Talk:Conk

"ot" should be "to", therefore I will correct it. I hope that is not consider "vandalism."

Of course it isn't vandalism, thank you for contributing. Please feel free to keep on improving the encyclopedia. --Kuzaar^-T-C- 15:26, 5 July 2006 (UTC)Reply

--68.37.9.246 10:05, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[[[[== i have a question what does a conk look like? aimee brown ==]]]]Reply

The conk is a hairstyle that Byron Watson got in the book "The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963"

Charles Wrangel does not conk his hair---many African Americans have naturally thin, straight hair and don't use chemicals to relax it. Al Sharpton, on the other hand, does conk his hair (an easy way to tell is to notice the curlier, unrelaxed new growth around the edges). Kemet 21:02, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

The word conk is derived from Congo. "Conked" hair is hair that has been straightened with congolene, a hydrocarbon produced from Congo copal and used to straighten hair. Africans may have invented the conking of hair. Conking is commonly known as processing or process.

HeyYallYo 16:00, 16 November 2007 (UTC)Reply

Practically every Negro barbershop in the United States in the 1950s employed one or more barbers as a "tonsorial artist" who could conk hair. There was nothing hidden, rare, or cryptic about the practice, which was exceedingly common and obvious. There were various styles and patterns of conked hair. A wavy pattern was called a "marcel." HeyYallYo (talk) 03:40, 22 November 2007 (UTC)Reply

The Marcels was a quartet of singers that was named after that wavy style of processing. They appeared on American Bandstand from Philadelphia about 1961. HeyYallYo (talk) 05:20, 22 November 2007 (UTC)Reply

A conk may also be a shelf-like, typically hardened basidiocarp of a wood decaying fungus, usually a polypore. 97.115.13.144 (talk) 16:32, 14 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

I am moving this material here, where it can stay until proper citations can be found to support it, per WP:V, WP:NOR, WP:IRS, WP:CS, et al. Nightscream (talk) 04:14, 10 May 2017 (UTC)Reply

From the Lead

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While not involving the use of chemical relaxers, the "wave" style, commonly worn by young African-American men and teens in the 2000s may be considered to be a new version of the conk, in that the natural hair is waved through use of pomades and pressing flattened curls [formed] into place using a do rag.

From the Culture section

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In the African American Community of the early 20th century, the conk hairstyle served as a rite of passage from adolescence into adulthood for males. Because of the pain involved in the process, and the possibility of chemical burns and permanent scarring, the conk represented masculinity and virility within the community.

Many African American studies scholars, and Malcolm X, a conk enthusiast in his youth, have held that the conk represents a darker motif of the African American community as well: the degradation of self in favor of "white" traits. The notion that a straighter hair is superior, and the lengths African Americans went through to attain it, elucidates an issue that was endemic as the black community struggled to gain a foothold in mainstream America.

Many, if not most, Afro-American women straighten their hair now in the 21st century, as well as for at least the latter part of the 20th century. Discussion of this should be part of the article. ---Dagme (talk) 02:16, 27 November 2020 (UTC)Reply

I added a section title 'History' to give the article a more obvious brief introduction and improve the layout. History might not be the best phrase, so if anyone has a better idea, please change it. Stub Mandrel (talk) 20:20, 30 July 2021 (UTC)Reply