Cunningham, Michael, and George Alexander - Queens: Portraits of Black Women and Their Fabulous Hair

[oyceter]

Like Cunningham's Crowns (same photographer, different interviewer), this is a a gorgeous book of photography coupled with personal interviews, only this time, it is on... hair! Yes, Actual Black Women (tm) talking about their Actual Hair (tm)! Hopefully those tormented by curiosity about the subject will at least read this instead of springing unwelcome questions on random Black women.

You can see many of the portraits on his webiste, and they really are gorgeous. But as with Crowns, I love the interviews the most. This book has a larger age and geographical range than Crowns, probably because I got the sense in Crowns that church hats were not being picked up as much by the younger generation (is this true?). I also love that he has several Ghanan women from a hair-braiding school included. There are pictures of women in their every-day hair, pictures of women in showcase hair, pictures of women in ceremonial hair. And there are also pictures of the hairdressers themselves, along with interviews.

There's discussion of natural hair and good hair and "nappy" hair and "bad" hair, of jheri curls and afros and straight perms and locs and braids and cornrows and ringlets (and one mohawk, yay), dyeing and cutting and shaving, and the importance of the local hairdresser and barbershop. There are stories from women of all ages, all of whom have decided to do different things to their hair for different reasons.

It's just a lovely collection; go read. Or if you can't find it, definitely visit his site and check out the pictures.

Comments

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. And that there can be material consequences related to how black women wear their hair is wrong. I remember years ago watching a Phil Donahue show in which Allen Toussaint talked about being an advisor for The Cosby Show (shows just how many years) and the debate they had over the mother and Rudy arguing about doing the daughter's hair and whether that was an appropriate scene to include because of these issues. And underlying the politics is the message of "your hair's not good enough; you're not good enough; torture yourself to mimic those who are good enough, but oh, you still won't be good enough." How can an ally fight that issue, I wonder, without being patronizing?

I'm fortunate. My hair issues have no impact beyond "Oh, Laurie changed her hair again." My dissatisfaction and frustration have no political element. At least not with my hair and ethnicity. It's all neurosis on my part.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

Strike that. Fortunate is the wrong word. Rather, it is an element of my privilege that my hair issues are neurotic rather than politically charged.