Hairvolution

Calliste Saskia

Description

Do you love your natural hair?Some of the world's most inspiring black women tell us about their attitudes to, and struggles with, their crowning glory. Kinky, wavy, straight or curly, this book will help you celebrate your natural beauty, however you choose to style your hair.With an overview of the politics and history of black hair, the book explores how black hairstyles have played a part in the fight for social justice and the promotion of black culture while inspiring us to challenge outdated notions of beauty, gender and sexuality for young women and girls everywhere.The power is in our hair. And we've come to tell the world what ours can do!Also includes thirty interviews with women of colour about their hair and beauty journey including Jamelia, Angie LeMar, Dawn Butler MP, Stella Dadzie, Judith Jacobs, Carryl Thomas, Anita Okunde, Kadija Sesay, Anastasia Chikezie, and Chi Onwurah MP.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Cosmetics

Informations

• Publié par: Distributed By PublishDrive
• Date de parution: 17 novembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781913641146
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

Saskia Calliste

Saskia is assistant editor for Voice Mag UK where she writes about societal issues and reviews fringe theatre, including Edinburgh Fringe in 2019. She freelanced for The Bookseller and has had her work published in the 30th-anniversary edition of The Women Writers’ Handbook (Aurora Metro). She is the author of the blog sincerelysaskia.com , has an MA in Publishing and a BA in Creative Writing & Journalism.
Zainab Raghdo

Zainab is a writing assistant and content creator at ContentBud, and the author of the thecoffeebrk.com . She has an MA in Publishing and a BA in English Literature and Classical Civilisation and has freelanced for many years, recently being published in a the new arts journal, The Bower Monologues , and the online African Woman’s magazine AMAKA.com .
First published in the UK in 2021 by SUPERNOVA BOOKS
67 Grove Avenue, Twickenham, TW1 4HX
Supernova Books is an imprint of Aurora Metro Publications Ltd.
www.aurorametro.com @aurorametro FB/AuroraMetroBooks
Instagram @aurora_metro
Foreword by Stella Dadzie copyright © 2021 Stella Dadzie
Authors’ Note by Saskia Calliste & Zainab Raghdo copyright © 2021 Saskia Calliste & Zainab Raghdo
Our History by Zainab Raghdo copyright © 2021 Zainab Raghdo
Her Hair Stories compiled by Cheryl Robson and Saskia Calliste copyright © 2021 Aurora Metro/Supernova Books.
Endnote by Saskia Calliste copyright © 2021 Saskia Calliste
Poems by Kadija Sesay copyright © 2021 Kadija Sesay
Illustrations by Aleea Rae copyright © 2021 @aleearaeart
Editor: Cheryl Robson
Thanks to Christina Webb, Saranki Sriranganathan, Marina Tuffier
All rights are strictly reserved. For rights enquiries contact the publisher: [e-mail]
We have made every effort to trace all copyright holders of photographs included in this publication. If you have any information relating to this, please contact: [e-mail]
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Printed in the UK by Short Run Press, Exeter, UK.
ISBNs:
978-1-913641-13-9 (print version)
978-1-913641-14-6 (ebook version)
HAIRVOLUTION
Her Hair, Her Story, Our History
by
Saskia Calliste & Zainab Raghdo
with a foreword by Stella Dadzie
poems by Kadija Sesay
illustrations by Aleea Rae

