The Root; Published By: Jennifer Gil-Velazquez
If you’ve ever wondered how hair “wrapping” or the “Doobie” became part of Black hair culture, one brilliant trailblazer to thank is Charlene Carroll.
A master hairstylist, Charlene has been known as Black Royalty in Boston for decades. Her business savvy and hairstyling skills were praised in an article in Black Enterprise, which proclaimed, “Cinderella is alive and well and living in Boston. Her name is Charlene Carroll and her game is making people beautiful.”
Making Black people beautiful was just part of it, Charlene had a natural, almost magical talent for Black hair. “When it comes to hair, I have a gift,’’ she recently told me. “I can look at your hair and know if you smoke, if you’re on medication, or if you need more vitamins in your diet.’’
Starting in the seventies, her compassion for Black women and Black hair changed the way we protect, prep and wear our hair, which is how the wrap came about. But first, what is a wrap? Read more
