Decolonize Your Mind: "Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture" by Emma Dabiri
Here at She’s Full of Lit, we are deeply committed to anti-racism work, and anti-racist reading. While it’s important to take action and not just “join a book club” (as so many white women are wont to do when it comes to performative allyship), we are still a book blog.
So, this is the first in a new series called Decolonize Your Mind, in which we’ll recommend anti-racist books and break down what’s so enlightening and educational. We don’t want to lump these into our regular book reviews, and we also can’t do the work of reading, reflecting, and acting for you. So read on for our first rec—hopefully you’ll find them as interesting and informative as we do! (We also highly recommend purchasing these books from Bookshop.org rather than Amazon if you are able.) (I bought my ebook at Bookshop.org.)
“Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture” by Emma Dabiri
Bookshop | Amazon
Publisher Synopsis: Emma Dabiri can tell you the first time she chemically straightened her hair. She can describe the smell, the atmosphere of the salon, and her mix of emotions when she saw her normally kinky tresses fall down her shoulders. For as long as Emma can remember, her hair has been a source of insecurity, shame, and--from strangers and family alike--discrimination. And she is not alone.
Despite increasingly liberal world views, black hair continues to be erased, appropriated, and stigmatized to the point of taboo. Through her personal and historical journey, Dabiri gleans insights into the way racism is coded in society's perception of black hair--and how it is often used as an avenue for discrimination. Dabiri takes us from pre-colonial Africa, through the Harlem Renaissance, and into today's Natural Hair Movement, exploring everything from women's solidarity and friendship, to the criminalization of dreadlocks, to the dubious provenance of Kim Kardashian's braids.
Through the lens of hair texture, Dabiri leads us on a historical and cultural investigation of the global history of racism--and her own personal journey of self-love and finally, acceptance.
Deeply researched and powerfully resonant, Twisted proves that far from being only hair, black hairstyling culture can be understood as an allegory for black oppression and, ultimately, liberation.
Why I Loved It: Hair is the hook (obviously), but the book is really about the history, spiritualism, and tradition of Africa, as well as a commentary on colonialism and capitalism. The central thesis is that, due to colonialism, European beauty standards are regarded as the “best” and Black women have been conditioned to desire European beauty standards, but Black hair is inherently different and should be treated as such. (Also, of course, European hair and beauty standards need to be examined with a much more critical lens.) Dabiri is completing a PhD and the book is dense with information, but very readable; there are often little asides in colloquialisms (“lol,” and such).
What I Learned: The chapter about the concept of time as we know it, time in the African tradition, and how Black women’s hair takes longer to “look presentable” by European standards, which unreasonably tips the scale, was fascinating.
This is where we start to get into capitalism and the idea that anything that disrupts the maximization of profit becomes subversive. “For black women, when our hair became a burden, reclaiming the time to do it became in itself an act of rebellion. In fact, one of the most practical justifications for relaxing black hair is that far less time is required to maintain it.”
The book doesn’t delve too much into modern salons/hairdressing schools, which are still highly segregated, but I think it’s important to know where we’ve been in order to move forward. There is some excellent info on early Black female entrepreneurs in the hair space, and how they conformed to white standards but repackaged them as “healthy hair” vs “beautiful.”
There is an entire chapter on cultural appropriation and the Kardashian/Jenners are called out accordingly; they are some of, if not the, biggest perpetrators of cultural appropriation considering how much they profit off of Black culture.
The final chapter delved into math, mapping, and patterns that have been part of African traditions for hundreds of years. There is a particularly poignant passage here about a slave named Thomas Fuller (African birth name unknown) who was a mathematical prodigy and the property of two illiterate Virginians. It’s overwhelming and unbearably sad to think about the Black talent that was stamped out by slavery, colonialism, and capitalism.
I was also struck by the observation that European hairstyles from a few hundred years ago look super dated/old-fashioned, while traditional African hairstyles from hundreds of years ago still look modern today—something I had never really thought about but that holds true. There is so much tradition and history in traditionally African styles that have been passed down from generation to generation.
This book challenged my assumptions in many ways and I want to buy a hard copy so I can highlight it to my heart’s content (I am not precious with my books). I highly recommend reading this one!
Key Quotes:
“Beauty is, as ever, imagined through the characteristics of a standard not designed to include us. The only way Afro hair can seemingly fulfill the criteria for beauty is if we make it look like European hair—if we make ourselves look like something we are not.”
“In Timbuktu during the city’s Golden Age (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries), books were reputed to be the most valued and valuable commodity. However, unless something had a direct parallel in European society, usually it went unseen. As a result, many rich, complex cultural phenomena were merely discarded and dismissed as primitive, and certainly never made it to the annals of history.”
“The deeply ingrained ‘truth’ that black hair is too time-consuming does not make sense in an indigenous context. For the Yoruba, time was understood in relation to the task that had to be done. Until European forms of capitalism took root, time for most people was your own.”
“Where lack of time relates specifically to hairstyling, the balance is tipped in favor of our straight- or wavy-haired sisters. While white women can quite reasonably rock the tousled, just-got-out-of-bed, shabby-chic effect, the hair that grows from my head does not accommodate such a laissez-faire approach to grooming. For black hair, the costs of not having enough time are higher. Can you imagine running a brush through your hair and being done?”
“The time it takes to do Afro hair is, quite frankly, the time that is required to do it. And it is in this fact that a very powerful truth is revealed. Our hair continues to be a space in which the fault lines between an imposed European system and black bodies’ resistance to that system are exposed and played out in real time.”
“Seeing our images reflected back to us in advertising campaigns for institutions or brands that further entrench those systems is certainly not freedom. I have this sneaking suspicion that our kin didn’t endure what they did so that we could wear ‘This is what a feminist looks like’ T-shirts produced by sweatshop slaves. We have to dream bigger than brand inclusivity as an end goal.”
“Everything you have been taught about Africa is a lie, a story designed to justify the continent’s exploitation.”
If you click on one of the links in this article and make a purchase, She’s Full of Lit may receive a small commission. It doesn’t add anything to your price — we promise! Thanks so much for your support.
