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A review by cmclarabee
Me, My Hair, and I: Twenty-Seven Women Untangle an Obsession by Elizabeth Benedict
4.0
What I kept thinking of as a flaw in this book--the lack of author photos--turned out to be one of the things that made it great, because each time I started reading a new essay I just had to google its author. Although there is a contributors list at the end with brief bios, it was impossible to read a bunch of essays about women and their hair without wanting to know what each woman (and her hair) looked like. Inevitably, I read a bit about each of them too, and thus got to know a whole slew of authors who were new to me, and got re-acquainted with others (Jane Smiley, Anne Lamott, Deborah Tannen) on a different footing from any previous contacts I'd had with them. The collection also got me thinking about my own history with and feelings about my hair, and it turns out that hair is a pretty meaty subject!
There's a great interview with editor Elizabeth Benedict here: http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2015/10/04/a-new-book-uncovers-the-complex-relationships-women-have-to-their-hair/. I don't want to confirm the fear she mentions in the last question by talking superficially about her hair, but as a person who liberated myself from hair dye a couple of years back myself, I was delighted, when doing the above mentioned googling, to find that she had decided to go gray after writing her essay about not going gray for the collection. Just like Joan Baez, she looks fantastic gray.
Finally, I loved this book because my fabulous-haired best friend gave it to me, and had it signed for me by Ms. Benedict. What better present could a girl ask for?
There's a great interview with editor Elizabeth Benedict here: http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2015/10/04/a-new-book-uncovers-the-complex-relationships-women-have-to-their-hair/. I don't want to confirm the fear she mentions in the last question by talking superficially about her hair, but as a person who liberated myself from hair dye a couple of years back myself, I was delighted, when doing the above mentioned googling, to find that she had decided to go gray after writing her essay about not going gray for the collection. Just like Joan Baez, she looks fantastic gray.
Finally, I loved this book because my fabulous-haired best friend gave it to me, and had it signed for me by Ms. Benedict. What better present could a girl ask for?