It’s just hair–The Conk

I haven’t done a “It’s just hair” post in awhile so here’s one I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. It’s about a style called the conk. African American men in the early to mid half of the last century wore their hair in this style by essentially relaxing it and styling it usually in a pompadour (combing the sides of the hair back and curling the top over itself).

Little Richard--So pretty!

You might be asking yourself why I chose a relaxed style as a subject. Because it shows that black women were not the only victim of the hair “assimilation” left over from slavery.The conk started with the musicians of the Swing Era and spilled over to rock n roll.

The term “conk” is actually short for congalene and it was a concoction made of potatoes, eggs, and lye. Though there were commercial products available, most men used a homemade mixture.

And just like current relaxers, they took a lot of work including:

• hours of hot irons
• combing and greasing wet hair into a conk
• fighting reversion
• wearing “do-rags” to hold the conks into place at night

Nat King Cole--I love this man even if his hair was straighter than a needle!

The conk lost its popularity in the 1960s during the black power movement. Malcolm X spoke of having one in his book, calling it his “first really big step towards self-degradation”.  From Malcolm X’s autobiography description of how it felt to get a conk, done by his friend Shorty:

My head caught fire. I gritted my teeth and tried to pull the sides of the kitchen table together. The comb felt as if it was raking my skin off…my knees were trembling.

How he felt after:

My first view in the mirror blotted out the hurting. I’d seen some pretty conks, but when it’s the first time, on your own head, the transformation, after a lifetime of kinks, is staggering. The mirror reflected Shorty behind me. We were both grinnin’ and sweating. On top of my head was this thick, smooth sheend of red hair-real red-as straight as any white man’s

And his later reflections:

How ridiculous I was!…this was my first really big step toward self-degradation when I endured all of that pain, literally burning my flesh with lye, in order to cook my natural hair until it was limp, to have it look like a white man’s hair. I had joined that multitude of Negro men and women in American who are so brainwashed into believing that the black people are “inferior” -and white people “superior”-that they will even violate their God-created bodies to try to look “pretty” by white standards.

James Brown--Love the superman curl!

So, however you might feel about Malcolm X, his observations from then and now are interesting and, in my humble opinion, have a ring of truth to them.

As I said, the conk went the way of the dinosaur in the late 60s and gave way to the afro, only to be replaced by other chemical processes among men like the Jheri Curl. And the beat goes on…

Chuck Berry--Cool shot

Even though it’s sad that they felt unacceptable sporting their natural hair textures, these men that I’ve posted pictures of did break a lot of musical barriers for African Americans and all of them were/are very talented.

I still think each of them are beautiful and it brings a smile to my face to see them. With this air of nostalgia,  I can’t help wondering if the conk might come back.

Who would be someone would could pull this style off? Hmmm….

or maybe…

Resources and good reads: