A style of braiding hair close to the scalp in straight rows or lines, creating a geometric pattern; a type of hairstyle with braids running parallel across the head.
From 'corn' (referring to rows of corn plants in a field) plus 'row' (line). The hairstyle was named in the mid-20th century because the braids resemble the neat, parallel rows of a planted corn field, particularly visible from above.
Cornrows were documented in African art for thousands of years before getting their English name, yet when white people started wearing them in the 1970s, suddenly the term became mainstream—revealing how naming and recognition of cultural practices often follows colonial patterns!
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