Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America pg 90-182

Summary


In the 1980s the curly perm was very successful everyone was getting them from men to women to children. The curly perm was a perm that African Americans use to make their hair curly. It was very easy to get it was cheap and it allowed African Americans to do hair styles that was not available to them before. But then after Michael Jackson's accident while shooting a Pepsi commercial many people thought his hair caught on fire because of his hair products combined with the fire workers which made his hair flammable so people stopped using curly perm. In the 1990 African Americans stopped trying to change there hair and stared to do natural styles like breading, and Dreds. Buts these styles were not accepted by the white community. Students were often send home because of their hair styles, boy were not allowed to have pony tails and girls could not do zigzags on their hair. Many kids thought that nappy hair was messed up and unacceptable. The society they lived in made them believe that nappy hair was ugly, it was not their fault it was the way they lived and what they experienced.

Quotation

"Can nappy hair be pretty? The resounding reply was an excited yes"(Byrd 182).

Reaction

it took many years but Black hair was slowing being accepted in society. The book started with Whites saying black hair was ugly and not acceptable, to blacks trying to change their hair, and finally to blacks loving their hair and accepting the way it is.