Three YouTube Tutorial Videos About Fulani Braids (with selected viewer comments)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part IV in a four part pancocojams series that provides information about African originated or African inspired braided hairstyles for females.

This post presents excerpts from several online articles about Black females' braided hairstyles that are inspired by Fulani and/or other African culture. Selected comments from one of these articles are also included in this post.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/02/five-youtube-examples-of-african.html for Part I of this series. Part I includes my transcription Of a November 1979 Ebony Magazine article about the emerging popularity among African American adults of unadorned braids or braids with beads. Part I also showcase several videos of African American performing artists wearing their hair in braids with beads, cowrie shells, and/or other ornaments.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/02/more-examples-of-fulani-african-female.html for Part II of this series. Part II presents excerpts from several online articles about Fulani (African) culture and showcases videos about Fulani culture with special focus on Fulani females' beaded hairstyles. The Addendum to that post showcases a video of Nigerian Afrobeats singer Yemi Alade wearing her hair in one of the traditional Fulani hairstyles for women.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/02/excerpts-from-several-online-articles.html for Part III of this series. Part III presents excerpts from several online articles about Black females' braided hairstyles that are inspired by Fulani and/or other African culture. Selected comments from one of these articles are also included in this post.

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The content of this post is presented for cultural and tutorial purposes.

All copy rights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all of those whose tutorials are featured in this post and thanks to all those who quoted in this post.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
The term "Fulani braids" that has been used since around 2016 in the United States and probably elsewhere refers to a number of different braided hairstyles for Black females that have beads and/or other ornaments added to the braids. These hairstyles are said to be inspired by the Fulani ethnic group of West Africa and the Sahel.*

As used in the United States, "Fulani braids" hairstyles are said to be inspired by traditional Fulani hairstyles for females, but aren't necessarily the same as those traditional hairstyles. One significant difference is that traditional Fulani braids are much shorter than the length of braids in the United States.

These braided with beads hairstyles have sometimes also been referred to as "Alicia Keys braids", after the African American R&B/Soul singer and pianist who popularized that hairstyle in the video of her 2001 hit record "Fallin'". However, hairstyles that are braided with or without beads, cowrie shells, and/or other ornaments has long been a custom for Black girls in the United States and throughout much of the world. Furthermore, a few African American performing artists have worn long braids with beads since the mid 1970s.
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*"The Sahel part of Africa includes (from west to east) parts of northern Senegal, southern Mauritania, central Mali, northern Burkina Faso, the extreme south of Algeria, Niger, the extreme north of Nigeria, central Chad, central and southern Sudan, the extreme north of South Sudan, Eritrea, Cameroon, Central African Republic and extreme north of Ethiopia.

Historically, the western part of the Sahel was sometimes known as the Sudan region.[5] This belt was roughly located between the Sahara and the coastal areas of West Africa." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahel

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SHOWCASE YOUTUBE EXAMPLES
These showcased tutorial videos were selected relatively at random from a number of other similar tutorials.

These videos and most of the other Black hair care/hair styling tutorial YouTube videos that I've viewed are from the United States.

Notice that "Fulani braids" is a collective term for different types of braided hairstyles with beads and/or other ornaments.

Example #1: Yemi Alade inspired detailed hair tutorial. #3/5 Fulani ***Must See ! ***



Hair By Habiba, Published on Sep 15, 2016

BLOG: http://www.habibatunaumd.com/

I am so excited to share this video with you inspired by Yemi Alade and her music video "Ferrari". This hairstyle is also inspired by the Fulani people of Africa found through out west and Central Africa. In fact most of them live in Northern Nigeria where my father is from. As a child most Hausa girls had Fulani outfits and I was no exception. I remember dancing on stage with other girls dressed up as Fulani milk maids. Often Fulani women wear beads, cowry shells or even silver coins in their hair.

I love Yemi Alade, her Afro pop music and her style. Clearly her music has crossed over to not only Nigerian's but to other African countries and to the world! If you don't know her music you are missing out! check her out.
Also I want to thank my beautiful daughter Mariam ( age 14) for being such a sport as my hair model. Thanks for indulging me (-:

This is #3 of 5 videos that I plan to make inspired by Yemi Alade. Make sure you check out the rest. Also find me on Face book, Twitter & Instagram. Links above. xoxo-Habiba
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Here's information about "Hair By Habiba" from the "about me" page of her blog:
"I am an American doctor and graduate of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York where I was an independent theater major with a premedicine concentration. I obtained my medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina and completed my residency at New York-Presbyterian / Lower Manhattan Hospital (formerly NYU Downtown Hospital). After working at a traditional group practice in upstate New York, I established a private solo practice in North Carolina for the past ten years.

I was born in London, England, and lived my formative years in Nigeria, West Africa prior to immigrating to the United States at the age of 15. I am of West Indian and Nigerian descent. I currently live in North Carolina with my husband of twenty-two years and three children."... http://www.habibatunaumd.com/about-me/
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Nigerian Afrobeats singer Yemi Alade wore this traditional Fulani female hairstyle in the video for her song "Ferrari". That video is included in Part II of this pancocojams series.

