"We are the only mammals who braid, knot, powder, pile up, oil, spray, tease, perm, color, curl, straighten, augment, shave off, and clip our hair," notes Siri Hustvedt, one of the 27 contributors to Me, My Hair, and I.
The writers are diverse, but their hair experiences bear similar weight. Marita Goldman recalls the ordeal of straightening: "I was not to face the world until my hair looked as near as it could to 'good hair,' also known as 'White girl's hair.' " Young Hindu Bengali girls' heads are shaved in the belief that a second growth will be fuller and thicker, Bharati Mukherjee relates. Deborah Feldman remembers her ritual head shaving after her wedding, grateful she would now fit in with a community of wig-wearing Hasidic wives.
Who knew that hair would prompt so many stories of emotional turmoil? "We get that hair is serious," editor Elizabeth Benedict writes. And business is here to help. According to Goldman Sachs, the hair-care industry is worth $38 billion a year in products alone, reports Patricia Volk, admitting to 10 bottles of hair products under her sink for her "curly season" and another seven for summertime.
Sorrows--chemotherapy-induced hair loss, family spats over styles, the angst of to-color-or-not--are balanced by humor and hilarious admissions. "Rather than depressing me, every glance in the mirror at my gray hair has become a carpe diem moment," Anne Kreamer concludes. Anne Lamott's dreadlocks decision, perms gone frizzy, orange juice–can rollers and ironing mishaps--this collection will comfort readers remembering their own hair stories. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, manager, Book Passage, San Francisco