In the summer of 2011, museum staff collected dozens of oral histories from individuals in the Pittsburgh African American community who remembered Charles “Teenie” Harris. Charles “Teenie” Harris (1908–1998) photographed Pittsburgh’s African American community from the 1930s to the 1970s. His archive of nearly 80,000 images—housed at Carnegie Museum of Art since 2001—is one of the most detailed and intimate records of the black urban experience known today. One interview included the following suggestion:

…Some of those photographs he did, ones especially at his studio [that] were not historically significant in that they were not historical events, but some of the people were significant, some of the outfits were significant, some of the hairstyles were a chronology of what women wore in those days, you know? And the story behind grooming, oh! Someone needs to write that. What we went through to be acceptable, what we went through.

In December 2012, the museum invited the speakers at that interview, Charlene Foggie Barnett and Dr. Ralph Proctor, to work with research archivist Kerin Shellenbarger on the “story behind grooming.” This exhibition focuses on Harris’s depictions of hair. Always immaculate, stylish, and perceptive himself, Harris photographed beauty salons, fashion shows, celebrities, and society events throughout his career. Here, 20 of his best images have been combined with reflections on black hair and beauty from the three organizers and from curator of fine arts Lulu Lippincott, and excerpts from recorded comments by an expert on hair, Lillian Allen.