Guan Li, a traditional coming-of-age ceremony for the Han Chinese people, marked the transition into adulthood, and into the age where they could no longer cut their hair. This is in accordance with the Confucian teaching that one should not damage their body, skin, or hair, because it is received from one’s parents. Once a young man had reached adulthood, he was obligated to tie his hair into a bun and cover it with a headdress. Hanfu headdresses came in various styles and materials, such as jade, gold, and silk, among others. Different levels of detail could indicate the wearer’s social status and wealth. While women did not have the same obligation to cover their hair, they commonly wore Hanfu hairpins which played an important role in Chinese marital customs. For instance, when a woman was engaged, she would provide her fiancé with her own hairpin, which he would return to her after marriage.
The origins of the African headwrap can be traced back to the early 1700s, when women in sub-Saharan Africa would wear them to protect their heads from sunlight. African women typically wrapped and tied a rectangular piece of cloth atop their head, tucking it in on the sides, resembling a turban. These headwraps served as a sign of respect. On the other side of the Atlantic however, headwraps took on a different connotation. As slavery became entrenched in the United States, various places passed Black Codes, some of which required Black women to wear headwraps as a symbol of subservience. Different styles of headwraps conveyed the relative social statuses of enslaved women. Women working in fields wore different styles than those who worked as house servants.
After slavery was abolished, headwraps were temporarily abandoned by Black women in the United States, as they came to be associated with the mammy stereotype, a caricature of Black women. Instead, many switched to more European-style hats, especially on festive occasions. However, in the 1990s and 2000s, headwraps increased in popularity due to singers like Erykah Badu, who, during this time, celebrated Black womanhood by proudly wearing headwraps to pay homage to their cultural roots. Today, Black women in the United States wear headwraps to express pride in their heritage as well as a practical and fashionable protective hairstyle.