Part Seven In living memory: codes and kitchens

Ask any elder at a family reunion about hair and you’ll hear stories that sound like folklore but happened within their lifetimes. In the mid‑20th century many workplaces and schools enforced grooming codes that deemed Black hair “unkempt” unless it was pressed, permed or covered. Those rules weren’t ancient history – in some states they remained on the books until the 1990s. Mothers and aunties remember kitchen hot combs hissing on the stove before church. Grandparents recall employers posting signs forbidding braids and Afros. Even today, some corporate dress codes still quietly require “smooth” hair. These norms have affected how often people wash their hair and what products they use; when straight styles were mandatory, many avoided oils and creams in order to keep press‑outs from reverting. The result was dryness and breakage – symptoms still misread by outsiders as lack of care rather than a consequence of compliance. Products like Blue Magic grease, Royal Crown pomade and home‑made shea butters existed partly to restore moisture that straightening stripped away.

The closeness of these experiences matters. It’s one thing to read about the Tignon Laws of the 1700s; it’s another to realize that just two generations ago, women risked expulsion from school for wearing cornrows. Laws may change, but cultural codes linger. We still see “no locs” policies in sports leagues and stories of children sent home for wearing beads. Remembering how recent these battles are – and how they intersect with other restrictions on Black bodies – keeps us from treating hair discrimination as a relic. It is ongoing, intimate and personal, and it shapes the way we pass down knowledge (or lose it) between grand‑ and great‑grandkids.