From the Wikipedia article
The Jheri curl is a permanent wave hairstyle that was popular among Black Americans, Black Puerto Ricans, Black Dominicans, Black Canadians, Black Brits and Black New Zealanders during the 1980s and early 1990s. Invented by the chemist Jheri Redding, the Jheri curl gives the wearer a glossy, loosely curled look. It was touted as a "wash and wear" style that was easier to care for than the other popular chemical treatment of the day, the relaxer, not a full relaxer to fully straighten the hair, but to make curly hair look loosely curled. Hair appeared wet and glossy by using curl activator which is applied on hair to keep it moist.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, taken from the style's article on Wikipedia.
Source
- Source: Wikipedia, 'List of hairstyles' (en.wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA 4.0) + each linked article's lead summary via the Wikimedia REST API; image files from Wikimedia Commons with their own licence per file
- List row: 66 of 99, from List of hairstyles (list revision 1376698486, fetched 2026-10-02T20:43:21Z).
- Article: Jheri curl
- Text licence: CC BY-SA 4.0; adapted text stays under the same licence.
- Photograph: the Commons file Jheri_Curl_Smile_(395044434).jpg exists but records no licence value, so no photograph is shown here.
Words of quoted Wikipedia text on this page: 145.