SUPERNOVA BOOKS

FOREWORD
Stella Dadzie
Have you ever had a really bad hair day that felt like it lasted for most of your life? For many Black women, subjected to a constant barrage of European beauty norms and ideals, this is our reality. At least, it used to be. In recent years, we have witnessed a ‘hairvolution’ – a quiet revolution in how we see and style our hair – and the trend is increasingly Afrocentric. From complex braids and cornrows to sculptured cuts, dreadlocks, fades and symmetrical Afros, Black women are no longer prepared to deny our hair its natural birthright.
For many of us, the journey to self-love and self-acceptance has been slow and painful. As a people, we have had to contend with centuries of undermining messages, denying us our humanity and mocking every aspect of our appearance – our noses, our lips, our buttocks, our skin and (inevitably) our hair. So different in texture to that of our European detractors, it was an easy target. Untamed hair and savagery were seen as symbiotic. If our tresses weren’t combed, curled and compliant, somehow this was seen as evidence of a wild, wanton character, divinely ordained and innately inferior. Viewed through the colonizers’ gaze, we were uncivilized, primitive, sub-human beings with the hair to match.
As those of us scattered across the diaspora would soon discover, the word ‘beauty’ was only ever associated with fair skin and sleek, Europeanized hair. Despite a widespread belief that Black women had lured the hapless white man into a state of lost innocence, officially we were described as the living embodiment of everything Europeans deemed ugly. In a world where a person’s race determined their social mobility, many of us did everything possible to disguise our African roots. The kink in our hair, so hard to disguise, was viewed as a mark of shame.
Generations later, we are still grappling with the psychological damage this prolonged assault on our self-esteem has caused us. We are reminded of this fact every time a little Black girl begs to have her beautiful curls straightened because all her schoolmates are white and she longs to look like them. It’s not just our children who suffer. You only have to step into a Black hair salon to see the hoops some of us are prepared to jump through in pursuit of this spurious ideal. Harsh chemicals, red-hot tongs, weaves, relaxers, extensions, the list is endless. Shops that sell Black hair products display row upon row of tubs and bottles, all of them promising to tame our unruly locks, many of them eye-wateringly expensive or overtly colourist. It’s true, more and more of us are learning the value of natural products – shea butter, coconut oil, products our ancestors used that are tried and tested – but we still have a way to go. By demystifying the experience and shedding light on its long, complex history, books like this will assist us on our continuing hair journey.
Hairvolution takes us back to a time when African women wore their hair proudly, with no fear of ridicule or judgement. It shows how the process of enslavement and mental colonization robbed us of that pride and left us shackled to our own self-hatred. The interviews – my own included – reveal the traumas, influences and moments of revelation that have defined our relationship with our hair. They speak honestly and intimately to an experience many of us will have shared.
For the first time in decades, Black women are reclaiming their bodies. We are strutting our stuff, revelling in our rich diversity. For my generation, the moment of reckoning was symbolized by the Afro – Angela Davis’s magnificent halo, so symbolic of Civil Rights and the message of Black self-love and self-reliance. For the Black Lives Matter generation, the icons will be different – the sight of Meghan Markle’s mum wearing her locs at the royal wedding, perhaps; or an image of Erikah Badu’s wonderfully creative mane spilling from its regal headwrap. Every Black woman who bucks the trend and wears her natural hair with pride is a potential role model, empowering future generations to love and respect their hair.
Of course, whether teachers and employers will see these changes in the same light remains to be seen. We still hear tales of Black children suspended from school because their hairstyle did not ‘comply’. Turn up to an interview with your hair in locs, and your chances of getting the job may well have been blown before you even opened your mouth. But attitudes are slowly beginning to move with the times. Perhaps, in the not too distant future, even white folks will recognize that there is room in this world for many different hairstyles, some of which don’t aspire to imitate theirs. It’s a Hairvolution that is long overdue.
’AIR
Fe-e-e-el this!
Go on!
Fe-e-e-el it!
Soft ’n’ wiry all at the same time –
’ow do you people ge’ your ’air like tha’?
You people?
Yeah – you culud people.
’Ow am I gonna ge’ a brush frew tha’? Tuf ’ innit?
Bounces back – all springy.
Listen, wha’ I’ll do for you, love, is,
after I wash i’, if it gets any tuffa,
I’ll ge’ some scissors,
cu’ it all orf – might grow back straight
‘n’ nice’n’ long –
then I can brush i’ like me gels ’air.
No extra – a-a-a.
Alrigh’?
Gawd Blimey!
Fe-e-e-el this!
– Kadija Sesay

Contents
Foreword by Stella Dadzie
Our History by Zainab Raghdo
Authors’ Note by Saskia Calliste & Zainab Raghdo
Poems by Kadija Sesay
Her Hair Stories (Interviews):
Annika Allen
Eva Anek
Anita Asante
Caroline Blackburn
Doreene Blackstock
Dawn Butler
Anastasia Chikezie
Stella Dadzie
Sokari Douglas Camp
Stephanie Douglas Oly
Deitra Farr
Rachel Fleming-Campbell
Ruthie Foster
Jamelia
Judith Jacob
Bakita Kasadha
Angie Le Mar
Francine Mukwaya
Jessica Okoro
Anita Okunde
Stella Oni
Chi Onwurah
Olusola Oyeleye
Shade Pratt
Rianna Raymond-Williams
Djamila Ribeiro
Vivienne Rochester
Kadija George Sesay
Cleo Sylvestre
Carryl Thomas
Jael Umerah-Makelemi
Endnote by Saskia Calliste
Index

OUR HISTORY
This book is a celebration of our history and culture as Black women. It seeks to affirm the beauty of Black women and, in particular, our natural kinky hair. Western beauty ideals often run counter to African beauty ideals. Where the West has idolized, in women especially, fairer skin and long, smooth, straight or wavy hair, African beauty ideals have traditionally leaned more towards darker skin and kinkier hair that can be fashioned into elaborate communicative styles. Most African hair grows upwards, rather than downwards; it is not “smooth” and “flat”; rather, it coils and springs, and is often braided, twisted, or covered up and adorned with beads, ribbons or ornate fabrics.
Today, especially in our cities, diversity is being recognized as one of the strengths of modern society. Our differences are something to be celebrated, whereas the imposition of one notion of cultural difference over another as being either “superior” or “right” is what has caused the great r