When you say African do you mean African as in from Africa or African as in Afro Caribbean and from the West Indies? What is the racial make up of the parents?
What do you mean by an afro hairstyle?
In general the hair would be dry after a shower because you don't get it wet, it takes too long to sort out. She would probably wear a shower cap.
A black woman will have to put grease in her hair to moisturise it. It is likely that she will either have it relaxed, permed or be wearing extensions or a weave. Or she could be wearing a wig.
I modeled her appearance on Elarica Gallacher, the waitress from the beginning of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Her wikipedia article says she has an African mother and an English father, so that works for me. (I really do not intend to sound officious, I honestly haven't decided on precise racial make-up for any of the characters except the one based on Japanese mythology, and she technically doesn't have parents.)
That is really helpful. What about in the rain? Also what about texture? What would it feel like to run your fingers through it? Thank you so much for answering my questions!
I was trying to work out what you meant that was why I was asking the racial makeup. In Britian there is no such term as African British you are either Black African or Black Caribbean/West Indian. The actress that you describe would be classed as mixed race not black. Somebody that is mixed race will have different hair to someone who is black (and there will be differences between the West Indians and Africans
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As to the question at hand, as ficchica mentioned, "Black" as a descriptor is a very vague word to describe a person: two people could self-ID or be ID'd as Black but be as phenotypically different as night and day. Given the history of white colonialism and the African diaspora, lots of Black people are often "mixed" anyway, even those from Africa. The actress you mentioned could ID as Black, mixed, or both, so it's inappropriate to say she's not Black, unless she does not like to think of herself as such. For simplicity's sake, I'll use "Black" in the general sense as anyone with significant African ancestry.
I wanted to clear up a few things that ficchica said:
you don't get it wet, it takes too long to sort out. She would probably wear a shower cap Black women, like anyone else, need to cleanse their scalps. Hair that's flat-ironed straight can take a lot of effort and stress on the hair to repress every day, so it might be washed weekly or less. Typically, Black women don't need to wash daily as their scalps don't
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This is amazingly helpful, thank you so, so much. I wanted her to have an afro/natural hair because I wanted to portray a character who is, for the most part, satisfied with her looks. (Like any woman, she occasionally worries about weight, but those worries are usually overridden by more important things.) I'm really glad to have this confirmed, and these websites are so helpful. Thank you again!
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When you say African do you mean African as in from Africa or African as in Afro Caribbean and from the West Indies? What is the racial make up of the parents?
What do you mean by an afro hairstyle?
In general the hair would be dry after a shower because you don't get it wet, it takes too long to sort out. She would probably wear a shower cap.
A black woman will have to put grease in her hair to moisturise it. It is likely that she will either have it relaxed, permed or be wearing extensions or a weave. Or she could be wearing a wig.
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Afro as in this: http://www.potomacdist.com/blog/uploaded_images/potterhbpubi4-763593.jpg Is my terminology incorrect? I had looked at the wikipedia page and it seemed right.
I modeled her appearance on Elarica Gallacher, the waitress from the beginning of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Her wikipedia article says she has an African mother and an English father, so that works for me. (I really do not intend to sound officious, I honestly haven't decided on precise racial make-up for any of the characters except the one based on Japanese mythology, and she technically doesn't have parents.)
That is really helpful. What about in the rain? Also what about texture? What would it feel like to run your fingers through it? Thank you so much for answering my questions!
Reply
Reply
As to the question at hand, as ficchica mentioned, "Black" as a descriptor is a very vague word to describe a person: two people could self-ID or be ID'd as Black but be as phenotypically different as night and day. Given the history of white colonialism and the African diaspora, lots of Black people are often "mixed" anyway, even those from Africa. The actress you mentioned could ID as Black, mixed, or both, so it's inappropriate to say she's not Black, unless she does not like to think of herself as such. For simplicity's sake, I'll use "Black" in the general sense as anyone with significant African ancestry.
I wanted to clear up a few things that ficchica said:
Black women, like anyone else, need to cleanse their scalps. Hair that's flat-ironed straight can take a lot of effort and stress on the hair to repress every day, so it might be washed weekly or less. Typically, Black women don't need to wash daily as their scalps don't ( ... )
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Also-I can't wait for NaNo. I *will* write more than a few pages this year!
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