Customer Reviews

Good Hair: For Colored Girls Who've Considered Weaves When the Chemicals Became Too Ruff

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is the first book I read while I was considering going natural. I found it funny and entertaining, and I read it cover to cover three times. The book was recommended to me by a hairdresser who had given up relaxing her own hair. When I talked to her about possibly going natural, she said that some people still "texturized" once or twice a year. While reading "Good Hair", I noticed that the author also talked about texturizing hair as an option, and in fact texturized (lightly relaxed) her own. I felt somewhat disappointed by that because the main reason I wanted to stop perming was so that I did not have to rely on anyone to do my hair. Texturizing was something that I knew I'd be unable to do myself. Furthermore, it made me feel as though the many styles Ms. Bonner modeled and gave instructions for would not work on my super tightly curled/kinky natural hair. I persevered however, and using this site, found the book, "Let's Talk Hair" by Pamela Ferrell. That book was much more encouraging to me because it offered free form natural styles that were achieved without any chemicals. I have been completely natural for almost a year now, and I love it. The funny thing is, I have recently begun to rely more and more heavily on "Good Hair" for styling help and hair care advice. I have now found that most of those styles can be accomplished without texturizing--all you need is enough length. If I had read "Good Hair" only, I may not have embarked on my natural journey. But now that I am well into it, I find this book to be very helpful.

Just so no one is disappointed, Lonnice writes that she uses a texturizer on her hair. Don't expect your chemical free hair to look like the hair in her cover picture. Just as we ladies all don't have the exact same skin color, we won't have the same hair texture or curl/wave pattern, grow hair at the same speed, etc. Keeping this in mind will decrease the chances of being disappoined by your chemical free hair. This being said, you may be surprised and hopefully pleased with what's naturally yours.

Many of use will relate to Lonnice's funny recollections of the hair drama that led to her own natural journey. She then discusses the "science of hair": why hair grows straight, wavy or curly; the chemistry of how relaxers work, etc. She also explains how to best grow out a relaxer if you don't want to to lose your hair length by cutting off the relaxed part. I did this unknowingly as I was always lazy about touchups and had had about 2 inches of new growth when I decided on a major cut instead of a touchup.

Though almost 10 years old, this books contains timeless, practical suggestions such as washing the hair in sections rather than dumping on shampoo on top of the head and using your fingers to rub it into a lathered mess. The best kinds of shampoos, conditioners, and hair dressings are discussed along with the best kind of hair accessories to use. This is an enormously, useful book and I only gave it four stars because the book doesn't go beyond what I consider basic styles(afros, braids and twists, undone braids and twists, roller sets, etc). Once I got beyond the basics I also purchased Pamela Ferrell's Let's Talk Hair because it includes a lot more info about styles, braids, locing, etc.

Ultimately, Good Hair remains a trusted, back-to-basics guide that I've started giving to friends to start them on their own natural journies. I wish it had been available when I went natural in the summer of '93. Give going a natural a try because you can always relax again if you don't like it.

I toyed with the idea of natural hair since the idea first entered my head, about five years ago. I'd noticed more and more sistas with natural hair around me - and not just in dreads, locks or braids. That was important because I didn't favor any of those styles for myself personally. Finally, after seeing enough 'nappy and happy' alternatives, I started looking for a book to introduce me to natural hair care. (Isn't that sad, that any of us need guidance to care for our natural hair?) But I'd been perming since puberty, and didn't even know what my natural hair looked like or even what to expect from it. I got a lot of encouragement from the book, along with good advice and that cultural connection that Ms. Bonner establishes with her readers. Unfortunately, she doesn't exhibit natural styles in this book, her hair is texturized - but that's my only complaint. She should practice what she preaches, or at least show natural AND texturized styles. I went natural after a grow-out period of six or seven months (yikes!) and haven't looked back. My hair has a natural curl I never even suspected, and it loves the "shake", described in her book. I can hardly wait till it's longer, and I can experiment more. I get a lot more compliments now than I ever did with processed hair, and black men especially go for my new look. We've been told FOREVER that we needed euro-hair to attract men, am I right? - but take if from me - we definitely do NOT. Black, white, asian, hispanic - they can all get with my new 'do. Best of all, I'M loving it! I only wish I'd done it sooner. Been natural for about four months now and have been stylin' and profilin' ever since. Try it; what have you got to lose? You can always go straight again in 1/2 hour, if you want. But it's worth an honest try to see (and experiment with) what you've already got. Why straighten your hair to within an inch of it's life, only to curl it up tight afterwards? I highly recommmend working with what God gave you; you might be very pleasantly surprised. I've sure been! - jem

In June of 1998, my mother told me she was going natural, and gave me this book to read. I picked it up and read if from cover to cover. Since that day, I have not used a blow dryer or curling iron on my hair! I started by cutting my hair very short. I then used ideas from the book to style my hair. It has been a year, and I now have strong, beautiful, curly, natural shoulder length hair. This is an excellent book, the author seemed to know everything that I had been going through my entire life. I have tryed all the perms, curls, etc. I've also had one bad hair day after another. Wearing natural hair has given me a freedom that is impossible to describe. I don't spend alot of time or money on my hair anymore, and I am proud to wear my hair in its natural state, the way God intended. I have received numerous complements, but most importantly, I have found my natural hair! To the author--Thank you for taking the time to write this excellent informative book.

Sistas, watch out for this book. it sneakily pretends to advocate embracing your natural hair, while advising you to chemically distort it to create the styles in the book. As if we can't wear our hair "down" without putting *some* kind of chemical in it. She should see my hair; it sure as hell look better than hers!

