Customer Reviews

Queens: Portraits of Black Women and their Fabulous Hair

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This book provides an array of styles and expressions of Black pride. Hair texture and skin tone have historically been issues among Black folks since the days of slavery, segregation and a cast systems within the race.

Queens portrays hair style as a way in which a sistah can express her whole personality by making whatever statement she chooses.

"Hair is a big part of how we define ourselves and other people make assumptions about us based on our hair." "I set my hair money aside like it's a bill." "She's dark, but at least she has all that hair." "Hair is fun, hair is temporary, I think it's meant to be played with." These are some of the quotes taken from QUEENS: Portraits of Black Women and Their Fabulous Hair by Michael Cunningham and George Alexander. Cunningham, the photographer and Alexander, the journalist, have put together photo essays highlighting African-American women throughout the world and the role hair plays in their lives.

Through the interviews we find some women attempting to make political statements while for others, no statements are necessary. Also, family traditions play a large part in how we deal with our hair. Like a rite of passage, certain ages are staples in families dictating when you can get a perm and when you can get a cut. One woman stated that her father was a Black Nationalist, and therefore perms were a no-no in her household. Some prefer to go natural, using no chemicals and for others, perms are the way to go. There are also the salon dramas, thus becoming a reason to avoid them. At the same time, there is a psychological benefit afforded within salons while relaxing and regrouping from the stresses of life. Regardless of the preference, convenience appears to be the overriding factor with hairstyles depending upon your lifestyle and cost is no object to achieve certain results.

Whether it is in America, London or Ghana, Cunningham and Alexander have delivered a comprehensively written and visual look into the African culture and the relationship between mind, body and hair. If we take a look at our own lives and history within our families, we will certainly come across a story that speaks to our hearts. QUEENS can serve as excellent conversational piece among women while pulling in the male species for their take. "The salon is a place where women can come in and sit down and be heard and finally express how they are feeling." Hats off to the author and the photographer for a job well done.

Reviewed by Dawn R. Reeves
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

In the late '60s, journalist A'Lelia Bundles waged a battle repeated in many households across the country: she decided to stop pressing her hair and start wearing it in an Afro.
It didn't help that her father worked for Summit Laboratories, a manufacturer of hair-straightening products. "Who do you think pays the mortgage and tuition?" he demanded.
But Bundles' consciousness was on the rise. The day Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, she was elected vice president of her high school student council, and white parents were threatening to take their kids out of the school.
While this was going on, Bundles was reading W.E.B. DuBois. She was also on the threshold of discovering the legacy of her great-great-grandmother Madame Walker, a pioneering activist, philanthropist and hair products entrepreneur.
"I'm proud to say I have all of my ancestors in my hair," Bundles writes in "Queens," a fascinating collection of African-American hair lore. "But in the era I grew up in, people only valued whatever part of your hair that was straight." She got her Afro.
"Queens: Portraits of Black Women and Their Fabulous Hair" is the logical successor to photographer Michael Cunningham's "Crowns." The earlier book, a collection of stories and images of black church women and their elaborate hats, resonated so deeply with readers it was adapted into a musical production (now running in Lansing at the Riverwalk Theater; see review on p. XX). "Queens" pairs fifty Cunningham portraits with verbal histories, some in the subjects' own words and some told by co-author George Alexander.
The gatefold of "Queens" depicts an outdoor salon in Ghana, where women and men laugh and talk under a huge tree. The image sets the tone for the mingling of social life and hair that runs through the book.
Cunningham is well positioned document this world; he grew up with his mother and five sisters who turned his home into a salon every Saturday. Later, the photographer notes, "a prerequisite to dating some of the girls in high school was taking care of their weekly salon bills."
Cunningham's restless and inventive eye keeps the book's fifty portraits from becoming monotonous -- even those photos meant to convey nobility, dignity and poise have a twinkle or wrinkle that kicks them up a notch. In some of the photos, subject and hair are seen in splendid isolation, while others pull back to reveal the subject at home or in a salon.
But no hair book would be much fun without a wild side, and Cunningham is generous in serving up outrageous visions of self-expression. Tracy Poris, a hairstyling student, wears a vertical do about as tall as a flamingo, with a matching outfit itself made of hair. Angela Williams sports a Mohawk, which tells passersby "I don't care what you think." Corene Campbell colors her hair blue "to match her shoes." Jenelle Byron, a 23-year-old college student from Brooklyn, wears her hair in a literally towering do that mimics the burning World Trade Center, "flames" of curling hair rising from the top floors.
The freaky dos are great fun, but more often, the authors weave images and stories around social and political dimensions of African-American life. "There are no Black stars," writes Harriett Indira Odei, lamenting the persistent domination of European beauty standards. "They see the white hair and they like it." Odei is photographed by Cunningham in a Ghanian hair sculpture that defies verbal description (it looks like a windblown beach fence with mossy seaweed curled beneath).
Author Tonya Lewis Lee, whose hair color is gold verging on "carrottop," recalls her mother rinsing her hair with tea when summer sunshine made it too light and brassy. "You looking too much like massa," she told her daughter.
Some of the most interesting subjects in the books are hair stylists themselves. Their accounts reveal salons as not only social anchors, but sources of empowerment for both stylist and client. "The hairdo is secondary to having someone focus on them," says Sonia Mullins of her clients. "These women are busy hustling for the dollar, trying to take care of their families, and they don't have time to address themselves."
Whether the end result is whimsical, rebellious, exotic or no-nonsense, "Queens" demonstrated the degree to which self-worth and pride are bound up in these women's hair.
"When I see myself in an Afro," says actress Thoundia Bickham, "I feel more powerful."
Or, as A'Lelia Bundles concludes, "the older I get the more I realize that what endures is 'strong,' not 'cute'."

