Hair Matters or After a Fashion

Hair Matters: Beauty, Power, and Black Women's Consciousness

Author: Ingrid Banks

"Introduces the audience to consider the value of the insider/outsider relationship in another's culture"
—National Women's Studies Association Journal

Long hair in the 60s, Afros in the early 70s, bobs in the 80s, fuschia in the 90s. Hair is one of the first attributes to catch our eye, not only because it reflects perceptions of attractiveness or unattractiveness, but also because it conveys important political, cultural, and social meanings, particularly in relation to group identity. Given that mainstream images of beauty do not privilege dark skin and tightly coiled hair, African American women's experience provides a starkly different perspective on the meaning of hair in social identity."
--National Women's Studies Association Journal

"Grab your copy at your local bookseller and get hip to what your hair is saying to others with regards to beauty, culture and politics. Learn about how culture has a love for coifs, because after all, so do you!"
—Sophisticate's Black Hair Styles GuideDrawing on interviews with over 50 women, from teens to seniors, Hair Matters is the first book on the politics of Black hair to be based on substantive, ethnographically informed research. Focusing on the everyday discussions that Black women have among themselves and about themselves, Ingrid Banks analyzes how talking about hair reveals Black women's ideas about race, gender, sexuality, beauty, and power. Ultimately, what emerges is a survey of Black women's consciousness within both their own communities and mainstream culture at large.

Women Studies Association Journal

Introduces the audience to consider the value of the insider/outsider relationship in another's culture.

Library Journal

For this discussion on the politics of black hair, Banks, a professor of black studies at Virginia Tech, interviewed over 50 women, from teens to seniors, to determine how hair shapes ideas about race, gender, sexuality, beauty, and power. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Table of Contents:

	Acknowledgements
	Introduction: Unhappy to Be Nappy	1
1	Why Hair Matters: Getting to the Roots	21
2	The Hair "Do's" and "Don'ts" of Black Womanhood	41
3	Splitting Hairs: Power, Choice, and Femininity	69
4	Women and Girls Speak Out: Five Hair-Raising Sessions	99
5	Black Hair, 1990s Style	139
	Conclusion	147
	App. I: Methods, Methodology, and the Shaping of Hair Matters	157
	App. II: Defining Black Hair and Hairstyling Practices	171
	App. III: Interviewee Demographics	175
	Notes	179
	References	185
	Index	193
	About the Author	197

Books about: Cocktails or More Seasonal Cooking

After a Fashion: How to Reproduce, Restore, and Wear Vintage Styles

Author: Frances Grimbl

How do you design a Renaissance Fair costume? Restore a Victorian wedding dress? Bid on antique buttons at Internet auctions? The new edition of After a Fashion: How to Reproduce, Restore, and Wear Vintage Styles, answers all these questions and more. This practical, information-packed guide tells how to make authentic historic reproductions and how to mend and alter vintage clothes. It includes many techniques developed by the author, Frances Grimble. Detailed drawings by Deborah Kuhn enhance the style descriptions and step-by-step instructions.

After a Fashion covers medieval through Art Deco styles, for men and women. It guides readers through each stage of a reproduction project-planning, designing, choosing materials, and constructing. It advises them on all aspects of collecting vintage clothes-buying, restoring, altering, and wearing. The pattern-making and sewing instructions are useful to sewers at any experience level. Directions have been added for using the Internet to buy and sell, research styles, and contact costumers and collectors. An updated, expanded appendix lists over 600 sources (on-line and otherwise) for supplies, vintage clothes, and information.

Here's what readers say about the first edition: "One of the most wonderful sewing/historical costuming books I've ever read." "Whenever I'm trying to figure out how to restore a vintage piece, this is the book I turn to." "A wonderful work that has something for everyone-beginner to advanced." "Hard-to-find information is unified and clearly presented. I know I'll use it as a reference for a long time and recommend it often." "Like five books for the price of one." "Engaging, informative, well written-a wonderful resource!"