THE BULL CITY MAGAZINE TODAY

YOUR GUIDE TO HAIR, FASHIONS AND STYLE IN NORTH CAROLINA

There are many enduring myths about Black Hair .

“Your hair feels like pubic hair.”

That was one of the first insults that someone hurled at my hair. She was a junior at my school. She would touch my hair and repeat this sentence to all present. I had to threaten her with violence to get her to stop touching my hair and comparing it to her pubes.

This is one of the first dilemmas that black people face: do I let people touch my hair and under what circumstances? The question “can I touch it?” becomes one of the most awkward social moments and can break relationships before they even start.

This fascination with the texture of black hair (please don’t call it “ethnic”) is not new. In slave societies, white women would often hack off the hair of their enslaved female servants because it supposedly “confused white men” .

Today, black women with nappy hair – that is, natural and chemical-free – are desirable despite the popular discourse to the contrary. Think for example of how Lupita Nyong’o has become a household name even though she is nappy and has dark skin.

It’s not just fashion or trends: throughout history, black women’s hair has fascinated artists and photographers and has been closely linked to radical political movements such as the Black Panthers and South Africa’s own Black Consciousness Movement. It then seems like a paradox for the young women at South Africa’s Pretoria Girls High School to be told that they should “discipline” their hair by relaxing it.

But it’s actually not a contradiction, since desire and fear often feed on each other. In the documentary produced and narrated by Chris Rock called “Good Hair”, the comedian Paul Mooney states it plainly: “If your hair is relaxed, white people are relaxed. If your hair is nappy, they are not happy.”

This is not just clever rhyming. Mooney is pointing to the fact that nappy hair is inevitably associated with something that is out of reach for “white people”.

When you sport your natural hair, you are free; your hair is wild; you have a new “hairstyle” everyday; you are radiant; you are regal. These are out of reach for most people. It is also about conformity. By choosing not to tease and tame your hair, you are also choosing to let your hair express its personality rather than look like everyone else’s hair.

Notice that I have generalised the issue to people in general rather than writing about white people, because misconceptions about what black hair is are also propagated by black people. In fact, I would argue that most white people get the majority of their misconceptions about what black hair from black people.

A history of black hair myths There are two main misconceptions that are urgent for understanding what the governing body and headmistress of Pretoria Girls High may have been thinking – or not.

The first is that natural hair is “dirty”. The second is about the extent to which natural hair grows – hence the obsession with hair length, extensions and dreadlocks.

Many black women and men who wear weaves and relax their hair will explain their choice by either saying that their natural hair is “unmanageable” or that natural hair is “dirty”. This is one of the most enduring stereotypes about black hair. People will even cite the “anecdotal” evidence that Bob Marley’s dreads had 47 different types of lice when he died. But these are urban legends of the worst kind because they perpetuate the stereotype that only black hair attracts lice, and other vermin, which is scientifically untrue.

Historically, the myth comes from images of the pejoratively named “fuzzy-wuzzy” that British soldiers who were fighting Sudanese insurgents in the Mahdist War sent home. This war, from 1881-1899, popularised the image of the wild Afros that people now imagine when they think of black hair.

But these images are misleading for the simple reason that they suggest these Sudanese soldiers did not “dress” their hair or wash it. Nothing could be further from the truth. Across the African continent, techniques for dressing hair were as varied as the hairstyles that they produced.

The “Afro” therefore is not some kind of standard African hairstyle. It is just one of several hundred ways of growing and maintaining curly hair. So when a black person decides to “dread” or lock their hair, they neither need nor keep “dirt” in it to make it lock. Our hair (as does all hair) locks naturally when it is left uncombed or unbrushed.

There are many enduring myths about black hair.

Credit: Marcela Arango. (continued)

The association of locks with dirt partly comes from the Caribbean where Rastafarianism emerged as a subculture.

