The Homescape - explored through highlighting the sequences, routines and nostalgia of gestures and the emotive repercussions these evoke. I focused on the procession of black hair care. Starting by evaluating the act of getting my hair braided.

Remove- Detangle-Wash-Blow dry- Pull-Part- Separate-Interlink-Knot-Braid-Braid-Dip

In this method of breaking down processes into verbs, the act begins to be seen as a language. When positioned in the landscape of my home, more aptly, a love language and form of affection for kin and for self. 

Touch – Cradle – Caress – Soothe- Wrap

The end of the braiding procession brings us to the word, Wrap and the repetitive nature of wrapping my hair within a scarf as part of my night-time routine. Wrapping hair protects and extends hairstyles, retains natural oils, prevents breakage, and provides comfort when sleeping. Similar to the feeling shared by most women of getting home and releasing the clasps of a bra to signify the end of the day and respite from the outside world. The putting on of a silk headscarf signals a time to take sanctuary. It becomes a ritual – a set sequence conducted to a divine order. 

Commodification of the divine order.

Emulation, appropriation, or appreciation? A thin veil.

Silk head scarves, bonnets, a pair of tights or an old t-shirt - Black women get creative when it comes to hair and beauty. Born out of a culture of being resourceful and making do, as well as having to cater for oneself in a world that catered for everyone but us. From time to time but us is subjected to watching a ‘new’ trend play out that repackages and claims to have invented cultural traditions that have existed for centuries.

 A recent discovery, as described by many news articles at the time was the silk bonnet of 2021 in popular reality tv show Love Island worn by black contestant Kaz Kamwi every night to bed. It was first met with confusion with many referring to it as a chef’s hat, then curiosity before being snapped up all over socials as a new wonder product for protecting your hair overnight.

In the introduction of The Black Culture Industry, Ellis Cashmore (1997) writes the following: practices and pursuits have been domesticated, leaving a Black culture capable of being adapted, refined, mass-produced, and marketed

The hair shop.

Carly Lewis-Oduntan wrote for Stylist magazine:

the only place we can rely on to provide the products and cosmetics made for us that have yet to touch the shelves of the UK’s mainstream retailers Is in fact dominated by South Asian businessmen with industry knowledge and a network of connections that fiercely keeps other competitors out. A phenomenon that has become inexplicable in terms of when this began to occur but capitalises off the fact that black women account for 80% of hair product sales in the UK. 

Methodology

The project responds to the aggressive commodification of blackness and the ownership of black spaces through the ritual of a night-time headscarf, the adoption of the ritual in society and finally the distribution of the ritual to the masses. Through filming the ceremonious night-time routine, frames can be obtained and further used to create lenticular prints, in this case thought of as a live GIF, representing the uptake and remodelling of traditions in popular culture through social media. The frames lastly would be printed onto a silk scarf in an act of commodifying and distributing the ritual, pushing the extent to which content can be used from the original film.