Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America

Front Cover
Macmillan, Jan 12, 2002 - Health & Fitness - 198 pages

Two world wars, the Civil Rights movement, and a Jheri curl later, Blacks in America continue to have a complex and convoluted relationship with their hair. From the antebellum practice of shaving the head in an attempt to pass as a "free" person to the 1998 uproar over a White third-grade teacher's reading of the book Nappy Hair, the issues surrounding Black hair linger as we enter the twenty-first century.

Tying the personal to the political and the popular, Hair Story takes a chronological look at the culture behind the ever-changing state of Black hair-from fifteenth century Africa to the present-day United States. Hair Story is the book that Black Americans can use as a benchmark for tracing a unique aspect of their history and that people of all races will celebrate as the reference guide for understanding Black hair.

From inside the book

Contents

Black Hair in Bondage 14001899
1
No Excuse for Nappy 19001964
25
Revolutionary Roots Naturals Afros and the Changing Politics of Hair 19651979
50
The Business of Black Hair
72
Politically Incorrect Black Hairs New Attitude 19801994
100
The Burden of Proof Explaining Black Hair Culture
132
Hair Today Hair Tomorrow 19952000
165
Sources
185
Index
193
Copyright

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About the author (2002)

Ayana Byrd is a freelance journalist and professor of media studies at City College of New York. She is the co-editor of the anthology Naked: Black Women Bare All About Their Skin, Hair, Hips, Lips and Other Parts. Her writing has appeared on The Daily Beast, in magazines such as Glamour, Marie Claire, Essence, and Rolling Stone and in the anthologies The Fire This Time: Young Activists and the New Feminism, 30 Things Every Woman Should Have and Should Know Before She Turns 30, and Split: Writings From a Generation Raised on Divorce. Byrd lives in Brooklyn, NY. Lori L. Tharps is an assistant professor of journalism at Temple University. In addition to Hair Story, she is the author of two other books, Kinky Gazpacho: Life, Love & Spain and the novel, Substitute Me. Both the Washington Post and Salon.com declared Kinky Gazpacho one of the Best Books of 2008. Tharps continues to write about race, identity, parenting and hair for media outlets both online and in print. Tharps lives in Philadelphia with her husband and three children.

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