Corn Rows to Cornrows

From Kentucky rows of corn to a cultural moment, Dante's hair is finally long enough to be braided. He's wanted cornrows for a while, and his determination to grow out his hair in spite of how aggravating growing out hair can be told me that he was serious. We had a bit of a fight to keep his Nana from cutting it back into a little white boy's 1950s hair style, as she often loves to do. She doesn't understand the new braids, nor does she want to. So now it's a battle to keep her from subtlely undermining his new confidence. He declared outside the shop, "I'm a new boy today!" I've often felt like a new paragraph in the chapter of my life started with a new haircut. I was suprised to discover he felt the same thing.

Here's him, full of excitement, and his 'fro, in all it's glorious blaxploitation glamour:




From the wiki about cornrows:

A common way of styling hair in populations from sub-Saharan Africa, as well as North Africa, dynastic Egypt and the Horn, cornrows survived for centuries in the United States as a style of hair preparation among African slaves and their progeny...Over the years, cornrows (along with dreadlocks) have been the subject of several disputes in the American workplace (see The Allen Iverson Movement). Some employers have deemed them unsuitable for the office and have banned them - especially at-will firings and/or termination. African American employees and civil rights groups have countered that such attitudes evidence racial and cultural bias. Some such disputes have resulted in litigation.

Dante's braids took under an hour to do. His hair was barely long enough. He hung in there and didn't complain--braiding hurts, especially around the temples. He "laughed through the pain", according to him, as the braids have to be really tight. His hair is coarse, but not coiled, so I don't know how braids are going to work out for him. His hair texture makes it easy for them to slip lose. He's pretty contented here.






I know one thing. He's tickled pink.

-- Virgil