Radio Workshop

Hair, There, Everywhere (Transcript)

by Catherine Fenollosa

Walking down 125th street near Lenox Avenue, it is hard not to get your hair braided.

(fade up street ambi w/music)

Women stand on nearly every street corner and softly call out to

pedestrians, offering their braiding services. Between the Magic Johnson Theatres and an Old Navy store, there are dozens of hair braiding shops. Some

are small, dimly lit rooms where clients sit elbow to elbow in

folding chairs and handfuls of synthetic hair clutter the floor.

Others are more established beauty parlors, with books of

delicately braided styles and old-fashioned barber chairs.

(fade up shop ambi)

17-year old Kean-nay sits patiently in her aunt's small second-floor shop as two women weave tiny box braids into her hair. Peeling black letters spell out "Best Braids" on the shop's dented metal door. The braiders and customers sit in small, informal circles and speak to each other in an ethnic dialect of their native Senegal. And as Kean-nay knows, it's not uncommon for braiding to take hours, even days:

Tape: I STARTED IT YESTERDAY AND WE DID IT FOR LIKE 5 HOURS AND I

HAVE TO GO TO WORK AT FIVE AND I DON'T THINK IT'LL BE DONE SO MAYBE

TOMORROW.

Braiders move their fingers quickly, wrapping long strings of synthetic hair into Kean-nay's own hair, twisting and turning as they go. A final braid is no thicker than a piece of yarn and stretches down Kean-nay's back, grazing her waist.

(fade up ambi of Kean-nay talking to her aunt in native language.)

Kean-nay has had braids all her life. Born in Senegal, she moved to

New York 18-months ago for high school. Braiding is a tradition

that has been passed down in her family... but she was surprised to find that braids were fashionable in Harlem.

Tape: IN SCHOOL, WHEN I GET MY HAIR BRAIDED, I GO TO AN ALL WHITE

SCHOOL, AND THEY BE LIKE OH THIS IS NICE. SOME OF THEM GOT THEIR

HAIR BRAIDED CAUSE I GOT MY HAIR BRAIDED SO.

African historians say the practice started hundreds of years ago, as part of a complex language system. Braided hairstyles indicated a persons' age, marital status and wealth. In the 18 and 19-hundreds, in an attempt to look more European, African Americans used creams and hot combs to straighten their hair. But the "Black is Beautiful" movement of the 1960's brought a resurgence of afros and braids. Today, fashion models sporting corn rows and tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams wearing intricate flower patterns in their hair, braids have become mainstream.

(fade up rose shop ambi)

Farther east on 125th street, near an Old Navy store, 50-year old Rose oversees about a dozen women sitting in barber's chairs at a more traditional hair salon.

TAPE: NOW EVERYBODY WANTS THEIR HAIR BRAIDED. CHINESE WANT THEIR

HAIR BRAIDED, WHITES WANT THEIR HAIR BRAIDED. ALL OUR PEOPLE WANT

THEIR HAIR BRAIDED NOW.

Originally from Ghana, Rose has been braiding hair for over 15-years. She says it is not just a fashionable, but a practical way of styling hair:

TAPE: WHEN WE LEAVE OUR HAIR, IT BECOMES SO KINKY SO NAPPY. WHEN

YOU PUT A BRAID ON IT, IT LETS YOUR HAIR LOOK SO SOFT AND NICE.

Back in her aunt's shop, braiders are still furiously working on

Kean-nay's hair. 12-hours and 240-dollars later, when Kean-nay's hair is done, she will have

more than a hundred tiny braids that can stay in for up to three

months.

For Columbia Radio News, I'm Catherine Fenollosa.