Me, My Hair, and I Twenty-seven Women Untangle an Obsession

by Benedict, Elizabeth

• ISBN13: 9781616204112
• ISBN10: 1616204117
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2015-09-29
• Publisher: Algonquin Books

Summary

“[A] splendid collection . . . By turns wry, tender, pointed, and laugh-out-loud funny.” —Publishers Weekly

“Untangles the many truths about hair, and the lives we lead underneath it.” —Pamela  Druckerman, author of Bringing Up Bébé

Ask a woman about her hair, and she just might tell you the story of her life. Ask a whole bunch of women about their hair, and you could get a history of the world. Surprising, insightful, frequently funny, and always forthright, the essays in Me, My Hair, and I are reflections and revelations about every aspect of women’s lives from family, race, religion, and motherhood to culture, health, politics, and sexuality.

They take place in African American kitchens, at Hindu Bengali weddings, and inside Hasidic Jewish homes. The conversation is intimate and global at once. Layered into these reminiscences are tributes to influences throughout history: Jackie Kennedy, Lena Horne, Farrah Fawcett, the Grateful Dead, and Botticelli’s Venus.

The long and the short of it is that our hair is our glory—and our nemesis, our history, our self-esteem, our joy, our mortality. Every woman knows that many things in life matter more than hair, but few bring as much pleasure as a really great hairdo.

Author Biography

Elizabeth Benedict is a graduate of Barnard College and the author of five novels, including the bestseller Almost and the National Book Award finalist Slow Dancing. She is the editor of the anthologies What My Mother Gave Me, a New York Times bestseller, and Mentors, Muses & Monsters, and has written for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Esquire, and the Huffington Post, the Rumpus, and Tin House. Two of her essays have been selected for Best American Essays collections. She has taught widely and works as a writing coach and editor. 

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction xiii

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, The Rapunzel Complex 1

Suleika Jaouad, Hair, Interrupted 9

Marita Golden, My Black Hair 19

Anne Lamott, Sister 35

Patricia Volk, Frizzball 47

Alex Kuczynski, And Be Sure to Tell Your Mother 55

Rosie Schaap, Kozmic Hippie Hair Breakdown Blues 67

Bharati Mukherjee, Romance and Ritual 75

Emma Gilbey Keller, My Thick Hair 85

Adriana Trigiani, Oh Capello 95

Deborah Tannen, Why Mothers and Daughters Tangle over Hair 105

Honor Moore, Beautiful, Beautiful 117

Maria Hinojosa, My Wild Hair 131

Jane Green, Love at Last 139

Deborah Feldman, The Cutoff 147

Ru Freeman, Glory 157

Elizabeth Searle, Act Tresses: Hair as Performance Art 171

Hallie Ephron, Remembering Sandra Dee 185

Katie Hafner, Maids of the Mist 195

Deborah Jiang-Stein, Hair in Three Parts 205

Siri Hustvedt, Much Ado about Hairdos 215

Myra Goldberg, Two Hair Stories from One Life 231

Julia Fierro, Capelli Lunghi 243

Deborah Hofmann, Heavy Mettle 255

Jane Smiley, At Last, I Learn How to Turn Heads 269

Anne Kreamer, Getting Real 277

Elizabeth Benedict, No, I Won’t Go Gray 287

Contributors 299