KANSAS CITY, Kan. — While Juneteenth is a cause for celebration, it's also important to reflect on slavery and how enslaved African Americans survived before freedom.
Whether it's loc'd, or two strands or three, braiding styles have always been a part of African American culture.
However, there's a lot more to the story.
"I didn't think I was getting a history lesson," said Joyce White, a Braid Heaven Salon client.
White is one of Shelly Smith's clients who has been rotating in and out of Smith's chair for several years.
On Monday, the conversation was different.
"The origins of it came from the 1700s in Africa with the slave trade," said Smith, co-owner at Braid Heaven Salon. "They used braiding as a form of road maps when they wanted to escape from slavery. That was one of the reasons they started doing cornrows."
It's a painful reflection of what was necessary.
"Identifying the different tribes, knowing who's from what tribe," Smith said. "They used the cornrows to hide food, seeds, rice, so when they got to their destination they could plant and feed themselves."
As a math teacher for 30 years, White says she never heard about the meaning in history books.
"I didn't think it was important back then because it looked like they never really did anything with it, but it was important," White said.
Smith, who has roots in the South American country of Guyana, has been a part of the evolution of braided styles by creating a new technique, "bubble braids," with her four sisters at Braid Heaven.
"Each one, teach one," she said. "What they knew they shared with us, what we know we share with the next generation."
The saying goes: "We are our ancestors' wildest dreams."
"Be grateful for what we have and pay homage to them and acknowledge where this came from," Smith said. "It's not only a hairstyle, it's our culture."
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