The Afro is a hairstyle in which the hair extends out from the head like a halo, cloud or ball. The hair length varies from relatively short to several times the diameter of the head. An afro requires very curly hair. Anyone of any ethnic background, particularly from Africa from whence the name arrises, is capable of growing an afro easily if they have very curly hair. 

The modern Afro hairstyle dates to the 1960s. In 1963, actress Cicely Tyson sported cornrows or a "TWA" (a "teeny, weeny afro") in the popular network television series East Side, West Side. Jimi Hendrix became one of the first popular entertainers to have a large afro. Natural hairstyles, including the afro, also had political connotations with Malcolm X calling conked hair "a step towards self-degradation".

The Afro was a repudiation of the use of hair straighteners to mimic the straightness of Caucasian hair. The style gained popularity during the late 1960s and 1970s, in connection with Black political movements, and the emergence of blaxploitation films and disco music.

Afros became a proclamation of "Black is Beautiful!", a popular slogan among African Americans of the time. They became symbols of race pride; progressive, often leftist political leanings; and militancy. In northern and western US states Afros were popularly worn in poor neighborhoods such as Harlem and Watts as early as 1965 and 1966. In the southern US however, it was not a popular hairstyle until 1969 and 1970. During the later half of the 1970s, the style passed into the cultural mainstream and for many people in countries all over the world Afros became simply a fashion that sometimes even Caucasian men (and women) with looser, less curly hair adopted.

Many 1970s Motown artists, like the Philadelphia Sound, Marvin Gaye and the O'Jays played a major role in popularising the Afro. Oil Sheen Spray was almost as popular as the hairstyle it was created to manage. By keeping the hair soft and moisturised it stopped the tightening and shrinking of the Afro, enabling the coolest of the cool to maintain their halo hair all day and all night.

Today Afros are used in popular culture mainly for comedic effect. A common joke involves the hiding of objects in the person's hair.