The art of
African Threading
All over the continent of Africa, hair forms a vital part of body adornment. The human head has historically functioned as a canvas for creativity expressing the individual.
The head may be adorned in intricately designed hair sculpture due to the variety in thickness, and texture, from tightly curled to wavy and coiled natural hair. Natural hair lends itself to several hair sculpting techniques.
One of the techniques is the practice of “Threading” not to be confused with the removal of unwanted hair and the shaping of eyebrows etc.
Threading is found in many African countries and it traditionally involves wrapping wool, yarn, extra shiny extra strong mercerized cotton or nylon thread tightly and evenly (or unevenly for a specific effect) around small sections of hair.
The hair becomes stiff but pliable and easily coiled or coaxed into bold Geometric shape perched on top of the crown. A 20th century variation on threading involves shiny synthetic thread instead of thread around natural hair (also called Silky Locks).
The style makes hair grow long and soft. When properly done it gives the wearer a very unique and exotic appearance. It is a hairstyle that involves partitioning the hair into sections and wrapping the sections tightly with shiny black thread and is then folded into different designs. But the very existence of this hairstyle is under threat in Africa. You hardly see ladies wearing it these days. This fact became alarmingly clear when I decided to do this feature on threading.
The reactions were enormous. I never imagined that we had so much forgotten about threading hair that seeing someone wearing it would make people think they must come from another planet. The hairstyles attracted so much attention, admiration as well as controversy.
Everyone who saw the styles turned and gave it a second look, many were impressed, their reaction showed that they thought plaiting thread for a modern woman was a daring or brave thing to do. Of course there were still those who called it ‘primitive and uncivilised’. But the commendations were just so much. One gentleman said ‘wow! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this kind of hairstyle. It reminds me of the good old days. To help protect the endangered art of threading hair you can contribute to promoting it by creatively plaiting it and wearing it with pride at least once in a while. It’s our culture. Portray! Project! and Protect! it.
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