The power of the Afro pick

The Afro pick is much more than a styling tool. It's a major player in Black history, explains artist Jon Gray.

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

"I'm great!"

But when you look at an Afro pick,
which is a grooming tool,

it can remind you in your
subconscious to, like,

really be proud and, like, "All right."

[Small thing.]

[Big idea.]

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 or 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, all right,
we're going to 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 was 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
that 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 kind of
spot your tribe from afar,

because you're not just keeping
a pick in, like, your beauty kit.

It's in your back pocket,

purposely with the first
outside of it,

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

If I think about iconic Afros,

I definitely think about Angela Davis.

Her 'fro personifies elegance, 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
the roots and the origin

and the intentionality of the design

and why the fist
and all of these things ...

I woke up.