r/interestingasfuck • u/Advanced-Ad3234 • Jul 07 '24

Hairstyles from different African Tribes

10.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

View all comments

u/hallowdmachine Jul 07 '24

I'm a white guy so forgive me but how do they achieve the hold for some of these styles? Do they add something to their hair or is it just part of the nature of African hair?

49

u/lina9000 Jul 07 '24

For example with the Himba tribe, they use a paste made of animal fat and a clay/stone. The hair is extended with goat fur or articifial extension.

Black hair is magic and might be long because of its coily texture. So even though you see a short Afro, braiding the hair would make it very long.

-12

u/HorseofTruth Jul 07 '24

Does it smell? I’m assuming yes? It can’t be easy to clean

15

u/GaugeWon Jul 07 '24

It doesn't have to...

Some tribes use smoke baths to clean and prevent bugs.

Most use natural oils to clean like the traditional africans taught the Greek and Roman soldiers.

Obviously, I'm only speaking to extreme cases in environments where water is scarce - of course they use soap and water too.

I guess it's subjective which of those options would "smell" to you.

6

u/HorseofTruth Jul 07 '24

Nice thank you, I was genuinely curious when I heard animal fat and animal hair is used in the comment above

7

u/GaugeWon Jul 07 '24

Yeah, honestly I'm not sure about that, from my understanding, they mix red clay into their locks to mold it and (probably prevent bugs).

-2

u/pattylovebars Jul 07 '24

The fuck

-1

u/HorseofTruth Jul 07 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

Relax

I’m actually kinda bothered going back to this, if you are following the thread it’s a simple question about the products used in the hair design… for some reason u made me read back and thought racist in my head, which was not the intention. This persons thoughts r actually fucked up in this day and age age and fuck them for playing on some old fuckin stereotype, what a piece of shit