It used to be that durags, the cloth African Americans wear on their hair, were only used to help create hair waves. In recent years, however, that has changed as celebrities have begun to wear designer and silk durags on the red carpet, while out shopping, attending special events and, in some cases, even while filming.
So much so, designer and silk durags are now making a comeback. A comeback that is giving these useful head scarves even more of a popularity than they ever had before. One that is reaching outside the traditional African American community and into American culture.
Celebrities wearing durags — The new craze for wearing designer and silk durags has become so strong since celebrities like Beyonce, Kylie Jenner, Snoop Dog and Rihanna began to wear them consistently.
Fans then wanted to emulate their favorite celebrity, so durags began to pop up in classrooms and on high streets all over America. First in the African American community, and later on outside it.
Durag popularity in Europe — Interestingly, while some African Americans are decrying the use of durags in mainstream American nowadays as ‘stealing their culture’, similar headscarves have been worn in Spain, Italy and in other areas of Europe since the 1960s.
That popularity has now also strengthened again, as durags become increasingly popular in America.
Acceptability of being worn in public — Back in the 1980s when durags first became popular with African Americans, they were still things that were largely worn at home. After all, nobody wanted anyone outside their house to know how much time and effort they had to spend on getting their hair ‘just right’. It simply was not elegant.
Nowadays, however, as the culture has turned towards being able to wear anything you want when you want, durags are seen as being perfectly acceptable to wear in public. Not only acceptable, but also embraced as they really are so incredibly versatile.
Durags can be worn with anything — The people currently wearing these head scarves with tails tend to like them as they are incredibly versatile accessories. Once worn around the house to keep an African American’s hair in waves, nowadays they are worn with everything from summer dresses, shorts and t-shirts and exercise clothes, right up to evening gowns and elegant attire.
This is because designer and silk durags come in thousands of colors, patterns and styles, there is bound to be one that will look perfect with anything you wear.
Designer durags take on the market — Of course, once designer durags, silk durags and jeweled durags started to appear, anyone who was into fashion at all was desperate to wear one.
So much so, designer durag companies now have massively popular accounts on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, making it look very much like durags are here to stay.
