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A review by akovach
Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture by Emma Dabiri
4.0
This was SUCH an interesting read. I knew just a little bit about Black hair history but not to this extent. I am amazed how nuanced it is across cultures. I am saddened and in awe of the load Black woman (and men) carry in presenting themselves in a way that is "acceptable" by white-centric cultures. It really pales in comparison to the white beauty standards white woman complain about. This was an incredible and seemingly complete history that helps explain the beauty and significance of Black hair all over the world. Highly recommend.
"Afro hair has different requirements; where straight hair is prone to greasiness, mine is prone to dryness, and washing it daily would further strip it of its essential oils and dry it out further. Afro hair needs products that would make white people’s hair greasy and oily but keeps ours moisturized.
African aesthetics have their own norms, which do not always correspond to European ones. The Afro is read as traditionally “african,” despite the fact that in West African contexts hair is rarely left unmolded or unbraided. The Afro is a symbol of diasporic resistance, a rejection of an imposed value system that denigrates us. Sporting an Afro is a defiant up-yours to such a system, but that fact alone does not make it inherently “African.”
Because hair is associated with spiritual well-being, no price is too high to pay for your hair. This was a savvy ruse created by hairstylists to avoid having to argue with clients and, ultimately, to make more cash.
The discrepancy between the generic term “cornrowing” in the US and “canerowing” in the Caribbean and the US betrays the sad history of slavery. The varying regional names reflect different crops, for instance the sugarcane that was cultivated by the enslaved in the Caribbean.
Depending on the style and the size of the braids, an entire head of hair can take a long time - hours, even days - to complete. … I’m keep to disrupt our deeply ingrained (yet recent and culturally specific) myth of time as a commodity. It makes a lot more sense to imagine braiding as a sociable time during which the business of living is conducted.
Thinkers from James Baldwin to W.E.B. Du Bois to Frantz Fanon and Ngugi wa Thiong’o remind us that the most destructive consequence of colonialism was not the control of the land but the control of the minds of the people.
If I could be reborn at any point in modern history, it would be in the Harlem Renaissance, a period when an explosion of black literary and cultural talent was ushered into being[...] a group of educated black professionals known as the Talented Tenth. [They] believed that if the world could bear witness to their refinement, the result would be universal social acceptance for all black people. It worked. From this environment there emerged an outpouring of stellar black creative energy.
The jealousy and fear that white women felt [of black women tempting their men by their hair], was deemed serious enough to have a direct impact on legislation. The Tignon Laws, which were signed into being in 1786 by Esteban Rodriguez Miro, the governor of the then Spanish colony of Louisiana, are an explicit demonstration of this. The fabulous, ornate hairstyling of black women was causing much consternation for white women, who felt it bestowed unfair advantages in vying for the attention of white men.
For mixed-race slaves, like Margaret Garner, proximity to whiteness, without the protection that whiteness brought, could be nothing less than deadly."
"Afro hair has different requirements; where straight hair is prone to greasiness, mine is prone to dryness, and washing it daily would further strip it of its essential oils and dry it out further. Afro hair needs products that would make white people’s hair greasy and oily but keeps ours moisturized.
African aesthetics have their own norms, which do not always correspond to European ones. The Afro is read as traditionally “african,” despite the fact that in West African contexts hair is rarely left unmolded or unbraided. The Afro is a symbol of diasporic resistance, a rejection of an imposed value system that denigrates us. Sporting an Afro is a defiant up-yours to such a system, but that fact alone does not make it inherently “African.”
Because hair is associated with spiritual well-being, no price is too high to pay for your hair. This was a savvy ruse created by hairstylists to avoid having to argue with clients and, ultimately, to make more cash.
The discrepancy between the generic term “cornrowing” in the US and “canerowing” in the Caribbean and the US betrays the sad history of slavery. The varying regional names reflect different crops, for instance the sugarcane that was cultivated by the enslaved in the Caribbean.
Depending on the style and the size of the braids, an entire head of hair can take a long time - hours, even days - to complete. … I’m keep to disrupt our deeply ingrained (yet recent and culturally specific) myth of time as a commodity. It makes a lot more sense to imagine braiding as a sociable time during which the business of living is conducted.
Thinkers from James Baldwin to W.E.B. Du Bois to Frantz Fanon and Ngugi wa Thiong’o remind us that the most destructive consequence of colonialism was not the control of the land but the control of the minds of the people.
If I could be reborn at any point in modern history, it would be in the Harlem Renaissance, a period when an explosion of black literary and cultural talent was ushered into being[...] a group of educated black professionals known as the Talented Tenth. [They] believed that if the world could bear witness to their refinement, the result would be universal social acceptance for all black people. It worked. From this environment there emerged an outpouring of stellar black creative energy.
The jealousy and fear that white women felt [of black women tempting their men by their hair], was deemed serious enough to have a direct impact on legislation. The Tignon Laws, which were signed into being in 1786 by Esteban Rodriguez Miro, the governor of the then Spanish colony of Louisiana, are an explicit demonstration of this. The fabulous, ornate hairstyling of black women was causing much consternation for white women, who felt it bestowed unfair advantages in vying for the attention of white men.
For mixed-race slaves, like Margaret Garner, proximity to whiteness, without the protection that whiteness brought, could be nothing less than deadly."