- Home
- Business & Marketing (833)
- Editorials (671)
- Entertainment (2033)
- Fashion (1032)
- Highbrid (189)
- Honeys (2876)
- Humor (948)
- Music (5222)
- Need to Know (2224)
- News (2076)
- Podcasts (4)
- ARCHIVE
Monday, July 11, 2011 | 6:59am
Highbrid Nation Remembers the Life & Legacy of BRAIDS & JERSEYS
“Remember back in the days when I was young I’m not a kid anymore but some days I sit and wish I was a kid again”
#Cornrows #throwbacks
There’s something uniquely interesting an ironic about this question. If you think about it, it was an individual that wore a jersey religiously who made jerseys and then their throwback counterparts so popular. Mr. Allen Iverson. If you recall when A.I. first came in the league he was as these natural chicks call it that awkward phase. He had grown out the doobie beyond the fade or dark Caesar and it wasn’t yet quite an afro. In fact he han’t yet sought the refuge of cornrows when he famously double crossed MJ in one of the now most wonderfully disrespectful showings of a neophyte one-on-one against a heralded veteran.
But it was the hair and the many braided styles that A.I. wore that would later characterize him and to some extent give him a bad wrap. Despite being of a Georgetown education, Iverson was misunderstood labeled a “bad guy” and uncooperative despite leaving his heart on the floor every night. His unorthodox trend would spread across the league to the college ranks and directly into the throngs of Hip Hop culture. If you didn’t rock braids, you had to try extra hard to be cool.
On the flip side the Jersey wasn’t quite as controversial a trend. Since the early days of the New York Yankees “Murderers Row”, (now noted as the first athletes to wear numbers on the back of their shirts to identify their spot in the batting order hence Babe Ruth’s #3) team jerseys have been the ultimate sign of fan solidarity. But Hip Hop didn’t care about it was all about vanity and who could rock the rarest, most colorful jersey and find the sneakers to match it (which would give rise to the sneaker craze but that’s another post.) When modern jersey’s couldn’t satisify their thirst for jersey excellence they went digging in the crates giving rise to the throwbacks.
But like all fads…these two would run their course and fade away. While you’ll still see players in the NBA with braids or the occasionally Lou Alcindor Power Memorial Jersey on 125th Street in Harlem, their not what they used to be. Players like Carmelo Anthony and A.I. cut off the locks realizing their earning potentials in endorsements were hampered by their “rebellious” hairstyles opting for the Caesar instead. Gone are the ultra bagging fashions making way for the European fitted jeans which unfortunately are worn way below where intended.
But in their wake, these trends gone past have left the one chick in barbershop who would braid everyone’s hair looking for work. The Mitchell and Ness once expansive product line and booming business is back to satisfying the occasional collector looking perhaps for an office ornament. While their eras clearly intersected and had some play on each others successs SOUND OFF: Which is more played out: BRAIDS or JERSEYS?!
FILED IN Editorials, Fashion, Sports
I gotta go with the throwback jerseys. I never got into that style and I’m glad to see it go away. I always thought that they looked like pajamas. LOL…dudes would be rockin them and they’d go past their knees…SMH. C’mon son, that shit looked dumb. As for braids, I don’t think its played out. Plenty of cats still get their hair braided and just because Busta, Luda, Trey Songz, & Slim Thugga cut their shit off doesn’t mean everyone else will follow suit. And if the black community does, then the latino community will keep it going. I see more & more latin cats getting their hair braided so I know that trend is going to stick around for a little while longer.
Yeah I go to a barber in Bushwick (Brooklyn) and its all Dominican and Boriqua in there and the dudes and Lesbian shorty crew come through tough to get their hair braided, shape ups (and eyebrows done?????)
Yeah I don’t get the eyebrows!! That is mad gay, feminine all the way. I see alot of dudes with perfectly curved eyebrows and I can’t help but laugh at them! They can call it metrosexual all they want but men shouldn’t get their eyebrows done. Only time a dude can get a pass for getting his eyebrows done is if he’s trying to get rid of the unibrow LOL!!!
