Describing Black Hair in Fantasy (Dreadlocks, Braided Styles, etc)
How do you describe afro hairstyles in a world where the word doesn’t exist?
My advice for describing afro hairstyles effectively in fantasy is to:
Use words from the term in the description
Have someone read it; do they know what you’re describing?
What does this hairstyle look like, exactly? What is a braid? What are dreadlocks? How do you braid, or how do you form this particular type of braid?
Look up existing descriptions of the term, and use language from the definition. Combine, reword and trim as necessary. There’s no need to be wordy. A well-constructed sentence or two should serve its purpose.
Great sources are everything from hair glossaries (especially those found on Black hair websites) natural hair vlogs, and even the thesaurus.
Here are some word associations to play with:
These words can help be more specific with the look of their hair/hairstyle. Tight, tiny braids. Cloudy puffs of hair in twin pigtails.
Use words from the term itself in the description.
Readers should get an “aha” moment when you do this. Twisted hair probably mean twists. Bantu knots resemble knots.
Cornrows get their name from rows of corn with connections to African chattel slavery. Say you have a character with this style, but those historical connotations don’t exist in this world , or corn isn’t something your character would know about. There are still ways to make the connection.
Example: “She wore her hair in neat rows of braids along her scalp.”
The key word here is rows.
Assuming you can use a part of a word that does exist in your timeline, use it for the strongest connection to its real world counterpart. See the next example:
Another Black hairstyle with history to its name, it may not make sense to use the term in your setting. However, you likely could still slip the word “lock or locked” into your description to clarify for readers what you’re getting at.
Example: “His skin was the same medium brown as her own and that of her people, but his hair was thick and coarse and pulled into the rough locks that looked like braids but weren’t, like the people to the south whose skin was darker.”
-By Shira Glassman, A Harvest of Ripe Figs, Mangoverse Book 3
What’s particularly great about this description is:
The use of locks to make the connection to dreadlocks.
Connecting the hairstyle to a certain people. It isn’t just a style anyone can wear, but it has regional roots and is worn by a particular group.
Adding other indications of race such as brown skin, and the nod to him coming from a place where the people have dark skin.
Have more than one person read your description. It would be great if at least one of those people is Black (and/or familiar with the style). Does the reader know what you’re trying to describe? Are you being concise, or over explaining it to the point of confusion? If your readers can name the style or picture it relatively quickly, then you’ve got a winner.
Describing Bantu Knots (Fantasy Setting)
Fantasy World and Non-Western Clothes
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