.The slogan has been used in the United States by African Americans to celebrate heritage and personal pride. The black pride movement is closely linked with the developments of the...

 movement, many shops and salons sprang up across the United States delivering services exclusively, or as part of a range of options, to African Americans who preferred natural unstraightened hairstyles such as cornrows.

Outside the African tradition, cornrow-like hairstyles have also been seen in Greek and Roman art,http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/sicily/syracuse/first_democracy/t.html and may have had a similar presence in Celtic culture. Cornrows acquired some popularity among White Americans and Europeans after blonde actress Bo Derek
Bo Derek
Mary Cathleen Collins , better known as Bo Derek, is an American film and television actress, model, and sex symbol, known for her role as Jenny Hanley in the 1979 comedy film 10. However, Derek's film career soon faltered; her later films, including, Bolero and Ghosts Can't Do It , were poorly...

 wore beaded cornrows in the popular 1979 Blake Edwards
Blake Edwards
Blake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...

 comedy 10, and became widely popular once again with the spread of hip hop culture in the 1990s. Cornrow hairstyles are now often offered to tourists in resort areas of the Caribbean. In the Asian tradition, mixed martial arts
Mixed martial arts
Mixed Martial Arts is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai, kickboxing, karate, judo and other styles. The roots of modern mixed martial arts can be...

 fighters with long hair also often sport the cornrow hairstyle during matches to protect the hair from being ripped off while grappling
Grappling
Grappling refers to techniques, maneuvers, and counters applied to an opponent in order to gain a physical advantage, such as improving relative position, escaping, submitting, or injury to the opponent. Grappling is a general term that covers techniques used in many disciplines, styles and martial...

.

Controversy

Over the years, cornrows, along with dreadlocks
Dreadlocks
Dreadlocks, also called locks, a ras, dreads, "rasta" or Jata , are matted coils of hair. Dreadlocks are usually intentionally formed; because of the variety of different hair textures, various methods are used to encourage the formation of locks such as backcombing...

, have been the subject of several disputes in the American workplace. Some employers have deemed them unsuitable for the office and have banned them – sometimes even terminating employees who have worn them. African American employees and civil rights groups have countered that such attitudes evidence racial and cultural bias. Some such disputes have resulted in litigation.

In 2011, the High Court
High Court
The term High Court usually refers to the superior court of a country or state. In some countries, it is the highest court . In others, it is positioned lower in the hierarchy of courts The term High Court usually refers to the superior court (or supreme court) of a country or state. In some...

 of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, in a decision reported as a test case
Test case (law)
In case law, a test case is a legal action whose purpose is to set a precedent. An example of a test case might be a legal entity who files a lawsuit in order to see if the court considers a certain law or a certain legal precedent applicable in specific circumstances...

, ruled against a school’s decision to refuse entry to a student with cornrows; the school claimed this was part of its policy mandating ‘short back and sides’ haircuts and disallowing styles that might be worn as indicators of gang
Gang
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...

 membership, but the court ruled that the student was expressing a family tradition and that such policies, while possibly justifiable in certain cases (e.g. skinhead
Skinhead
A skinhead is a member of a subculture that originated among working class youths in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, and then spread to other parts of the world. Named for their close-cropped or shaven heads, the first skinheads were greatly influenced by West Indian rude boys and British mods,...

 gangs), had to accommodate reasonable ethnic and cultural practises.

Braids pulled too tight or worn for considerable lengths of time can cause a type of hair loss known as traction alopecia
Traction alopecia
Traction alopecia is a form of alopecia, or gradual hair loss, caused primarily by pulling force being applied to the hair. This commonly results from the sufferer frequently wearing his/her hair in a particularly tight ponytail, pigtails, or braids...

.

Gallery

Image:Cornrows1.jpg|Some cornrowed hairstyles can take hours to execute.
Image:Artistic Braiding by Yessenia.jpg|Artistic braiding.
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