Black Women’s Hair Was Once Illegal And Considered A Threat To White Women’s Relationships With White Men and White Women's Social Status During this time, women of African descent were known to wear their hair in elaborate styles (yes, we’ve been fly for centuries). By incorporating feathers and jewels into their hairstyles, they showcased the full magic and glory of their gravity-defying strands, and appeared wealthier than they actually were. As a result, these enticing styles attracted the attention of men—including white men. To address this “problem,” in 1786, Spanish colonial Governor Don Esteban Miró enacted the Edict of Good Government, also referred to as the #TignonLaws, which “prohibited Creole women of color from displaying ‘excessive attention to dress’ in the streets of New Orleans.” Instead, they were forced to wear a tignon (scarf or handkerchief) over their hair to show that they belonged to the slave class, whether they were enslaved or not. In The Devil’s Lane: Sex and Race in the Early South, historian Virginia M. Gould notes that Miró hoped the laws would control women “who had become too light skinned or who dressed too elegantly, or who competed too freely with white women for status and thus threatened the social order.” In response to the laws, Creole women did cover their hair, but they did so with intricate fabrics and jewels (think Angela Bassett in American Horror Story as real-life New Orleans sorceress, Marie Laveau). As Baton Rouge curator Kathe Hambrick put it in a recent interview with The Advocate, “they owned it and made it a part of their fashion.” Instead of a cover-up, the wraps became a symbol style. And, of course, the women continued to attract men with their extravagant hairdos. Once the UnitedStates took ownership of Louisiana through the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the #Tignon Law were no longer enforced. Still some enslaved and free women of #African descent continued to wear #headwraps as a symbol of resistance to white colonialism. By the end of the 19th century, however, many #Blackwomen began straightening their hair in order to blend into a society that had established a Eurocentric ideal of beauty. #naturalhair https://www.instagram.com/p/BrezrcPHvZO/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=5z4it8qln67t