Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

We all know there is a politics of skin color, but is there a politics of hair?In this book, Noliwe Rooks explores the history and politics of hair and beauty culture in African American communities from the nineteenth century to the 1990s. She discusses the ways in which African American women have located themselves in their own families, communities, and national culture through beauty advertisements, treatments, and styles. Bringing the story into today's beauty shop, listening to other women talk about braids, Afros, straighteners, and what they mean today to grandmothers, mothers, sisters, friends, and boyfriends, she also talks about her own family and has fun along the way. Hair Raising is that rare sort of book that manages both to entertain and to illuminate its subject.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Rooks's excellent book is a welcome entry in the feminist debates about American "beauty culture." In her "attempt to unravel the tangled meaning of hair in African American women's lives," Rooks (English, Univ. of Missouri) takes a cultural-studies approach to the history of hair-straightening products in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She closely examines advertisements for such products, looking at how African American women were portrayed and how they portrayed themselves in ads for product lines they owned. She also studies African American women's magazines to trace connections between hairstyling and gender. The book's broader project is "to discuss the politics of representation as it relates to the construction of an African American female identity and various positions surrounding the meaning of African American women's bodies in a broad social context." Concluding with a consideration of contemporary "hair politics," the book addresses the significant gap in the treatment of this subject by such feminist scholars as Naomi Wolf (The Beauty Myth, CH, Jan'92), Susan Brownmiller (Femininity, 1984), and Lois Banner (American Beauty, CH, Jul'83). Readable, accessible, and helpfully illustrated, this volume is a crucial addition to any library's collection. R. R. Warhol University of Vermont

Booklist Review

Rooks takes an interesting look at the social and political implications that hair has held for African American women. The six chapters discuss hair and its connection to black pride, race, advertising, gender, and women's magazines. She has used advertisements from different periods to trace representations of hair, which she then analyzes to show the political implications for women. She notes that discussions of hair in a political context have taken place in the mainstream press; however, the similarities and differences between the hair of women from the dominant culture and the hair of women of African American descent have never been fully explored. Rooks digs deep to describe how beauty and culture have politicized African American women and demonstrates that Western definitions of beauty are often not endorsed by African American women. Although Rooks' work is written in an academic style, the content is so compelling, readers will be intrigued by the quotes and footnotes rather than overwhelmed. Lillian Lewis