#3 Blacks and Combs

Just a few days ago an older Black person asked me, “What is up with Black people walking around with combs in their hair?” They had just watched a musician performing on television for Haiti earthquake relief; wearing a comb-head they thought was unattractive. It’s easy to say this is just a style, but maybe it goes further than this. I said I’d look into it.

The first thing to note is that you must have kinky hair to wear a comb. In other words, Whites, Asians, Latinos, do not pass go, do not collect $200 style dollars. Black folks love to come up with something cool that White folks can’t copy. No Elvis interlopers, or M&M’s, pimp-walking in the back door. Okay, some Jews (aka He-bros) can pull it off, but they were slaves too, so they’s coo’.

Back in the day, the more practical reason for sticking combs in your hair was to keep a brother from going to jail. The black-jack-looking afro and cake-cutter combs of the sixties and seventies could be purposefully mistaken for concealed weapons by the local or school authorities. If the comb was in a dude’s hair, this was proof that it was indeed a comb and not a weapon. Of course, everyone knew that a legit comb that puffed-out the ‘fro one moment could be whacking a cat the next, but hey…don’t profile me bro!

The other reason for keeping the comb in your hair was that putting it in a pocket was either painful or costly, due to poking holes in your clothes (aka threads) and ruining them. In the back pocket, the combs could be accidentally sat upon, either breaking it or sending the owner to the emergency room for stitches (aka thug tattoos). Also, the combs were not cheap, costing between $3-10, rather than the $.25 that Arthur ‘The Fonz’ Fonzarelli paid for that wimpy thing he pushed through his greasy hair on Happy Days.

Finally, wearing a comb in your head is one way of telling the world that no matter how jacked-up your head looks, you meant for it to look this way – saying, in effect, the world can kiss-MBA. Remember what Sinatra said, attitude baby. Frankly, I would not mind my fourteen year old wearing a comb, since this might increase the chance that he would accidentally use it on himself, or maybe I’m just being wishful – as uncombed is also a style, I have been told.

James C. Collier

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