Even if it doesn’t feel like it because of quarantine, summer is coming. And whether you’re indoors for most of it, or the stay-at-home orders are lifted and there’s opportunity to go out, protective styles will abound.
Bantu knots have been a warm weather go to for decades, especially more recently with the natural hair movement gaining momentum. It’s an easy style to do style and it works for hair of all lengths and textures. You can play with the heights and the sizes, you can intertwine braids and jewels into them. Even box braids and locs can be styled into beautiful Bantu knots.
If it seems like Black women are protective over this protective style, it’s because we are. When we don Bantu knots we’re nodding to the culture, and showing an appreciation for the styles of our ancestors. It belongs to us like Fulani braids and laid edges.
And these young ladies are our ancestors’ wildest dreams with their outstanding Bantu styles. It makes the rest of us want to grab our gel and start twisting.