However, even in this instance, the misconception is that dreadlocks equal Rastafarianism. The reality is that the Rastas got their locks from Africa. To be exact, matted African hair was transported to the Caribbean by images of Ethiopian soldiers who were fighting the Italian invasion which began in 1935. These fighters vowed – using the example of Samson in the bible – that they would not cut their hair until their country and emperor Ras Tafari Makonnnen (aka Haile Selassie) were liberated and the emperor returned from exile.

The myths about how long black hair can or should be are as legion as the myths that natural hair is “dirty”. The misconception partly comes out of the concept of measurement. Natural African hair is curly and so to measure it, one would have to stretch out the coils. This is why limiting the growth of the hair by the width of cornrows or length of strands doesn’t make sense at all. One black person’s coiffure will look very short because of “shrinkage” and another black person’s locks will look very long because of a loose coil.

The notion that long black hair is or should be cut or trimmed to an “acceptable” length is ignorance masquerading as “neatness”. No two black people’s hair “grows out” the same.

Whose “common sense”?

Pretoria Girls High is not the first institution to try and police black people’s hair. In an article titled “When Black Hair Is Against the Rules”, the New York Times responded to hair regulations that had been published by the US Army on 31 March 2014.

These prohibited twists, “matted” hair and multiple braids – all of which were read as references to natural African hair and hairstyles.

Conservative institutions – schools, militaries, corporations and so on – have the right to prescribe a dress code. However, these should not be based on partial knowledge where these institutions simply don’t do any research into what some of their prohibitions actually mean and instead rely on “common sense”.

Because when it comes to black hair, “common sense” is the least reliable tool for decision-making, since even black people are constantly changing their minds about what they want to do with their hair.

As an expression of our culture, black hair is as malleable and plastic as our ideas about it.

To attempt to fix such expressions in rules and regulations is to deny black people what the Senegalese historian Cheikh Anta Diop called our “Promethean consciousness”. As black people, our hair is an expression of the infinite possibilities that emanate from this creative and daring consciousness.

Hair in the black community is not complicated.

Hair in the black community is a complicated, volatile topic. Historically, straight hair and curly/wavy hair have been seen as more socially acceptable.

Curly/wavy hair is more acceptable than kinky hair because it's seen as closer to white. Nowadays, this might seem confusing, but it actually has its roots in slavery. During slavery, black people with lighter skin and curly hair were more likely to be house slaves, whereas black people with darker skin and kinky hair were relegated to the fields. In Africa, eccentric hair styles were a source of pride.

When black people came to the Americas, where they did not have the supplies they needed to take care of their hair, slave masters tried to make them feel ashamed about the way they looked by not even referring to their hair as hair. Instead, they might call it "wool," which was their way of making the slaves feel inferior and inhuman. *

However, the answer to this question isn't as simple as "because of the European standard of beauty." I mean, yes, part of the reason black women wear weaves (notice I didn't say "fake hair" - if you buy it, it's yours) is because natural black hair is seen as inappropriate and socially unacceptable, but I think that's only part of the larger story. Weaves do not have to be straight. In fact, I think you're thinking of wigs, which are placed over the hair and are generally straight or curly.

Weaves are often sewn into braids to make the hair longer, and I would argue that braids aren't related to the European standard of beauty. (Though they are more convenient, because other natural hair styles are seen as "wild" or "unruly," and they're also easier to take care of.) Now why would black women want to make their hair longer? Partly because our society says that long hair is beautiful...but also partly because they think it looks nice. I suspect that this has its roots in Africa, though back then people may not have been using weave to style their hair in certain ways. Instead, their hair may have naturally been long enough to style that way.

I think your question represents a bit of a misunderstanding about black women and hair. I think the majority of black women don't change their hair

styles because they want to "look white," even black women who use perms. Black women do these things because their hair can be, as Sarah Riehl said, very time consuming otherwise. (Though I disagree with her time estimates. The amount of time spent on natural hair can vary based on the person, hair type, and hair style.)

Braids are simply convenient, as are perms. And why do black women dye their hair? This question kind of assumes that black women dye their hair "white" colors.

