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Don't Touch My Hair

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Don't Touch My Hair

Written by: Emma Dabiri
Narrated by: Emma Dabiri
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Straightened. Stigmatised. 'Tamed'. Celebrated. Erased. Managed. Appropriated. Forever misunderstood. Black hair is never 'just hair'.

This book is about why black hair matters and how it can be viewed as a blueprint for decolonisation. Emma Dabiri takes us from pre-colonial Africa, through the Harlem Renaissance, Black Power and on to today's Natural Hair Movement, the Cultural Appropriation Wars and beyond. We look at everything from hair capitalists like Madam C.J. Walker in the early 1900s to the rise of Shea Moisture today, from women's solidarity and friendship to 'black people time', forgotten African scholars and 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 hairstyles, 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.

 Art Beauty, Grooming & Style History & Criticism Popular Culture Social Sciences Africa Discrimination Social justice
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What the critics say

Emma Dabiri's groundbreaking Don't Touch My Hair is a scintillating, intellectual investigation into black women and the very serious business of our hair, as it pertains to race, gender, social codes, tradition, culture, cosmology, maths, politics, philosophy and history, and also the role of hairstyles in pre-colonial Africa (Bernardine Evaristo)
FASCINATING, educational, personal, humble and engaging. I urge you to read it! (Marian Keyes)
I've been pleasantly engrossed this autumn in Emma Dabiri's nonfiction debut Don't Touch My Hair. Part memoir, part spiky, thoroughly researched socio-political analysis, it delves deep into the painful realities and history of follicular racism (Diana Evans)
Both a richly researched cultural history and a voyage to empowerment. (Colin Grant)
A triumph! Refeshingly accessible, enlightening and thorough ... an impeccably researched journey into our Black Hair and the ideas and feelings that have surrounded it, to this day. (Yrsa Daley-Ward)
Sensational
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)
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.
Groundbreaking...Her sources are rich, diverse and sometimes heartbreaking. Some books make us feel seen and for me, that is what Don't Touch My Hair does. I would urge everyone to read it (Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff)
An excellent and far reaching book...a call to arms for black African culture
All stars
Most Relevant
You could listen to this book over and over and continue to learn. I feel like the second time around I'll become much more familiar with the history and dates and the information will set in better. I'm going to go out and buy myself a hard copy too.

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The depth and knowledge that I got out of this book was wholly unexpected mainly because I interpreted the title in the most millennial ‘don’t touch my hair’ by Solange way. I felt like it was going to be a good affirming book but I didn’t expect to necessarily learn anything new.

As an African woman in the diaspora it hit the spot, as a Nigerian woman it hit the spot and as a Black British woman who sometimes resents the dominance of the Black American experience in Black narratives it hit the bloody spot! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

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