The power of the Afro pick

You don't really look
at a toothbrush and say,

I'm great, but we look at a afro pick,

which is a grooming tool,

it can remind you in your
subconscious to, like,

really be proud and, like, all right.

(upbeat music)

An afro pick is a utilitarian tool

used to maintain the afro hairstyle.

I think the afro pick was designed

for the ergonomics of creating something

that felt like you were running
fingers through your hair.

The shape, even the depth that it goes in,

it's like a hand.

You have plastic or nylon teeth,

and then you have the stainless
steel, the nickel teeth.

I always prefer the metal tooth

just 'cause I like the sound,

and the ones I know have
the black power fist

on the handle.

When I think of black hair in America,

I think of something that's been policed.

Back in the days, it was
expected for black people

to chemically treat their hair.

Whether that's healthy for
them is a secondary thing

to blending in.

In the 50s, dancer Ruth Beckford
and a lot of jazz singers

were tired of straightening their hair,

so they said that, all right,

we're gonna just let it grow naturally,

and started rocking
natural, close-cropped hair.

And in the 60s, that style evolved

with the formation of the afro,

which was the cropped
hair, natural, picked out

into a more spherical shape.

You had civil rights leaders, activists,

that adopted the hairstyle
as a means of rebellion

and black pride,

and then you had musicians
like James Brown,

who's infamously known

for chemically straightening his hair

reject that and go natural.

It went hand-in-hand with his music,

so he had songs like

"Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud."

The black is beautiful movement

is just rejecting the
notion now to be black

or to have darker skin, to
have a curlier grade of hair,

was something to be ashamed of.

I have one of my favorite
pictures of my mother

and my grandmother,

and my grandmother had a small 'fro,

and that was in the 60s.

African hair combs date back to 3500 BCE.

The oldest African combs are found

in ancient Egypt and Sudan,

so they were making pyramids and combs.

The way the ancient African
combs were embellished

represented status or tribal affiliation.

It's no coincidence that the fist

on the modern afro pick

also sets the tone for affiliation

and what set you claim.

And then there's the black power movement.

Most movements need their icons, right?

You have the fist, you have the 'fro.

These things coincide with
the Black Panther aesthetic,

where you could kinda
spot your tribe from afar.

Because you're not just
keeping a pick in, like,

your beauty kit.

It's, like, it's in your back pocket,

purposely with the first
outside of it alls,

and your hair, you'll
rock it in your 'fro.

If I think about iconic afros,

I definitely think about Angela Davis.

Her 'fro personifies elegant style,

freedom, rebellion.

You feel all of these feelings at once

when you see Angela Davis
fighting for her life

in federal court.

By the 80s, the afro
style became less radical.

The afro picks are still
produced to this day

with the clenched fist,

so it's the remnants of the movement

in the everyday object.

When I was young, it was
just, like, another object.

It was a comb.

But as I became more enlightened

to really understand, like,
the roots and the origin

and the intentionality of the design

and why the fist and all of these things,

I woke up.

(upbeat music)