III.5.4. "LOOKS," AN ART OF SOCIABILITY

Menu: 3.5.4. "Looks:" an art of sociability

APPEARANCE, SELF-EXPRESSION IN A HARMONIOUS COMMUNITY

A philosophy of African immigrants, expressed or not.

          Fred, vendor of  men's clothes 

In brief

• Making oneself a composition

• Hair, beards and moustaches

• How those styles began

• Barbershops and beauty salons

• Hair-dressers' salons' good humor

• Shops that continue the emphasis

• Africans' humanistic advertisements

• Detour: reinventing dandies

• Detour: politicizing Black men's fashion

*     *     *

Next,

Making oneself a composition

MAKING ONESELF A COMPOSITION

SEEN IN LA GOUTTE D'OR

The first poster of the Institute of Islamic Cultures

# # #

Dressing to fit surroundings

» 

# # #

In my neighborhood, the diverse 13th,

such originality almost always comes from Blacks.

*     *     *

Next,

Exuberant hair, beards and moustaches

EXUBERANT HAIR, BEARDS AND MOUSTACHES

EXPRESSIONS OF CONFIDENCE AND OPTIMISM

Young women adopt braids and color...

At a festival, 2025

Young men do the same...

Grocery cashier, 2000

Security guard and bakery vendor, 2025 (photos taken from behind to show the coiffures, but they were shaven).

# # #

The looks spread world-wide: African children admire them.

# # #

In the early 2020's beards and moustaches are added:

                     Café waiter, 2021                                       In the métro, 2022

Photos taken in 2025

                Barman                                         Notions' vendor 

Festival and trade show participants

# # #

Whites adopt caps or versions that fit their hair. Beards and mustaches become global. In the U.S. :

         Oath Keeper photos

 Instagram  (recadré) et le New York Times (recadré)   

Brian Taylor Cohen, podcaster / Zohan Mandani, New York candidate for Mayor (both photos, 2025).

# # #

Movie:

 The man with short hair and no facial hair

is unsure of himself and does not want to be noticed, 

in contrast to the self-confident figure he admires.

"Friendship," 2024 by Andrew DeYoung with Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd. Image cut to emphasize figures / zoom

*    *     *

Next,

How those styles began

HOW THOSE STYLES BEGAN

TOURNAMENT CONTENDERS WORE HELMETS TO BE IDENTIFIED FROM THE BLEACHERS... 

Book of Tournaments of René d'Anjou, 15th century, zoom

And athletes in the 2014 World Cup wanted coiffures that would identify them on television.

The Best and Worst of the Haircuts at this World Cup by hairdresser Franck Provost (in French with pictures), Huff Post, 2014

They thought of the haircut posters of their neighborhoods...

In 2013

That harked back

to signs in African markets.

Wood panel at Abidjan's Treichville market in 1973: Notice the "Kennedy" cut. 

*     *     *

Next,

Barbershops and beauty salons

BARBERSHOPS AND BEAUTY SALONS

IN LA GOUTTE D'OR, HAIR IS IMPORTANT AND COIFFEURS ARE EVERYWHERE 

Start in the north and walk 20 minutes toward the Chateau Rouge métro station...

Adapted from an Internet map

• Rue Labat, a small street between two arteries (rue des Poissonniers and boulevard Barbès)

Arts a century apart

• Rue des Poissonniers... 

• Rue Boinod...

• The Chateau Rouge métro:

# # #

Going south, toward the Barbès métro:

On rue de la Goutte d'Or,

 barbershops face each other: 

On the left side of the street:

51 rue de la Goutte d'Or

On the right side:

42 rue de la Goutte d'Or

That salon at 11 at night.

Around the corner another salon,

on that evening closed at 10.

*    *    *

A barbershop poster on rue de Ménilmontant,

in a neighborhood that is 

largely white, progressive and trendy:

 

Rue Ménilmontant, 20th

The Black posters inspire it

but proposals are limited

and it is the only barbershop

on an extremely long street.

*    *    *

Next,

Hairdressers salons' good humor