Conk no more!!

[arrr&bee]

Hey gang,this is something i've wondered about from time to time and it's about the[process]or[conk]as it was referred to back in the day,now i'm not talking about the racial aspects[lack of black pride]because the process i think was more of a style thing for those who wore them and alot of guys in the hood had a doo back in the day,now i'm speaking of singers and thier reasons for going[natural]before it was the right thing to do with thier hair in other words before[1965]i read where[jerry butler stated that someone spoke to him about[conking]and afterwards he stopped]so has anything ever been writen in an interview from any of the following artist about why they stopped[conking]...eddie kendricks-paul williams-sam cook-marvin gaye-curtis mayfield-ronnie white..of course i know that it could have been for finacial reasons[too expensive]or health[bad for the hair ]which it was...i'm just curious anything written??

[Kamasu_Jr]

Some of those brothers were from Chicago where Malcolm X and the muslims were often rolling and they were most likely influenced by Malcolm and others to stop conking their hair. Sam Cooke, Jerry Butler and Curtis Mayfield were smart, intellectual brothers who read all of the time. Most likely they picked up on the black pride thing early on. Same with the Detroit brothers, it was probably someone telling them to get rid of the conks. My dad had a conk at the age of 11 in 1965 [[...God Y'all are old!...) And his teacher gave him hell about his hair until he got it cut off.
There was some pressure to adopt racial pride.

[soulster]

But, once people in the late 70s felt that we had achieved some parity to whites, they went back to it. It stayed popular until the gangsta rap era began.

[marv2]

As a little kid sitting in the barber shop in Detroit and Toledo in 1963-65, I can remember all of the cool older dudes getting their processes done and walking out with do rags wrapped around their heads. I can remember this vividly because some of them made painful noises as they were in the chair, head back in the sink because of the burning sensation some experienced. The first famous person I heard about cutting off his conk and going natural for black pride reasons was Sam Cooke. He was given credit for it, but I am not sure if he was the absolute first one. This had to be before 1964 for obvious reasons.


To some extent, Soulster is right. The "natural" aka "afro" endured as a style through the end of the '70's I remember I had a huge Sylvers afro in the mid 70's and by late '78-'79 began trimming it down. In 1980 I cut it all off and just had a caesar type haircut for that year, but by 1981 guess what? Ta Da! The Gherri was the thing and I got my first Gherri curl LOL!!!! For me the Gherri curl thing only lasted until about late 1983 when other styles became popular and by the mid 80's it was the high top "Philly Fade". I've had every haircut that was popular from the sixties to now basically LOL!

I guess it all boiled down to at first the way we wore our hair was a political statement that simply became whatever was popular and in style.

[gary]

Nat King Cole and Duke Ellington kept their processes, but they were from a different era by the time the Black Pride movement started to happen. Let's not even mention Barry White.

James Brown got rid of his pompadour around the time "Say It Loud" was released, but he reverted back to it in the 80s. What does that tell you?

I still gag when I remember the scent of that gawd-awful, stale-smelling gherri curl juice. I always thought those people who wore unkempt jherri curls looked like a bunch of idiots with all that greasy s*** dripping off their heads, but those who managed to keep their jherris looking fresh were quite stylish in a certain way. I guess.

[soulster]

As a little kid in 1965-1967, I don't recall any man getting their hair straightened. I grew up in the military, so that may be why. I never even heard of a man getting his hair straightened. That was for women.

When I was in my early 20s, in the 80s, once in 1982, and once in 1986, I got a jherri curl, and my hair went down to my shoulders. I didn't yet have facial hair, and my sister said I looked prettier than she did, but only because I had a baby face. But, the second time I did it, I met this girl I liked a lot, but she didn't like it, and by the mid-80s, the macho thing was back in, and people started thinking I was gay, so I got rid of it, never to do it again. Besides, I HATED having to put that damn moisturizer spray in my hair. It was oily.

Today, I wear my hair cut very, very short, almost bald. but, I gotta shave or else i'll break out with ingrown hairs bad. I miss wearing a beard.

[Kamasu_Jr]

Nat King Cole and Duke Ellington kept their processes, but they were from a different era by the time the Black Pride movement started to happen. Let's not even mention Barry White.

James Brown got rid of his pompadour around the time "Say It Loud" was released, but he reverted back to it in the 80s. What does that tell you?

I still gag when I remember the scent of that gawd-awful, stale-smelling gherri curl juice. I always thought those people who wore unkempt jherri curls looked like a bunch of idiots with all that greasy s*** dripping off their heads, but those who managed to keep their jherris looking fresh were quite stylish in a certain way. I guess.

