Don't Touch My Hair: Emma Dabiri - Softcover

Dabiri, Emma

Softcover

ISBN 10: 014198628X ISBN 13: 9780141986289

Publisher: Penguin, 2020

Synopsis

Recent years have seen the conversation around black hair reach tipping point, yet detractors still proclaim 'it's only hair!' when it never is. This book is about why black hair matters and how it can be viewed as a blueprint for decolonisation. The author takes us from pre-colonial Africa, through the Harlem Renaissance, Black Power and into today's Natural Hair Movement, the Cultural Appropriation Wars and beyond. We look at the trajectory from hair capitalists like Madam CJ Walker in the early 1900s to the rise of Shea Moisture today, touching on everything from women's solidarity and friendship, to forgotten African scholars, to the dubious provenance of Kim Kardashian's braids.

The scope of black hairstyling ranges from pop culture to cosmology, from prehistoric times to the (afro)futuristic. Uncovering sophisticated indigenous mathematical systems in black hair styles, alongside styles that served as secret intelligence networks leading enslaved Africans to freedom, Don't Touch My Hair proves that far from being only hair, black hairstyling culture can be understood as an allegory for black oppression and, ultimately, liberation.

About this title

Review:

Both a richly researched cultural history and a voyage to empowerment. (Colin Grant Guardian)

Sensational (Women's Health)

Pulled together with meticulous research, Don't Touch My Hair is an unmissable read by a writer who's set to become a household name (Francesca Brown Stylist)

The first book from one of Ireland's brightest literary talents, Don't Touch My Hair brilliantly deconstructs western views of everything from beauty to social value systems, and even to our understanding of time, all through the lens of how African cultures value hair. (Hotpress)

About the Author:

Emma Dabiri is a teaching fellow in the Africa department at SOAS and a Visual Sociology PhD researcher at Goldsmiths. She has been published in a number of anthologies - alongside such post-colonial heavyweights as Homi Bhabha and Achille Mbembe - academic journals, as well as the national press. A regular BBC face she presented 'Back in Time Brixton' (BBC2), 'Britain's Lost Masterpieces' (BBC4), as well as the sociological experiment 'Is Love Racist?' (Ch4). Most recently, she hosted Radio 4's critically-acclaimed documentary 'Journeys into Afro-futurism'.

Her hair has been disappointing people since birth.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 014198628X
• ISBN 13: 9780141986289
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256