Many black women might dye their hair red, brown, black, or even blue! Why do black women have to legitimize everything we do to our hair? We have to explain why we wear our hair natural. We have to explain why we wear our hair permed. We have to explain why we dye our hair or wear weave, whereas our white counterparts can do these things without an assumption that they are self-hating. (Of course, white people in the United States don't have the same history that black women do, but that doesn't invalidate my comparison.) Why do black women do these things to our hair? A few of us wear wigs and perms because of the European standard of beauty.

Some of us just like the way they look. And others wear weave and natural hair because we like the way that looks. Black women are a largely diverse group of people, and it's hard to answer a question like this without glossing over many people's varied experiences. *Most of this information comes from Hair Story by Ayana Byrd and Lori Tharps.

For more information, see Melissa Harris Perry's s

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Evaluate Market

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Evaluate your marketing options.

– Newspapers offer a wide price range from inexpensive classified advertising to pricey full color ads.

– Radio reaches a wide regional area and typically appeals to particular demographic groups.

– Web site marketing offers tremendous variety from inexpensive do-it-yourself sites to high dollar, innovative technology. Web sites reach the widest audience and offer the potential for international business transactions.

– Social Media is the least expensive advertising available. An investment of time to build a large social network may pay off in sales.

– Direct Mail is traditional advertising that has grown with the times. Mailing lists targeted by almost any criterion you choose are available for purchase.

– Email can be an effective marketing tool, but beware of strict compliance rules. Commercial email that defies the CAN-SPAM Act may incur penalties of up to $16,000 per occurrence.

– Television is a powerful advertising medium, but it's often too expensive for small businesses. Small cable channels usually provide the most cost effective option for this type of advertising.

Advertising 101

• Identify and understand your target market(s). Who purchases your product or service? Where do they live?

How much disposable income do they have to spend?

Compile a list of what defines your ideal customer.

You may have more than one target market. For example, a shoe store may advertise inexpensive gym shoes to parents of young children while also marketing pricey dress shoes to the business crowd.

Examine your customers and the purchases they make. Find out who is buying your product or service and create a profile for each type of customer.

Brand Management Budget

• Create a media budget. You may want to advertise more with direct mail and word of mouth (client to clients) staff training and beyond the Internet with print, radio or television during key times of the year. • For example, if Christmas and Mother's Day garner your biggest gift certificate sales, create a budget that allows for more spending on advertising leading up to these two holidays. • Remember to spend your advertising and marketing dollars where your potential clients read, listen or watch, and within a circulation range of no more than 20 miles (32 km) from your business. Before you buy any advertising, determine your potential return on investment.

Create a PR and Marketing Campaign

Start by developing your brand. Choose a salon name, logo and design that engages your market.

If your salon is in a trendy urban neighborhood, look at the successful businesses around you. What color schemes do they use?

Are the names simple one word names or longer? What type of art, or lack thereof are used in logos? If your salon is in a quaint tourist region, are the names and feel of the businesses warm and friendly?

Take note of these successful businesses and then follow their lead but be original.

Logo

• Create a logo and a slogan.

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Come up with a catchy phrase that can be printed on employee business cards, uniforms, and staff e-mail signatures.

• For example, if your salon promotes holistic and energy based treatments, your slogan could be "beauty, bliss and beyond" or "good energy, great beauty."

Create a Web Site Campaign

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Promote your salon web site. Design your salon web site with Search Engine Optimization in mind. You will not always see immediate results.

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Be diligent about viral marketing, this will boost your page ranking on search engines. Get on all of the social media sites and stay connected.

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Create monthly or quarterly informational newsletters. Stay in constant contact with your market and direct them to your web site, but don't spam them.

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Keep your information informative and keep sales pitch at a minimum. All salons and barber shop should have an ecommerce site to sell products or services, make appointments and connect to daily specials.

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Two ways of joining: one as a ecommerce site distributor of products for Dudley or as a member (pay a fee, with no site) so that you can access Dudley site and sell products on their site.

