Cornrows: Unveiling the Heritage, Culture, and Significance of the Iconic Hairstyle

Cornrows gained enormous popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, all attributable to the Black Power Movement and many folks looked for haircuts that represented their ethnicity

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The plotline

Cornrows are a hairstyle that the mainstream media has sprinkled with all these new names in many cases calling them braids, “braids?”

Various media houses and celebrities have had different names called out to this particular hairstyle, thanks to how much room there is to get super creative with the styling of this particular hairstyle. But what are cornrows and where does this intricate and complex art originate? Heritage is such a rich thing; it dives deep beneath the roots of our culture to the very DNA of who we are and hairstyles just like any other part of culture goes a long way in painting a visual picture of the very roots of our beliefs.

Celebrities rocking Cornrows.

We cannot overlook the consistency of the beauty of Black girls all over the internet adorned in cornrows, Beyoncé back in her destiny’s child times or Alicia Keys in her prime. Regardless of when or why people wear cornrows these days, they always look absolutely ‘peng’. For the black community, these are usually worn as a convenient hairstyle, that still holds its protective traits to loss of moisture, moreover, they help the hair grow to a desired length such that the wearer can do whatever they like with the result. Interestingly, the purposes for which people in the past wore cornrows were different from the current ones.

The Cornrows and Culture in Africa

The history of the cornrows points to Africa as their place of origin, being worn by women from as back in time as evidenced by some paintings from the stone age in the Sahara and documented to have been around 3000 B.C. and close to the 19th century for men. In ancient Egypt, both the women and men wore these cornrows and adorned them with different embellishments such as golden jewels and thread of different colors. In countries such as Ethiopia, this hairstyle was used to identify and distinguish the warriors from the kings. Even though these are still largely worn throughout other parts of Africa like Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, East Africa, and Uganda where they are known as (Biswahilli) a popularized name for the hairstyle and West Africa, cornrows played and in some communities still play an important role in signifying the wearer's beliefs, age, wealth, social status and mostly self-expression. These cornrow hairstyles were embellished with beads, twigs, flowers and corals lately beads and certain metallic carefully selected jewels are useful in personality expressions and as such have got an immensely rich cultural significance.

Corn-munication. (Cornrows as a form of communication in slavery)‍

During slavery, a period in which a huge number of Africans were forcefully and brutally taken from their home countries and shipped off to work as labourers at the farms of their white masters, they were shaven of their hair and denied an opportunity to the expression of their culture and were stripped of their cultural identity. However, cornrows came into play as a means of communication to plan escape from some of the ruthless masters’ farms usually cornfields, hence cornrows. Many a time the enslaved Africans wore out their cornrows in different patterns as a discreet way to pass on information to one another, but also a way to rebel against their slave masters for not accepting them to embrace their heritage.

There’s fascinating documentation about this, the finest record of it in Colombia, where Benkos Bioh, a prince abducted by the Portuguese from the Bissagos Islands, fled enslavement and established a Palengue settlement in Northern Colombia, where he later established an intelligence network. Developing the concept of letting women create "maps" and communicate messages through their cornrows. The enslaved did this to avoid having communication intercepted and being caught fleeing. Without drawing attention, a certain number of braids might suggest probable escape routes or even signal a meet-up time. Slaves would often conceal bold shards or seeds to provide nutrition to the wearer while fleeing. Cornrows were worn by the slaves as an easy method to style their hair during the weekend. Cornrows were also seen to be the greatest alternative when one was allowed inside plantation residences and expected to maintain a clean look.‍

‍Cornrows = unprofessional?‍

Hair is an easily observable cultural attribute, but in many cases, it has been wrongly used as a yardstick or a false standard against which measured the level of professionalism or skill degree of the wearer according to Rosanna Durruthy LinkedIn's Global Vice President of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging.

According to a survey by the New Crown Workplace Research 2023, 66% of women change their hair for a job interview, with 41% switching from curled to straight hair. In addition, black women are 54% more likely to believe that they must wear their hair straight before a job interview in order to be successful.

According to its official website, The CROWN Act refers to "Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair." the legislation was passed in 2019 to "guarantee immunity from prejudice based on race-based hairstyles in the workplace and public schools by providing legal protections to hair texture and protective hairstyles such as braids, cornrows, locs, twists, and knots."

‍Rocking Your Cornrows in the Modern Day.‍

Even in the modern day, Cornrows still hold such an immense amount of sentiment among the people of African roots moreover, the hair of people of black descent is easily manipulatable into locs, curls or straight hairstyles making it easy for the wearer to choose from a multitude of the protective hair stylings cornrows being on top of the list as it maintains a huge amount of moisture in the hair, and protects against hair breakage.

Very many artists and television celebrities have been seen wearing out cornrows as their signature hairstyle, or for aesthetics such as can be seen on Pinterest and on mainstream media and the different stylists for magazines have also done a great job in fashionably revolutionizing the hairstyle to appeal to an even larger audience.

Cornrows are very easy to maintain and have such a smooth style that could remain in great condition for weeks. The hairstyle is a very popular protective style among the black community. It is critical we maintain the history behind cornrows inside the black tradition. With essential acknowledgements and protections against racial discrimination, people will then feel more secure styling their hair as they wish and get more expressive and ultimately comfortable.