The afro is a hair style created by combing out natural growth of afro-textured hair, or specifically styled with chemical curling products by individuals with naturally curly or straight hair. The hairstyle can be created by combing the hair away from the scalp, dispersing a distinctive curl pattern, and forming the hair into a rounded shape, much like a cloud or puff ball.
Musician Billy Preston with an afro
One of P. T. Barnum's Circassian beauties wearing an afro
Angela Davis (center, no glasses) enters Royce Hall at UCLA for her first philosophy lecture in October 1969.
A young girl wearing a hairstyle of several sections of hair bound with elastics, a style called afro puffs
Kinky hair, also known as afro-textured hair, is a human hair texture prevalent in the indigenous populations of many regions with hot climates, mainly sub-Saharan Africa, and some areas of Melanesia, and Australia. Each strand of this hair type grows in a repeating pattern of small contiguous kinks. These numerous kinks make kinky hair appear denser than straight, wavy, and curly hair types.
Woman from the island of Nosy Be, in Madagascar, c. 1868
Papuan women with kinky hair
Successful entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker invented a method that relaxed textured hair. Photo taken c. 1914.
Civil rights activist Angela Davis wearing an Afro in 1973
