 When African slaves were freed in America , they struggled to reach the social status of whites . Many former slaves tried to conform their hairstyles as part of this struggle . Women , especially , felt pressure to make their hair long and oily , rather than keeping the shorter , tightly coiled style they had known . However , during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s , African @-@ Americans such as Malcolm X advocated hairstyles such as afros and dreadlocks , in order to embrace their race , and to return to West African roots . 
