As black women, one of the things that makes them African is their thick, shiny black hair.
However, did you know that was a time in history that a black woman couldn’t show her hair?
It was strictly forbidden at the time for a black woman to show her hair in public. There was the ‘Tignon Laws’, find out how it was used to fuel racial tensions in the United States then.
What is a Tignon?
A tignon (tiyon) is a headdress used to conceal hair. The sumptuary law was enacted under Governor Esteban Rodriguez Miró in 1786.
“…prohibited Creole women of color from displaying ‘excessive attention to dress’ in the streets of New Orleans”
Historian Virginia M. Gould notes that Miró hoped the law would control women
“who had become too light-skinned or who dressed too elegantly, or who, in reality, competed too freely with white women for status and thus threatened the social order.”
According to the tignon decree, women of color had to wear a scarf or handkerchief over their hair as a visible sign of belonging to the slave class, whether they were enslaved or not.
The regulation was meant as a means to regulate the style of dress and appearance for people of color.
Black women’s features often attracted male white, French, and Spanish suitors and their beauty was a perceived threat to white women.
The tignon law was a tactic used to combat the men pursuing and engaging in affairs with Creole women. Simply put, black women competed too openly with white women by dressing elegantly and possessing note-worth beauty.
However, those women affected by the law did, in fact, cover their hair, but they did it with elaborate fabrics, unique colours, ribbon, jewels, and wrapping styles which accentuated their beauty even more.
They effectively re-interpreted the law without technically breaking the law.
Out of this law, bore the various head ties seen today on women of color using unique materials, patterns, and flair.
Tignons have been worn by women in the Caribbean islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Dominica which included hidden messages.
They used Madras – a popular fabric amongst slaves and free women to achieve their head ties.
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