Natural Hair and Hairstyles for Men: The Creative Cornrow Styles of Allen Iverson

Allen Iverson, the basketball genius, has not only stood out for his natural basketball talent but also for his peculiar hairstyles and, specially so, his cornrows and the way he has creatively braided them. But, why am I picking on Mr. Iverson himself to be featured in my blog on natural black men's hairstyles? Because the man himself has shown us that the hairstyles of our ancestors can still be used till this day with gusto and pride.

We all know how our African sisters love their puffy afros, their twists, their Bantu knots and their braids, yet it's rare to see a modern black male wearing the same hairstyles that our forefathers wore in our African homeland and that we males of the African diaspora should be paying more attention to and carrying with pride. As much of a controversial figure he may have been, Allen Iverson put cornrows back in the spotlight in the 1990s, and that itself helped to popularize the hairstyle among those of us who, could perhaps be argued, carry the essence of what this hairstyle conveys in our blood.

The braiding process of cornrows is indeed ellaborate, but the actual mechanical process is not the limiting factor when it comes to braiding a good-looking set of cornrow tracks; it's, in fact, the mind that is the limiting factor when it comes to cornrow braiding and designing. The tracks and rows in the cornrows hairstyle can be angled, straight, circular or asymmetric; it's almost as though you could paint a Picasso on the head of a brother or apply mathematical formulas to come up with out-of-this-world shapes and designs! And one of the most creative cornrows I've seen in my young-adult years has been on the head of Allen Iverson; just for that I believe he deserves being featured in this humble blog of yours truly so as to give you brothers and sisters (and all people of this world!) more natural hair inspiration :-)