The Afro pick is a utilitarian tool designed to make it feel as if you have fingers running through your hair. The Afro pick comes in many shapes and sizes and can vary from plastic to nylon to steel teeth.
Black hair in America has always been policed. From being viewed as nappy and untamed, Black hair has quite a low acceptance rate when it comes to professional settings and societal views as to what is considered standardly beautiful. Owing to the fact that their entire being, from their hair to their skin color incessantly was underappreciated, many Black Americans felt pressured to alter the state of their natural hair.
While many felt and acted on that pressure, there were some that looked at the state of their natural hair as a revolution. In the '50s, Black influencers, such as female jazz singers, realized that they didn’t want to succumb to American beauty standards any longer and started wearing their hair natural and in a ‘cropped’ cut. Once the '60s rolled around, that cropped cut evolved into what we now know as an Afro. The difference between the two is that while the cropped cut was natural, it was more tamed—whereas the Afro is a more spherical shape indicative of one of the many states of natural Black hair.
In the '60s leading into the '70s, Black Civil Rights leaders, activists and even artists began to wear their hair in this state as a way to divulge their rebellion—rejecting the notion that Black hair and Black characteristics were something to hide or be ashamed of. Other than being a statement piece to the testament that Black is Beautiful—in every aspect from the variety of skin tones to hair textures, the Afro signifies a movement, a community.
Now having a new definition to being a statement piece, the Afro pick has inspired a group of new-age men with an understanding of the Afro pick’s historical urbanity and a goal to enlighten the hair space community of the essence of the Afro pick—whether whoever fills that space is Black, Asian, White, Latino—you name it.
Founders of AfroPick—a custom design company that tells the stories that need to be told through customized Afro picks, Shaquille Walker, Gemille Walker and Zarrius Walker are all frequent users of an Afro pick and one day realized that they all had something in common. Not one of them had a pick lacking design. “The more we talked about it, the more we realized that the pick was much more than a fashion accessory, it is a cultural tool,” says Gemille Walker. “It is a marriage between art and culture.”
AfroPick is comprised of storytelling picks that are painted, designed and curated by a plethora of artists from around the world that all share a common mission with AfroPick’s founders—allowing people to wear their identity and share their individuality by using this tool. These picks come in an array of styles, shapes, sizes, and of course, colors—just like we all do. “We are all individuals. We all have our own mission and stories to tell,” says Gemille. “Using the afro pick as a canvas for that has turned out to be a beautiful way to push our mission.”
Looked at as a hypothetical, dying form of art, the Walkers wanted to revive the utility of the afro pick. Realizing that although times have changed and fashion statements may have changed—the essence of Black hair has not. To influence people with thick, curly, or coily hair, there was a niche for getting people to use a product that not only was effective for their hair but also made people want to use and represent the product beyond functionality. Whether it is the artistic value, the historic representation or the message behind the brand, AfroPick is a human experience that offers people of color a space to find community.
Product: AfroPick
Photographer: Sabrina Jasmin Hammoudeh
Models: Markevous Humphrey, Kimberly Dawkins, Claire Moore
Hair Stylist: Claire Johnson
Makeup Artist: Jordan Davis
Wardrobe Stylist: Karysma Hicks
Wardrobe: Goldmine Vintage, Denisa Ciubotaru of My Trinket Home