Don't Touch My Hair
[London] : Penguin Books, 2020.
Format: Book
Description: 243 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 23 cm.
Recent years have seen the conversation around black hair reach tipping point, yet detractors still proclaim 'it's only hair!' when it never is. This book is about why black hair matters and how it can be viewed as a blueprint for decolonisation. The author takes us from pre-colonial Africa, through the Harlem Renaissance, Black Power and into today's Natural Hair Movement, the Cultural Appropriation Wars and beyond. We look at the trajectory from hair capitalists like Madam CJ Walker in the early 1900s to the rise of Shea Moisture today, touching on everything from women's solidarity and friendship, to forgotten African scholars, to the dubious provenance of Kim Kardashian's braids. The scope of black hairstyling ranges from pop culture to cosmology, from prehistoric times to the (afro)futuristic. Uncovering sophisticated indigenous mathematical systems in black hair styles, alongside styles that served as secret intelligence networks leading enslaved Africans to freedom, Don't Touch My Hair proves that far from being only hair, black hairstyling culture can be understood as an allegory for black oppression and, ultimately, liberation.
Series: Penguin history.
Subjects:
Hairdressing of Black people -- Social aspects.
Hairdressing of Black people -- History.
Hairstyles -- Social aspects.
Hairstyles -- History.
Hair -- Social aspects.
Women, Black -- Social conditions.
Personnes noires -- Coiffure -- Aspect social.
Personnes noires -- Coiffure -- Histoire.
Coiffures (Cheveux) -- Aspect social.
Coiffures (Cheveux) -- Histoire.
Femmes noires -- Conditions sociales.
Hair -- Social aspects.
Hairdressing of Black people.
Hairstyles.
Hairstyles -- Social aspects.
Women, Black -- Social conditions.
Hairdressing of Black people -- Social aspects.
Hairdressing of Black people -- History.
Hairstyles -- Social aspects.
Hairstyles -- History.
Hair -- Social aspects.
Women, Black -- Social conditions.
Personnes noires -- Coiffure -- Aspect social.
Personnes noires -- Coiffure -- Histoire.
Coiffures (Cheveux) -- Aspect social.
Coiffures (Cheveux) -- Histoire.
Femmes noires -- Conditions sociales.
Hair -- Social aspects.
Hairdressing of Black people.
Hairstyles.
Hairstyles -- Social aspects.
Women, Black -- Social conditions.
ISBN:
9780141986289
Availability | |||
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Call Number | Location | Shelf Location | Status |
SOCIAL SCI Race Dab | Main (Downtown) | Third Level, Nonfiction | In |
Originally published by Allen Lane: 2019.
Includes bibliographical references.
Includes bibliographical references.