Where Can I Find African American Hair Styles Of The 50's?

The main style for African Americans in the 1950's was a variation of the Pin curl. This meant parting the hair in the centre and setting in a bun or pony tail at the back and keeping enough hair out at the front to make a quiff or pin curl style fringe.

Here is the best video tutorial that I could find about black hairstyles in the 1950's.
Women also took to relaxing their hair allowing for some different styles to be achieved.  However, without this, the pin curl style made it possible tie control afro-carribean hair to some extent. Unfortunately, even in the 1950's there were issues of racism which meant that many caucasians still looked down upon those who were mixed race or black.  This meant that in the black hairstyle in the 1950's were different as afro-carribean americans tried hard to minimise the differences between them and this meant pinning their hair. 

However, these looks can look cool and retro, especially if you go with a rockabilly style quiff as in the attached video.

Here are some other pictures of African American hairstyles of the 1950's:



The main thing is to use a soft nylon bristled brush to smooth your curls out when you create these styles.  Have fun giving them a go!