Hair raising
Subtitle: beauty, culture, and African American women
By: Noliwe M. Rooks.
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: New Brunswick, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 160
Subjects: Hairdressing of African Americans -- History; Beauty culture -- United States -- History; African American women -- History; African American women in advertising -- History
Description: "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"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [149]-156) and index.