I found "Queens: Portraits of Black Women and Their Hair" to be a wonderful book. I enjoyed the photographs and the stories that went along with them. Hair is such a loaded issue for Black women that it's refreshing to see a book that glorifies all manner of hair and hair styles. As India Arie sings, "I am not my hair" meaning I am more than my hair. However, there's a very real part of us that is our hair and Michael Cunningham has captured that part.

The portraits of Black Women and their respective hairstyles are definitely food for conversation! This is a great book to have to share with generations to come.

My best friend knows that I love reading, and I love looking at different hairstyles, so she gave me this book for a birthday present.

Cunningham and Alexander display an array of hairstyles of different African American women, each with stories about the motivation, therapeutic release, and empowering feelings that these styles evoke.

They carefully show that whether short or long, a woman's hair speaks volumes about her individual style, personality, and present state of mind. It doesn't matter if her hair is relaxed or natural, kinky or straight, she should still feel like a queen, even if her hair is beige, lol. You'll have to read the book to get that one.

I enjoyed looking through this masterpiece of a book as much as my African-American wife has. It was very well-compiled and the photography/portarits of these beautiful women in their natural hair styles is breath-taking. A job well done by Micheal Cunningham!

It is a proven fact that hair plays an important role in the lives of African American women. Must often our hair or lack of it defines who we are. It is still up for debate whether this is a healthy psychological choice or not. This book is a pictorial guide of the lives of over fifty women and how they feel about their hair. Each woman interviewed talks about the importance of hair, why they wear their particular style, and how their hair has changed during the course of their lives. These women have bleached hair, relaxed hair, natural hair, afros, weaves, braids, and baldheads and they all feel comfortable in with their current styles.

Many African American women use the beauty salon as a safe haven to get away from the world. At the salon you can freely discuss your problems, face your hair issues, and totally change your appearance by revamping your old hairstyle. Hair is your expression of self and how you feel about the world in general. There aren't many ways that African American women can be free but hair is our crowning glory.

QUEENS: PORTRAITS OF BLACK WOMEN AND THEIR FABULOUS HAIR is a coffee table book that will foster endless discussions of the state of African/African American hair. This is a primer combination of flowing narratives and impressive photos. Be free, be yourself, be bold, your hair is yours not matter the style you rep. Buy this book for yourself, your mom, your sister friend and laugh about all of the hairstyles you've rocked!

Deltareviewer
Reviewing for Real Page Turners

I have bought each of these books, and they do not disappoint; Again, guys, you did a great job; Watching sisters with straight,perm,bald,natural,braided hair talk about their hair experiences made me feel a connection to them; like, I know how you feel; I understood the sister who had to wear a wig to cover her locks; I understood the sorority sister who couldn't find the specific perm she needed for her hair and how she went to various lengths to get it; (Oh, I been there too); The sister with the mohawk, the sisters from Ghana; the ones with the fancy hairstyles as well as those regular every day sisters just trying to have a say; Thanks.

I Found This Book To Be Quite Interesting. I Enjoy Reading All Of The Various Stories, About All Of The Beautiful Sisters, Wearing Hairstyles Of Their Choice. One Of The Women In The Storie "Lettice " I Will Call Her "The Silver Fox" Of The Bunch, For Some Reason Or Another Something Just Stood Out About Her.