Here are selected comments from this tutorial video's discussion thread (I've numbered these comments for referencing purposes only).

1. n M, 2016
"You represent my people well. Thank you beautiful"

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2. Lolo tianamsh, 2016
"what is your ethnicity and nationality"

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REPLY
3. Hair By Habiba
"I am an American whose father is Nigerian & mother is Jamaican. I consider myself multicultural and simply Black"

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4. Abdoul Barry, 2017
"Hair By Habiba
God bless u sister
I am fulani from Guinea Fouta jallon"

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5. KeeNa Makiba, 2017
"How would someone with 4C or 4B hair achieve be this look with not having long hair like ur daughter?"

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REPLY
6. Hair By Habiba, 2017
"Just use some kinky textured extensions or even Marley hair ! Hope this helps 😀"

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REPLY
7. KeeNa Makiba, 2017
"Hair By Habiba
Ok thank u very much ..I have very short hair and I love this video very much very helpful ..I'm going to try this style for a concert...I'm just starting out natural hair style..so this style will be my first!"
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These comments document the way that some Black people are reclaiming the word "kinky" which once was (and often still is) considered a very negative descriptor of [a lot of] Black people's hair type (texture). "Kinky" means "full of tight curls" (In my opinion, tightly curled is probably a more socially acceptable way for people-especially non-Black people - to refer to this hair type. 4b and 4c are the most tightly coiled (curled) hair. Note that people (like me) can have more than one type of hair in different parts of their head. For instance, some strands of my hair in the front and the sides are relatively straight and the rest of my hair is tightly curled. So maybe my hair types are 3b or 4a and 4b. By he way, I didn't know about my hair texture (We used to call it "grade of hair") until I began wearing my hair naturally (in an Afro) when I was 17 years old.

I think the hair type of the girl in this video has 3a or 3b or 3c hair.

Click https://www.curlcentric.com/hair-typing-system/ and http://www.curlynikki.com/2012/08/decoding-hair-texture-hair-typing.html for two articles about hair typing systems.

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"Marley Hair" is a specific brand of fake hair that is sold for extensions (weaves).

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Example #2: FULANI BRAIDS & BEADS WITH BOX BRAIDS || DETAILED TUTORIAL



LavishlyBritt, Published on Jul 31, 2017
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Here are selected comments from this tutorial video's discussion thread (I've numbered these comments for referencing purposes only).
1. AnneEsther, 2017
"what is fulani braid"

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REPLY
2. margine louis, 2017
"a braiding style originating from the fulani people who live in west africa"

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3. silkyturtles, 2017
"An underhand braid is when you cross the strands underneath each other (ie. dutch braid, cornrows) whereas an overhand braid is where you cross the strands over each other (i.e. a french braid)! So in this video you just did underhand braids the whole time. hope that helps !"

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4. hauwa bashir, 2017
"this trend is actually my cultural braid"

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5. Shamicka White, 2017
"Shout out to you for being self sufficient, and saving yourself $250 ✊🏾👏🏾🙌🏾"
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"Shout out" here means "Congratualtions"

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6. Michelle Asonye, 2018
"Is this hair heavy? Bc I will be running track and I don't want hair holding me back."

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REPLY
7. LavishlyBritt, 2018
"No. It wasn’t heavy to me. I ran track so I definitely understand not wanting something heavy. If you can wear box braids and Senegalese twist with no problem then these should be no different"

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8. Ali Umar, 2017
"Fulani"

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9. Ali Umar, 2017
"Also you look like people in westafrica"

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10. JasMarlena1, 2017
"You are BEAUTIFUL! You look like a queen! Your natural hair looks very healthy too❤"

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11. Beautifully Eboni, 2017
"Is it weird that parting my hair is the ONLY issue I have with braiding my own hair. I can't part did my life. It'll start good but then I'll loose it"

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REPLY
12. Thought So, 2017
"Eboni Pride that's my problem with any style lol, I can do Bantu knots, braids, twists, you name it! Ask me to part? It's over"

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REPLY
13. Nicole Raheem, 2018
"Beautifully Eboni Use Two Tall Mirrors, one placed in front of you, one placed in the back and
one small mirror to check what you're doing effortlessly"

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14. Aguibou jalloh, 2018
"Oh my black African queen your too much i love your so much your hairstyles is number one beby you are too beautiful i am fulani boy from guinea live in Germany i really love fulani girls"

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Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46A9wt5X2-w for an August 7, 2017video by LavishlyBritt .Here's an excerpt from the summary for that video: "Here is a video that shows 7 different ways to style fulani braids to make the style a little more fun. I know us girls, love to switch up our hair a lot somtimes. So here is my way to spice up thr newest trending hairstyle. demonstrates different styles."

Notice that this blogger refers to "Fulani braids" as "the newest trending hairstyle". Undoubtedly, that blogger meant that this hairstyle was the newest trend in the United States, and not among Fulani people in Africa. And even in the United States, all versions of "Fulani braid" hairstyles aren't that new in the United States, since long braids (made with hair "extensions") with beads or cowrie shells were worn by African American performers such as Patrice Rushen, Hazel Payne, and Stevie Wonder in the mid 1970s and 1980s.

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This concludes this pancocojams series.

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