Hair care in the Black community has always been a ritual that communicates love and consideration.  From little girls sitting between their mother’s knees in ancient villages, and fathers sharpening razors to tend to newly sprouting adolescent whiskers, and on to the communal environments created in modern day beauty & barber shops, the attention given to hair has long been an extension for the love given to the human spirit.

In the chapter ‘The DL’, of A BLIND EYE Ricky shows inclusion when he offers to braid Chance’s hair in .  It is a non-formal attempt to draw in an ‘outsider’. This is also done when Babe and Chance help Rueben get dressed to go to the concert in the chapter titled ‘Diana Ross Tubman’, where he also recieves an inpromtu lesson in Black history. 

In her autobiography, JUST AS I AM, Cicely Tyson talks about the elemental weight hair care has for people of the diaspora.  “Our foremothers created the world’s most ornate, intricate, and diverse hairstyles, squeezing their young’uns between their thighs, swapping laughter with every braid and twist.  I our communities, to be groomed was to be loved” (page 190).

The phenomenal book and short film HAIR LOVE by Matthew A. Cherry, shows the power and deep meaning involved in hair care in the Black community.

Nappily Ever After (2018), a Netflix feature starring Sanaa Lathan, also shows the complex relationship Black women sometimes have related to the messages that the presentation of hair can send to the world and to self.

 Go to this link to watch HAIR LOVE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNw8V_Fkw28