Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women

By Noliwe M. Rooks

Book Overview

We all know there is a politics of skin color, but is there a politics of hair?In this book, Noliwe Rooks explores the history and politics of hair and beauty culture in African American communities from the nineteenth century to the 1990s. She discusses the ways in which African American women have located themselves in their own families, communities, and national culture through beauty advertisements, treatments, and styles. Bringing the story into today's beauty shop, listening to other women talk about braids, Afros, straighteners, and what they mean today to grandmothers, mothers, sisters, friends, and boyfriends, she also talks about her own family and has fun along the way. Hair Raising is that rare sort of book that manages both to entertain and to illuminate its subject.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813523125
• ISBN13: 9780813523125
• Release Date: July 1996
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Very Personable and Deep Book...

I think that this was an awsome read. It talks about how African American women relate things with psychology, culture and hair. To me this book was very personal. For many women hair is more than just hair and there are lots of complexities as to why we wear our hair the way we may, or who makes those choices and how society may feel about ourt hair (rather straight or kinky).

Hair Politics

Excellent resource for delving into the Politics of black hair in America. From jobs, to advertising, to day to day living hair affects African Americans in ways culturally and historically that many groups never confront. Great resource for women of all races to learn the political truth behind black hair.

You'll refer to it over and over again

I used this book in several college papers I wrote as an undergraduate student, a paper I published on the politics of hair among children of African decent, and I still read it today. Rooks talks about hair and African women in advertising, popular and political culture and she really explains the historical contexts of these hair issues. A great read for any student, and non-student who is interested in diging a little deeper in the hair issues sorrounding African women.