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A salon owner can also get an independent ecommerce site to sale all type of beauty products. A company can also get a app that service as there own individual company app. To sell your companies brand.

Collecting Information

• Collecting information for Advertising and distribution.

• Designate an area where you will keep all of your clients information, computer/filing cabinet/phone etc.

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Area No 1 Reservation Desk • Where the customer experience begins and ends. The reservation desk is also a great opportunity to talk about trying something new. Practice dialogue with your team and review the recommended target market for each sample.

Collecting information

Area No 2 Stylist Station A place to share knowledge. Create an experience that will leave your guest ready to purchase Take Homeâ„ and book their next appointment.

This is an opportunity to educate your client: Explain the products, tools and techniques you used and send them home with everything they need to recreate their look.

Area No 3 The Wash Where extra revenue and loyalty are built. Soft music, low lighting and a decadent scalp and neck massage create a haven of relaxation your guest won't forget.

If you build the experience into your service price, it gives you a valuable add-on that justifies a premium price.

More personal service

• Start collecting client information such as name, address, email address. • Direct mail • Let them know that this information is for your eyes only and this information will be used to send coupons and rewards.

Many salons use pertinent customer information like what type of cut/color their customer had, the date they were last in, how they like their coffee.

Any information that can help them give more personal service.

Create a 250 Referral Campaign

• Promote through referral. Beauty salons rely heavily on word-of-mouth advertising. Train employees how to build clientele through referrals and client relationships.

• Consider giving a discount, or upgrade on their next visit to clients who refer a friend.

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Be sure your employees cards mention how clients can "friend" you on social media sites, and mention the benefits of being a friend of your beauty salon.

• Couple this with sweepstakes and daily deals offered only through your social media sites.

Increase Revenue

• Referral Program • Beauty salon can increase revenue by starting a customer loyalty program using gift cards. The use of customer appreciation gift cards will promote repeat business and referrals increasing one's profits.

• Call your merchant services provider or look on the Internet and inquire about having gift cards custom designed to fit your salon.

Marketing Campaign

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Create a marketing campaign.

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Write down the specific goal you intend to accomplish. ("Increase sales by 15% before the end of the fiscal year" or "Gain 50 new customers this month.")

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Choose a medium to begin your marketing campaign. (Ex: Direct Mail) Develop the materials you'll use in the campaign. In this example, it could be a series of letters with increasingly enticing offers for your latest product.

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Determine a time frame for implementation. How often will you mail? Do the letters need to coincide with local or calendar events? Allow time for delays and test marketing. Patience is an essential; successful marketing campaigns can take a year or more of careful planning.

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Test market the campaign. Before you commit extensive resources, it's wise to test the market to see how well-received your advertising will be. Testing keeps costs minimal while you hone the campaign. In a case of direct mail marketing, you might send the materials to a control group consisting of a random 5% of your mailing list.

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Evaluate test marketing results. Use this information to edit the materials (or the campaign itself) as necessary. If results are unclear, consider test marketing on another control group. You need strong, consistent results in order to predict a successful campaign.

Brand Offers

• Make a guarantee, then stand behind your products and services. If you believe in them enough to guarantee satisfaction, new clients will be more likely to take a chance and try out your salon •

Make an offer.

• Give people a reason to try your salon or return. What about a free travel size hair product or a manicure on their birthday? Think of something inexpensive, but effective at enticing possible clients.

Direct mail Loyalty program

• Decide when you are going to start your customer loyalty program. • Ensure that your gift cards have been received and you and your staff know how to process them on your point-ofsale system.

Create raving fans

• Determine how frequently you are going to send out thank you notes with pre-loaded gift cards attached.

• Any celebrations they have, new born, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

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Weekly? Monthly?

After each-new client?

Create raving fans

• Start it up.

• Retrieve your clients information. Write a personal thank you for coming in.

• Mention the pre-loaded gift card amount and insert it into the thank you card.

