Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780813523125)

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.

Author: Noliwe M. Rooks
ISBN-10: 0813523125
ISBN-13: 9780813523125
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Language: English
Published: 07/01/1996
Pages: 176
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.35lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.00w x 0.50d

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 07/01/1996 pg. 1784