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Big Hair: A Journey into the Transformation of Self
1996, First American Edition, Paperback, 218 pages
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
93 people want to read
About the author
Grant McCracken
20 books49 followersI'm an anthropologist, born in Canada, now living in, and studying, the US. I divide my life into two halves. One is the writing half. The other is for clients: Netflix, the Ford Foundation, the White House, among others. My new book, out in late December from Simon and Schuster is called The New Honor Code.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 21, 2016
I was really looking forward to reading this book, as I have one of McCracken's other books: Transformations: Identity Construction in Contemporary Culture, which I have enjoyed reading so far. I find the premise of this book fascinating – it's a look at identity construction/signification via hair styles (particularly women's hair styles) in contemporary (the book was published in 1995) Western culture – all through an anthropologist's lens.
While I think this book is interesting, and a good companion piece to Transformations, my 3 star rating is for what I consider a grave, glaring error: the omission of any substantial discussion about black hair (as in "the colour black"), and the total omission of any mention of black hair (as in "Afro-textured hair"). The book is written from a North American perspective (the author is Canadian), and as someone who lived in North America in the 90's, I can say that there were lots of fascinating things happening in the world of African-American hair at the time – not to mention the radical identity politics inherent in the resurgence of the Afro and natural hair styles in the previous decades of the 60's and 70's. Afro-textured hair certainly deserved it's own chapter in this book, or at least a generous subsection, perhaps within a larger section on ethnic hair (there is no section on ethnic hair).
The colour black also deserved it's own section – there is a lot to say about black hair! This oversight is made all the more obvious in contrast to the swathes and swathes of pages dedicated to blonde hair! The amount written on blonde hair is understandable, as there is much to say about it's significance in our culture; but to not treat black hair with an equal, or proportional weight is a bit curious. There is a modest section on Brunettes, and a modest section on Redheads – but the Brunette section deals with "true" brunettes, i.e. shades of brown, not black–haired women. There are only a paltry few, brief acknowledgements of black hair as it relates to covering grey, or certain hairstyles like the "China Doll" or the "Cleopatra". Scattered all over various sections, well known black-haired women (and Elvis) get quickly named checked, or perhaps a photo might be used, but there is no section dedicated to the colour, as with the other shades.
Overall, this is an engaging, if frustratingly partial survey.
While I think this book is interesting, and a good companion piece to Transformations, my 3 star rating is for what I consider a grave, glaring error: the omission of any substantial discussion about black hair (as in "the colour black"), and the total omission of any mention of black hair (as in "Afro-textured hair"). The book is written from a North American perspective (the author is Canadian), and as someone who lived in North America in the 90's, I can say that there were lots of fascinating things happening in the world of African-American hair at the time – not to mention the radical identity politics inherent in the resurgence of the Afro and natural hair styles in the previous decades of the 60's and 70's. Afro-textured hair certainly deserved it's own chapter in this book, or at least a generous subsection, perhaps within a larger section on ethnic hair (there is no section on ethnic hair).
The colour black also deserved it's own section – there is a lot to say about black hair! This oversight is made all the more obvious in contrast to the swathes and swathes of pages dedicated to blonde hair! The amount written on blonde hair is understandable, as there is much to say about it's significance in our culture; but to not treat black hair with an equal, or proportional weight is a bit curious. There is a modest section on Brunettes, and a modest section on Redheads – but the Brunette section deals with "true" brunettes, i.e. shades of brown, not black–haired women. There are only a paltry few, brief acknowledgements of black hair as it relates to covering grey, or certain hairstyles like the "China Doll" or the "Cleopatra". Scattered all over various sections, well known black-haired women (and Elvis) get quickly named checked, or perhaps a photo might be used, but there is no section dedicated to the colour, as with the other shades.
Overall, this is an engaging, if frustratingly partial survey.
June 9, 2011
The author is an anthropologist/sociologist; this book, despite its misleading title, is actually a fascinating study of well, the sociology of . . . hair! (And I wonder why I have to get all of my library books through inter-library loan!)
January 8, 2015
This is an interesting book, but it feels very dated reading it now.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews