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Black hair fashion emphasizes individuality, easy maintenance

Black hair fashion moves toward embracing individuality and easy maintenance

By ALEXA CRENSHAW NEWS@thefacts.com
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Feb 13, 2021
Feb 13, 2021 Updated Feb 18, 2021
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Sula Baye, circa 1983.

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Hairstylist Serrall Ivey specializes in a variety of hairstyles, including silk presses on natural hair with no chemicals, she said.

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Hairstylist Serrall Ivey specializes in a variety of hairstyles, including butterfly locs, she said.

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Hairstylist Serrall Ivey specializes in a variety of hairstyles, including dread retwists, she said.

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Hairstylist Serrall Ivey specializes in a variety of hairstyles, including stitch feed-in braids, she said.

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Hairstylist Serrall Ivey specializes in a variety of hairstyles, including box braids, she said.

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Hairstylist Serrall Ivey specializes in a variety of hairstyles, including dread retwists, she said.

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Hairstylist Serrall Ivey specializes in a variety of hairstyles, including feed-in braids, she said.

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Beth Baye, left, Berniece Green and Ursula Tatum pose January 1985. Ursula Tatum had big permed hair at the time, Sula Baye said.

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Sula Baye in her law school resume photo circa 1973 where she wore well-controlled hair with no “Afro,” she said.

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Sula Baye at her law school graduation in May 1975. The “Afro” was fashionable but not for work, she said.

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Sula Baye is pictured in the early ’60s whIle she was a student at Texas Southern University.

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Sula Baye wears an “office look” here, circa 1978, she said.

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Sula Baye is shown with a “professional hairdo” in a Houston Bar Association photo from 1979.

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Sula Baye, circa 1963, when her hair was most likely done by Lillie Mae Fletcher. If not, it was at least in the same style, she said.

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Ursula Tatum’s current go-to style is called “Kinky Twist Extensions” by her stylist, Shavon Akhan of Glo-on Natural Salon in Chicago.

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Ursula Tatum has worn her hair in many styles, including thermally straightened with curls.

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This is another style Ursula Tatum loves, but requires more work than kinky extension twists, which are very low-maintenance, she said. This style is called a “twist out.”

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Ursula Tatum’s hair here is in its natural state.

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Ursula Tatum's go-to low-maintenance style is called "Kinky Twist Extensions," she said.

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From left: Beth Baye with her sister, Ursula Tatum. Their mom likely did their hair here and spent hours doing it in the kitchen, Tatum said.

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The entrance to Xtreme Hair Studio welcomes customers in Clute on Thursday. Owner Serrall Ivey opened the location in November after closing her location in Brazoria.

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Hairstylist Serrall Ivey in her hair salon, Xtreme Hair Studio in Clute on Thursday. Ivey first began styling hair nearly 16 years ago when she would style the hair on her Barbie dolls.

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Hairstylist Serrall Ivey in her hair salon, Xtreme Hair Studio in Clute on Thursday. Braids are Ivey’s favorite style to do in her salon.

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Hairstylist Serrall Ivey sits in the chair at her hair salon, Xtreme Hair Studio in Clute.

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Jamarcus Higgins sits under the hair dryer at Xtreme Hair Studio in Clute on Thursday. Owner and hairstylist Serrall Ivey added color to Higgins’ dreads.

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C urrent fashions in Black hairstyles include many more options than were offered merely decades ago.

As a young girl in the fifth grade, Xtreme Hair Studio owner Serrall Ivey began her interest in hairstyling after her mother taught her how to braid a Barbie, she said.