Code-X (81)

By: Joshua Glenn
November 11, 2015

dove

Call this textured hair-care category code: GOING NATURAL.

Definition: Affirming a woman’s decision not to straighten her curly or textured hair.

head

Notes on this code: Language and tonality suggesting that natural hair is a right: “Your hair, your choice,” “Speak out on your choice to be relaxed or natural” (Dr. Miracle). Language and imagery celebrating natural (non-relaxed) textured hair as being real, the way nature intended: “Au Naturale” (Dark & Lovely); “#EdenRealBeauties” (Eden Bodyworks); “Thank God I’m natural” (TGIN); “Nourish my natural style” (Pantene Truly Natural); “Rediscover the curls you were born with” (Dove Quench).

pantene natural

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MORE SEMIOSIS at HILOBROW: Towards a Cultural Codex | CODE-X series | DOUBLE EXPOSURE Series | CECI EST UNE PIPE series | Star Wars Semiotics | Icon Game | Meet the Semionauts | Show Me the Molecule | Science Fantasy | Inscribed Upon the Body | The Abductive Method | Enter the Samurai | Semionauts at Work | Roland Barthes | Gilles Deleuze | Félix Guattari | Jacques Lacan | Mikhail Bakhtin | Umberto Eco

Categories

Codebreaking, Semiotics