Never rocked braids (my rebellious teen years, i had the big curly ‘fro, lol) I have a nice collection of jerseys of my favorite players. I haven’t worn any this year, but when football comes back in the fall, I prolly will wear them to, say, go over to a friend’s house and watch a game. I won’t be rocking one to a party…oh, and none of them go down past my thighs, lol.
@E.L. You gotta post a pic of you and the fro!
Im a work on that one, B.E.B.!
THROW BACKS HAVE DEFF GONE OUT OF STYLE, BRAIDS?, DONT SEE TOO MANY BLACK DUDE ROCK BRAIDS IN THE BAY ANYMORE, BLACK DUDES OVER HERE ROCK DREADS, THE LATINO DUDES STILL GET BRAIDED AND ROCK LONG HAIR, SOME CATS TRY TO GET THEIR BROWS WAXED AND SHAPED, LMAO, AND THE LEZ BROADS ROCK BRAIDS, FADED CUTS AND DREADS, THROW BACKS ARE NOW A THING OF THE PAST 4REAL.
Yeah I think Lil Wayne made it cool to have dreads. I know alot of other people had dreads before him but he stayed committed to it….
Braids will never be played out. For a minute, it was braids or bald. Just like everything else…styles get hot then cold and hot again.Now the flat-top is trying to come back. Dudes getting their eyebrows done is KILLING me! Eyes looking swollen, like the just caught a jab.
I cant stand either. I almost had the same haircut since the 80′s; mid-fade, low on top (#1 blade), bald on the sides. (For a year, I switched it up to a light ceasar.) My hair was never coarse enough to style into a flattop, gumby, or slope without some type of product, and a Black Man putting gel in his hair is a no-no in my book. My hair never grew fast enouch to braid or lock without going through about two or more months of looking like a neglected and abandoned child.
.
Outside of being raised in a Knicks household, I never really got into competitive sports so, me walking around with someones name and number on my back feels very fraudulent.
.
Please excuse my logic but, where the hell are all these “throwback” jersies folks used to wear, damn near religously? Those shits were EXPENSIVE!!!! Even if you got a fake, you would drop a near Franklin on it. Even if I was into that brand of swag, it never smelled like a sound investment, unless I was a collector.
Braids are dead but coming back in the near future… i believe rocking a Jersey, for non sporting event reasons is not happening or you need a NO man… i did see a dude the other day in a FUBU jersey 05, that gave me some chuckles….
LMAO, I SEEN THIS ONE DUDE ROCKIN’ A FUBU JERSEY W/SUM SNAKE SKIN SHOES N W/A PELLE PELLE COAT, CLASSIC!!!!!, SOME DUDES STILL ROCK THROW BACKS, DK IF THEY’RE REAL OR NOT, SOME DUDES STILL HAVE THE FADED CUTS, BALD HEADS, BRAIDS N ETC, DREADS WERE NEVER REALLY BIG IN THE BAY WHEN I WAS A YOUNG BUCK, DREADS WERE MOSTLY SEEN ON RASTAS N NOTHING ELSE, WHEN THE “HYPHY” MOVEMENT WAS CREATED IN THE BAY, DUDES STARTED ROCKIN DREADS, STYLES COME N GO, JUST LIKE RETRO SHIT, BUT FEMALES W/BALD CUTS, DK BOUT THAT, JUST LIKE DUDE WITH WAXED BROWS, LOL, BUT, SOME LEZ BROADS DO ROCK SUM NICE FADED CUTS, PERFECT SHAPE UPS N LINE JOBS LOL
Braids come and go but they always make a come back in the 70′s Rick James and Peaches from “Peaches and Herb” fame just 2 name a few which were rocking the braids with beads which is from like everything else, Africa.Bo Derek tried it in the movie “10″ then came my era the 80′s yes the Jeri Curl , I was a “chemical dependent” from 81 to 88 . It was hard 2 kick but I finally did it.As 4 throwbacks and jerseys, they will not either ever go out especially if there is no NFL or NBA this upcoming season.As 4 hairstyle African Americans have that on lock we r the trend setters 4 all 2 copy.From the Afro 2 Sol-Glo from Fades 2 Braids from Bald Heads 2 dreads we keep it moving.
You can Drive down any block in Chicago and about 1 in every 4 dudes got braids. What did happen to all those throw backs