"Many women insist that their decision to go natural is not explicitly political. The fact that they even have to state this, however, shows how far from the norm black hair is still considered to be."

“It’s only hair,” is the response many Black women contend with when voicing their frustration at society's judgement of their tresses. In this debut, BBC presenter and Guardian contributor, Emma Dabiri, explores the underlying issues of racism tangled up in conversations surrounding Black hair.

Like many Black women, Dabiri can remember in detail the first time she chemically straightened her hair. She can recall the smell, the burning sensation of her scalp and the mixed range of emotions she experienced watching her thick, tightly coiled hair transform to lank, straight locks. As a mixed-race child growing in Ireland in the 1980's, she spent her childhood hating her hair and exploring ways to make it better comply with European standards of beauty. But as she has come of age she has realised that white is not right and this book is a detailed exploration of how she came to that conclusion and what she has done with that knowledge. 

There have been many conversations on Black hair culture and cultural appropriation that, while important, fail to reach the heart of the matter. Dabiri situates her own personal hair story within the wider history of how African hair has been perceived from before the European invasion of Africa til now. One of the parts I enjoyed most in this book was the exploration of the original, Yoruba names for many of the hairstyles that are staples in black culture. Aside from terms such as "boxer braids" and "mini buns" that have been the Kardashian and wider mainstream media's way of taking ownership of a culture that isn't theirs, terms such as "cornrows" or "canerows' are situated in a slave narrative. Dabiri reverts to original terms, reminding Black people of African descent that our history did not begin in slavery and colonisation but way before.

Written in a style that will challenge you yet also create the illusion of a casual conversation with a friend, Twisted brings new perspective to the topic of Black hair.