Weave"ing" History!!! Who invented Weave???

With hair weave being in such a high demand in 2012, it’s predominately all we see. Barely being able to get on a social network (i.e. facebook, instagram, twitter, etc.) without a profile that has a photo of locs of weave trying to request you as a friend or hardly able to flip through pages in magazines without seeing advertisements on almost each page.

According to The Encyclopedia of Hair by Victoria Sherrow, a hair weave is a type of hair addition carried out with real or synthetic hair, usually by a trained hairdresser. Bunches of hair are sewn into the person’s own hair on to netting that has been sewn into their hair. Dictionary.com describes hair weave as a process in which a hairpiece is interwoven with real hair to conceal alopecia or increase the thickness or length of the hairstyle. As reported by Wikipedia.com, it states that hair weave is human or artificial hair typically utilized for the integration with one’s natural hair. Weaving additional human or synthetic pieces can enhance one's hair by giving it volume, length and adding color without the damage of chemicals or adopting a different hair texture than that of their own.

It is said that African American females in America are the biggest consumers of hair products. They are 10% of the population in the USA but they consume 80% of hair products. Weave has been around for many years, centuries, and decades. But have we ever stopped to think about whose to hold responsible for such a clever and beguiling idea?

Let’s pay homage to Mrs. Christina Jenkins, a Malvern, Ohio housewife and hairdresser invented hair weaves.

According to hair historians Lori L. Tharps and Ayana D. Byrd in their book Hair Story: Untangling the Black Roots in America, affirmed that in 1950, Christina Jenkins invented hair weaves and patented her exceptional and productive hair weaving technique. Christina Jenkins maiden name was Thomas and she was born in Louisiana. She attended and graduated from Leland College located near Baker, Louisiana in 1943. During that same year she married her husband Herman Duke Jenkins, who was a well-known Jazz Pianist.

(Left) 1950s Ballad Singer Bette Mclaurin (Right) Unknown Photo Courtesy of Google Images

Christina and her husband Duke established a company called Christina's Hair Weaves. Jenkins came up with the brilliant plan to sew the hair directly onto the head instead of attaching hair with pins. People from around the world were so interested in learning from Christina that they paid her to come to their countries to teach her distinctive weaving technique, this was during the peak of their company.

Unfortunately, in December of 2003 Christina Jenkins sadly passed away.  She will always be remembered as the woman who not only changed hair care for women of color but for women around the entire world.  

This is the end of my article, however this isn’t the end of Our Agenda!

Works Cited

• Dictionary.com 21st Century Lexicon. hair weave. 26 July 2012 <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hair weave>.
• From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . Artificial hair integrations. 26 July 2012 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_hair_integrations>.
• From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Leland College. 26 July 2012 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leland_College>.
• Jones, Willie. Who Invented Weave. May 2012. 26 July 2012 <http://blackwny.com/business/who-invented-the-weave#more>.
• Richard, Cicely A. Who Invented Hair Weaves? 26 July 2012 <http://www.ehow.com/about_5065423_invented-hair-weaves.html>.
• Sharrow, Victoria. Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History. Westport: Greenwood, 2006.
• Tharps, Ayana D. Byrd and Lori L. Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2001.