The good hair she portrays in the book is always "texturized" to give the looser, closer to European curl that we were encouraged to lust after from an early age. I am currently doing a degree that partly involves formulating products that alter the chemical structure of the hair. My course, and some of the real hair stories you see everyday have taught me this much:

1) Texturizing your hair is still relaxing your hair, it's just a case of relaxing the curl less.

2)None of these processes can change your actual texture, despite the misleading name. If your hair was coarse when it was curly, it will be coarse when it's straight. Why do you think our hair still looks different from white people's even when it's mad straight?

3) Furthermore, every nap wasn't created the same. If your hair has more of a zig-zag pattern than a curl, or has a looser curl, then the "texturizer" might actually straighten your hair , even if you leave it in just a few minutes. Some people think their curl is tighter than it is 'cause it has lots of texture (the kind of "grip" you feel when you rub your fingers down a strand), so the curls are real separate and look like a 'fro. Imagine the shock they get when a "texturizer" leaves them bone-straight.

Brittenum Bonner might preach one thing, but what she practices belies it. Her message is tainted with calcium hydroxide & does nothing to stop women maligning their own hair. Ultimately, it ends up reinforcing that same destructive lie that drives so many sistas to the caustic chemical "fix" in the first place.

How come when I get a book on hair care, it doesn't talk much about hair care? This book is like a hair autobiography. I actually think it's just a bunch of filler because the author doesn't even offer that much hair advice. It's basic stuff that you should already know if you have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Anway, she advocates using a texturizer to smooth the kinkiest of hair. It's kind of funny, but right now it's stylish to have nappy hair-only if it's fake or has a texturizer in it. Whenever I look through a "natural" hair magazine, all I see are nappy weaves. That doesn't make sense to me: why buy a fake nappy hair piece when you can grow it from your scalp for free?Don't be fooled by the texturizers. It doesn't matter if you get it done at home or at a salon- a texturizer is just a relaxer slapped on your head and rinsed out after 5-10 minutes. A texturizer won't make your hair easier to manange or give you curls like Tracee Ellis Ross or Rachel True. A texturizer is a chemical, it's ruff, and you *will* be considering a weave eventually, depending on how frequently you texturize.

But back to the book. Lonnice wears her hair in twist out and shows all the marvelous styles she can make. Whoop dee do. What's hilarious is how there are three photographs showing her hair getting long and longer from wearing a twist out for a few days. Don't be fooled by that either. All she's doing is tilting her neck back. Some chicks on haircare websites do stuff like that. They'll post a message that says, "Look! My hair grew 4.5 inches this month from the 100 vitamin pills I'm taking!" When you see their "new growth," it's not growth at all but necks being tilted all the way back. But folks get excited anyway. Whatever!

The best hair care book I read is "No Lye" by Tulani Kinard. There are pictures of damaged hair, different hairstyles, oils to use, etc. It's a good book to read and get some advice if you're natural but keep in mind that only YOU know what's good for your hair to keep it healthy. Don't run out and get a texturizer because someone said so.

I agree w/ Deborah in D.C.-- I, too, decided to go "natural" (my real self, right?) back in '96. Well, I had seen the author of this book on "Oprah" and had seen the book in '94 in the stores. Picked it up in '96 and wore braids for a year in order to grow out the real deal. Well, when you look at the pictures in this book, you HAVE TO REALIZE that the author's hair is TEXTURIZED. Agreed: why go natural just to put "mild" chemicals in it? Natural is natural, period. A texturizer, much like a regular relaxer, when applied wrong can damage your hair. Now I'm sitting here in '99 wishing I had kept it absolutely natural since '96. Instead of having a head full of slightly damaged texturized hair, I could have a head full of beautiful NATURAL hair. Don't get fooled by the beautiful hairstyles in the book. They're ALL texturized. What's NATURAL about that?

I had been considering cutting my relaxer and going natural. This book gave me the needed push to go on and do just that. She was very honest about the reactions you get when you cut your hair off. I had to deal with all the comments about how a woman should have long hair, but her book helped me from getting depressed. During the growing-out period, I would get depressed sometimes because I thought my hair would never grow back to its original length. Many times I wanted to put a relaxer in it again. However, this book (and braids) helped me make it. Whenever I was close to scheduling a relaxer appointment, I picked up the book and read over it again and looked at the pictures of her beautiful, healthy, NATURAL head of hair. Now, I have my own head of healthy, NATURAL, hair past my shoulders. It was a long year, but it was worth it. Her styling ideas are also very interesting. The BEST part, though, is how healthy my hair is now thanks to her tips on hair products as well as lessons on the anatomy of black hair.

Thank God for this book! My hair has been natural for six years now and I couldn't be happier-thanks to this book. I felt like she was writing about MY hair horror experiences with perms and idiot hairdressers (I'm sure just about every African American woman can relate to at least one of Bonner's experiences!) The hairstyles are indeed practical and beautiful, excellent information about our hair structure and products to use and most importantly-HOW to treat our hair (ie: using satin pillowcases & scarves instead of cotton for sleeping). I was also pleasantly pleased to see that my hair became naturally wavier with time by consistently using these styling methods over the years (especially the Corkscrew crimp style-my favorite); my hair became easier to manage. I think that EVERY black woman should have this book-even if she doesn't prefer natural hairstyles!

I was disappointed by this book. When I wore my hair natural (with absolutely no hint of texturizer), I found it difficult to duplicate many of the styles featured in this book. If you have truly kinky, afro-textured hair and prefer NOT to wear a comb-through hair texturizer (texturizers are made up of chemicals, by the way), I'd look elsewhere for hair care tips.