Hair Tells a Story: Hers, Yours and Ours

The body is the canvas upon which women paint their secrets and self-doubt, their hopes and their dreams, their pain and their disappointments. Hair has historically played a central role in the battles for power, self-determination and autonomy--serving as a nonverbal language that represents women's lives. However, pain, anxiety, racism, sexism and rigid beauty standards can too often underlie these stories. Modern events like the Black Lives Matter movement and the Covid-19 pandemic have exposed the societal barriers that have prevented the free and equitable expression of hair. Although countless books and articles address body image, the personal psychology and the universal, entangled and lifelong meaning of hair have been missing. This work fills this niche, empowering women to understand complex hair-head-heart connections as well as the many sociocultural and relational pressures they have experienced regarding hair. Above all, the text emphasizes that hair is never just hair.