The art of head wrapping comes to South LA Cafe
Community members took part in the centuries-old tradition last Saturday.
By: Jillian Russell
Originally published Feb. 14 to Annenberg Media
Women trickled in and out of South LA Cafe’s doors, ordering drinks at the counter and making conversation with baristas before migrating to the booth in the back of the room. There, they browsed the colorful bundles of fabrics arranged on the table before sitting down in a chair to learn how to wrap the garments themselves. Led by Fatima Dodson of Runway Boutique L.A., the women experimented with a number of intricate twists and knots, leaving at the end with their own custom head wrap.
This was all part of “The Head Wrap & Coffee Meet Up,” a free community event held last Saturday at South LA Cafe. In celebration of Black History Month, cafe owners Joseph and Celia Ward-Wallace collaborated with Dodson to share head wrapping with the South L.A. community.
“Today is about bonding with other women through the art of the head wrap,” Dodson said. “Ideally, I like to partner with small black and brown coffee shops. They tell a story about the beauty of South L.A., [through] the energy, the collaborating and the connection that a coffee house brings to the area.”
Since opening its doors in November, South L.A. Cafe has been host to numerous community events. Celia Ward-Wallace says that she and her husband wanted to open a cafe in South L.A. to help preserve the local culture.
“We wanted it to be somewhere that was really working to fight against cultural erasure, which is happening in South Central right now with all of the changes and gentrification,” Celia Ward-Wallace said.
Dodson’s clothing store, Runway Boutique L.A., has offered shoppers everything from statement pieces to vintage accessories for the last 14 years. The business reflects Dodson’s own personal fashion, which she describes as having elements of care-free, bohemian Brooklyn and Afrocentric style.
Dodson’s mother introduced her to head wraps, inspiring her to share her passion for them with other women in her community and welcome them to love and embrace who they are through their own diverse forms of expression.
Every year, Dodson hosts various workshops and a festival in downtown L.A. called “Head Wraps In The Park,” which creates a safe space for people to learn, engage and celebrate head wrap culture. On Saturday, she gave event attendees a sneak peek of this community outreach through free demonstrations and styles.
Throughout her life, Dodson has embraced and advocated head wrapping. However, the history of head wrapping in America goes back centuries and has its roots in the country’s racist past.
According to an article from Vice, women of color in 18th century New Orleans were required by law to cover their hair with a tignon, or headdress. These laws, known as the Tignon Laws, sought to keep white men from pursuing Creole women in Louisiana.
In response, Creole women began wearing head wraps to conceal their hair in public, but they did not allow this law to reduce their self-expression. To defy the Tignon Laws, women wore brightly colored scarves, fabrics, ribbons and beads while also experimenting with different head wrapping techniques. Eventually, what started as a symbol of oppression transformed into a symbol of their liberation.
In the 1800s, Tignon law ended, but discrimination against natural hair still persists in the majority of states today. It was only in January that California became the first state to pass a law banning discrimination on the basis of one’s natural hair. New York and New Jersey have since followed suit.
This continuing discrimination against natural hair and the history of head wrapping in America is part of what drives Dodson’s passion for head wrapping. In addition to wearing head wraps to express herself, she shares them with other people in order to promote the natural hair movement, for which she is also an advocate.
While the fight against natural hair discrimination in the United States is ongoing, the powerful meaning of the head wrap has persisted. To this day, black women around the country continue to wear head wraps and express themselves through the fashion statement that was originally used as a tool to oppress them. The art of the head wrap and its revolutionary history continue to be shared within the L.A. community and were further explored and celebrated last weekend at South LA Cafe.
“We knew we wanted to create partnerships with people [who] had a lot of goodwill within the community [for] already being for the culture and uplifting the traditions of the African American and Latino folks in the community,” Celia Ward-Wallace said.
Dodson helped attendees choose a head wrap fabric that matched their personality and showed them how to tie and fashion the piece for everyday wear. One of the attendees was Maria Victoria Carriaga, who frequently commutes to L.A. from Anaheim on the Metro. She said she decided to stop by South LA Cafe after seeing the event advertised on Facebook.
“It’s a nice change of image,” said Carriaga, who’s a newcomer to wearing head wraps. After admiring her new look in the mirror, she admitted Dodson’s work boosted her mood. “I will try to wear it many times.”
After women got some tips from Dodson, they sat down with Tielle Greene, an artist who offered face art at the event.
“Be black. Be fearlessly black,” Greene said. “Embrace your actual self and society is going to change around it. It’s not about you being black and can you wear a head wrap, it’s about what head wrap you choose to wear.”
Dodson believes head wrapping is a way to foster a sense of unity and inspire confidence among women.
“It teaches us to embrace our own natural beauty and makes everyone’s eyes light up,” she said. “It just makes you feel like a different person, you’re bringing out another personality you didn’t know you had.”
Correction made Feb. 18, 11:02 a.m.: a previous version of this story incorrectly spelled Celia and Joseph Ward-Wallace’s last name. It has since been corrected.