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Inform your new client that the gift card can be used for products and services.

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Sign your name. Make it personal.

Gift Cards

• Determine the dollar amount you are going to load on to your "thank you" gift cards.

• This amount should be high enough to encourage people to come back into your salon.

• You want your new and existing clients coming back to your salon.

Create raving fans

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Stock your salon with products and lists of services that your clients can purchase with their customer appreciation cards.

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Research your clients psychographics Where do your clients eat, what do they eat, Where do they go for entertainment. What do they read, where do they live . What do they watch. What do they think about all the time.

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What are their demographics age, income, marriage, where do they work, where do they live, gender and how many children or family members.

Create raving fans

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Keep a log.

Know your customers and what they are buying.

• Ask yourself these questions • Why do your customers come back for! Is it your strong public relations (direct mail), Is it your brand (what they think your company represent) your advertising ( what your company looks like when they visits- the salon experience) Is it your marketing campaign (the information that you send out, your website, gift cards, your thank you cards, business cards, how your information interacts with them!

• What is it!

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Build on what is working and then log information so that you can cater to their need and wants.

Create a Web Site Campaign

• Create your beauty salon's web site. It is important that your salon has a professional looking website.

• This is often the first impression a potential client has of your business. Your web site should be a snap shot of the experience the client will have at your salon.

• The colors and feel should match your brand. Create a site that has the same feel your clients will have when they enter your salon. Maybe it's calm and serene; maybe it's vibrant and lively.

Let’s reinvent the wheel!

No lets Not reinvent the wheel!

We all can learn from Madame CJ Walker Let’s look at one of the ultimate advertisers and marketers!

Can you identify her Brand, PR, Advertising and Marketing

On December 23, 1867, Sarah Breedlove was born to two former slaves on a plantation in Delta, La.,

MADAME C.J. WALKER

• WHAT IS THE BRAND, HER LOGO, WHAT IS HER SLOGAN, PR, ADVERTISING AND MARKETING MIX. • WHAT IS THE MESSAGE!

Advertising 1800’s

Marketing in the 1800’s

INSPIRATION FOLLOWS ASPIRATIONS • One step by 100 persons is better than 100 steps by one person!

• Some succeed because they are destined to most succeed because they are determined to.

• THE FRIST STEP TOWARDS GETTING SOMEWHERE IS TO DECIDE THAT YOUR ARE NOT GOING TO STAY WHERE YOU ARE. • WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS LOOKING FOR YOU!

Black Barbershops: More than a haircut!

get a haircut next to a black man, Mills said.

Even in Durham, John Merrick served white clients in his barbershop to make money for future investments. In 1898, he started North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, the nation’s oldest and largest black-owned insurance company.

“In many ways, he made these compromises in his barbershop to help build enterprises and build black institutions for African-Americans,” Mills said. From 1890 to 1930, a new generation of black men sought to change the face of black-owned barbershops.

Rodney Brower, a barber at Signature Kutz, cutting 6-year-old Elijah Warren’s hair. The two talk about sports and crack jokes throughout the haircut. “I put a little laugh in their life,” Brower said about his customers. “Showing the positive side of the atmosphere that we have in here.” (Staff photo by Ryan Wilusz) Six-year-old Elijah Warren climbed into a booster seat, grinning as barber Rodney Brower covered him with an apron. As snow started falling outside of Signature Kutz Barber Shop on South Driver Street, his older brother, Jacquez, waited in the corner for the haircut to finish.

Trying to start a conversation with Elijah, Brower asked if he was going to be better than his brother at football one day.

“I already am,” Elijah said.

After the laughs settled, he continued to talk about football and Brower continued to listen. Elijah said he wants to be a running back.

“We’re listeners really,” Brower said about barbers.

“A lot of people come in the barbershop and it’s not really about the cut, it’s about the conversation.”

But black-owned barbershops have evolved since the 19th century, transforming from a service business for white clientele into a social gathering space in black communities.

