I made it through 6 chapters of this book and feel as if I have read the same story six times. Each chapter seemed to retell the chapter before it with the addition of minor facts and details. For example, the story of Madame CJ Walker was told 4 times. Similarly, the distinctive period of the Afro, the Jheri curl, and the see-saw between the natural and the straight hair period was retold with little change in chapters 4 and 5. It became overwhelmingly boring. So much so that I've given up on finishing this story.

This is a fascinating inside look at something I would otherwise never know--what is it like to have African-American hair. Byrd addresses the history, from slaves removed from the tools and techniques to maintain traditional hair in slavery, the founding of the major black hair care companies (and their buyouts by big white companies), the problems of finding good barbers and experts in new towns, the cultural politics of going natural, inter-racial and adopted children and parents learning how to care for hair unlike their own, and the internet as a source of information.

A phenomenal book that explains in careful detail the evolution of African Americans' perception of their hair. A must-read for every AA man, woman, and child to develop a true understanding of where their self-perception about hair come from.

Wow! I liked this book a lot. Getting my first perm at age 4 up until age 17, I related to this story a lot. Black people have been taught to hate their looks for generations, with hair being the most criticized after our skin. Since our hair is the least expensive attribute to change, it’s often altered (at least in my opinion) and mainly by us women. The chronological order of events and pictures was a nice touch as well!

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes history and to Black women, specifically those going natural and/or those with children to undo the damage—physically and emotionally—as a result of our dangerous hair practices.

This is fascinating! A veritable textbook--there's that much information here about culture, history, trends--and it reads like a novel. I learned so much about the meaning and culture regarding hair.