Funny, but I can't imagine Nat King Cole with an afro. There were some brothers who should have always wore conks. He was one of them in my opinion. James Brown did make a big statement when he got rid of his conk. I've seen an article or advertisement in Jet that reported on James going natural. But of course, he went back to his perm. The Jherri curl was worn by many southern men into the late 1980s and early 1990s. People had to shame them out of wearing them.

[splanky]

Jai, I'm sure there have been mentions in print of many as to why they both started and stopped conking their hair but for the specific artists you named who are all gone from us, finding it is not an easy task for me right now...
@soulster it has occured to me from time to time that there is a quite a bit of the average experince
of black people in America that you have not been witness to...That's not a criticism; just a fact Ill
have to keep in mind when reading your postings...Anyway, when I was growing up we had a number of family friends and relatives who wore processes, right up to and some even through the
black power 70's. When I was finally given freedom over my own hair by my father, though I never
conked I did use the blow out kits popular at the time. Otherwise I wore a regular 'fro or wore my
hair braided. I never did do the Jheri Curl thing though I dated a girl who did. That was a style I felt
more suited to women but I didn't ridicule my cousin/running buddy when he got his Jheri....Afros
and braids are not back in style in many places and I love that....Actually conking never seemed
as odd to me as all of these people running around in big blonde wigs and weaves...

[soulster]

Splanky, never assume anything!

A lot simply depends on where one grew up, and you must remember that each area of the country was different. It's not always about the "Black Experience", it's about your location. I did most of my growing up in the southwest, and a little in east Texas.

As I pointed out, until the late 70s, I knew of no man who conked or permed his hair. That was about the environment I grew up in, which was the military world in the 60s and 70s. Black soldiers and officers all around me, but it just did not happen. Remember that the U.S. army from the 70s to the 90s was filled with Black people, so the idea of me allegedly not experiencing the Black experience is silly. For my father, in particular, a southern man, the was about being a man. Women went to beauty salons or did their hair at home, and men [[outside of the entertainment biz, of course) wore "naturals". From 1972, up to 1982, I wore an afro. No guy in school wore braided or permed hair.

I remember those Afro Sheen Blow-Out kits. I never used one. My mom used to braid my hair at night, and I would unbraid it in the morning before school, and use a pick for my "blow-out". When I lived in the south during part of the 70s, no man I ever saw conked his hair. College in the early 80s? Again, no perms. At that time, a lot of brothers were adopting the Muslum faith too. Again, this was outside of the entertainment business. When I went to L.A. in the 80s, it was a different world.

[gary]

Interesting observations, Soulster. It's funny how men's hairstyles varied in different parts of the country. When the Super Fly fad started in the early 70s, it seemed like every other brother in Detroit was getting his hair permed so he could look like Ron O'Neal, wide brimmed hats, long coats and all. Corn rows were also very popular around here in the 70s and of course the jherri curl look was all over town in the 80s. I always figured the same hairstyles were common all over the country, but I guess not.

[soulster]

That's the thing, Gary: the Black experience is never the same everywhere. We are just as varied as anyone else. And, of course, there is perception. In the 80s, I thought the jherri curl for men was mostly a west coast thing. Back in '72, when Superfly came out, no one I ever saw was perming their hair. It was all about the "natural".

[marv2]

Interesting observations, Soulster. It's funny how men's hairstyles varied in different parts of the country. When the Super Fly fad started in the early 70s, it seemed like every other brother in Detroit was getting his hair permed so he could look like Ron O'Neal, wide brimmed hats, long coats and all. Corn rows were also very popular around here in the 70s and of course the jherri curl look was all over town in the 80s. I always figured the same hairstyles were common all over the country, but I guess not.

Yes I remember that very well. My girlfriend use to braid my hair every other day before basketball practice. Sometimes we would wear them for a couple of days, but usually we combed them out the very next day. Back then corn rows/braids were used to enhance your Fro! LOL!

[tamla617]

i remember some of my mates [[in the royal airforce) used to buy afrosheen [[i think thats what it was)along with pitch fork like combs and something with ebony in the name or it could have been a magazine from the bx at upper heyford , USAF base [[ in oxford,england )we used to go there at least a couple of times a month.the music played was like no other place around.the latest sounds from the US and before the shops here in the uk that sold imports ,could get them.1971-82 ish

[soulster]

Yes I remember that very well. My girlfriend use to braid my hair every other day before basketball practice. Sometimes we would wear them for a couple of days, but usually we combed them out the very next day. Back then corn rows/braids were used to enhance your Fro! LOL!

Exactly! Once in a while, i'd miss a couple of them while getting ready for school, and forget to take my pick with me.