Entry · catalog no. 1021
conk
/ /kɑŋk/ /KONK
noun · Nationwide · 1940s
✓ Verified
1.
A hairstyle in which naturally kinky hair is chemically straightened, usually with a lye-based relaxer called congolene, then slicked back or worn in a pompadour. Both the style and the process of getting it.
“He sat still while the conk burned, chasing that shine.”
Origin & Attribution
Named from congolene, the homemade lye straightener. Popularized in the 1920s by Black entertainers including Cab Calloway and worn widely through the early 1960s. Malcolm X devotes a chapter of his 1965 autobiography, "My First Conk," to the ritual and later renounces it as self-denial — a history the Black Power era answered with the Afro.
1930s
Congolene-based hair straightening common among Black men
1965
The Autobiography of Malcolm X recounts his first conk and later rejection of it
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
Nationwide · 1940s
Spoken by
Black America
$CONKThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Dormant86 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
45/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1940
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
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Citations & Sources
■
The Autobiography of Malcolm X — book · 1965
submitted
■
+ Cite a sourceConk hairstyle, Cab Calloway era — cultural history · 1920s
submitted
See also