0241308348 
Hardback Don't touch my hair / Emma Dabiri.
Publication year: 2019
Format: Hardback
Publisher: UK : Allen Lane,
Resource type: Physical
ISBN: 9780241308349 (hbk.) :
Notes:
Over a series of wry, informed chapters, Emma Dabiri takes us from pre-colonial Africa, through the Harlem Renaissance, Black Power and on to today's Natural Hair Movement, the Cultural Appropriation Wars and beyond. We look at everything from hair capitalists like Madam C.J. Walker in the early 1900s to the rise of Shea Moisture today, from women's solidarity and friendship to 'black people time', forgotten African scholars and the dubious provenance of Kim Kardashian's braids. '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.
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243 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 23 cm
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This is a fascinating, sad, funny and thought-provoking book, which left me with a sense of how privileged I am not to have had to think about my own hair much (until lockdown, perhaps…). Emma grew up feeling an outsider in Ireland, where her hair became a battleground and “a constant source of deep, deep shame”. After years of trying to conform to artificial ideas of what hair should look like, she realised that she needed to align her hair with her politics and stop artificially straightening and damaging it. Her writing is a brilliant mix of erudite history and culture, pop references, and racy, angry humour – eye-opening and powerful. I cannot recommend this highly enough, especially if you’re under the impression that it’s ‘just hair’.
26/03/22