THE BACK STORY Quincy Mills, a history professor at Vassar College, chronicled black-owned barbershops in his book, “Cutting Along the Color Line: Black Barbers and Barber Shops in America.”

In the 19th century, most black-owned barbershops served white clients exclusively. Wealthy white businessmen and politicians in the South refused to

Mills explains, “They wanted to open barbershops in black communities to serve black men and to provide a space in an emerging Jim Crow America that would escape the surveillance of whites.”

At the time, a major focus for barbers was shaving, an act that involved touching another man’s face.

Many viewed this as slave labor until the massproduction of the Gillette safety razor in 1903 allowed men to shave at home. With the focus shifting to haircuts, more white men entered the barbering business, Mills said.

And by the 1930s, during the Great Migration, most black barbers had moved into black communities.

With few places for blacks to interact freely, barbershops became a gathering place.

Black residents who moved to a new area would stop by the barbershop to make connections. And if a customer needed someone to do a job, he would go to the barber and ask who was reliable, Mills said.

“Much like a preacher, a barber is this sort of central person that has a pulse on their local communities,” Mills said. “When folks come in, they’re talking.” Black-owned barbershops were places for men to interact with their community and relax.

“There’s the barber and there’s the people sitting in the chair,” Mills said. “But it’s the waiting public that I think gives black barbershops their character.”

Customers would sit for hours waiting for a haircut, leading to conversations about politics, the community and religion. While these topics are still covered today, people also talk about sports, cars and relationships.

people do better.”

A GATHERING PLACE “The shop is a place that people can come and they can be debatable,” Brower said. “You can be yourself and another person can be themselves.

And at the same time, you can meet in the middle and shake hands without animosity.”

Although customers often start the conversations, the barber plays a major role in the discussion.

“The barber makes a balance,” said Samuel Jenkins, owner of Samuel and Sons Barber Shop on Angier Avenue. “If you are talking too much, maybe he lets someone else get a turn. He is like the director of the opera inside this space.”

Different barbershops have different rules.

Signature Kutz does not allow foul language and avoids conversations about religion. But both Samuel and Sons and Signature Kutz agree that being a role model for children is important.

When Jenkins began barbering, he would ask children if they have ever been fishing. He said it’s surprising how many have not.

“I don’t know about the white community, but there are a lot of broken families in the black community,” Jenkins said. “Sometimes the only mentors you end up having are the local drug dealers or the barber because you go to the barbershop.” When children are struggling, mothers often ask the barber to direct them on the right path, Jenkins said.

“One reason you come into barbering is because you want to cut hair,” Jenkins said. “The other reason you want to do it is because you want to see

LOOKING FORWARD But the uncertain future of barbering is making it difficult for barbershops to stay open, including Samuel and Sons, which will move into Jenkins’ house on Dec. 18.

Mills said that living standards, an increase in appointments and technology have changed blackowned barbershops over recent years. With more families living in poverty, getting a haircut has become less of a priority. And if someone is going to the barbershop, they could be working multiple jobs and have only 30 minutes to get a haircut, according to Mills.

In-and-out appointments have taken away from the “waiting public” and the conversations that happen in barbershops. Mills said technology has had a similar effect.

“I have noticed that even inside barbershops there could be four, five or six people in the shop all on their cellphones,” Mills said. “Public interaction, I think, is something that is changing.” But conversations have not completely disappeared.

Brower and Elijah talked back and forth about the Superbowl throughout the haircut. Elijah said he will play in the big game one day, and Brower said he wants tickets. After the haircut, Brower rubbed alcohol on the child’s hairline, causing a stinging sensation and a scowl from Elijah.

“You’re supposed to be a football player. You’re not getting soft on me, are you?” Brower asked.

Elijah responded with a smile.

Although the future of barbershops is unclear, Brower said he always wants to make a difference.

“I do this to be a productive member of society,” Brower said. “If you provide a safe environment for a kid like this, they’ll come to you the rest of their life.”