Hair Matters Chapter Summary

not explain the advancement into a new era. Rooks provided insignificant details about Walker, without stating the connection to the subject, it often appeared as if she had abandoned the topic altogether.

In “Hair Matters: Beauty, Power, and Black Women’s Consciousness” written by Ingrid Banks, her book was created to fill the gap between black women’s hair and how it relates to our cultural identity. Banks takes on an analytical approach with her ethnographic research on 61 Black Women of various ages, and provided a platform for informal discourse on the politics of Black Women’s hair in America. The inspiration behind Hair Matters was launched during November 1998, when Ruth Sherman a White teacher at a predominantly Hispanic and Black

An indicator that Black Men do not fully embrace their Women, leaving Black Women alone to challenge the invisible barriers of intersectionality on being Black and Female. Several Black men have directly complimented me on my decision to be natural, while others were audacious enough to ask why did I do it? Or convey to me, how they believed that I looked better with longer hair. It was as if I broke the dominant invisible norms of femininity. Banks reiterated how length is associated with the rules of femininity, and that there is a relationship between hair and gender. Long hair is often associated with femininity and short hair with masculinity. Hereafter, I developed my own sense of beauty that deconstructed mainstream constructions of beauty which resulted in developing an empowered sense of

In contrast Rooks decided to take more of a personal approach and allow the life of Madam C.J. Walker to theoretically predict the logic of other Black Women and their hair decisions. Banks ethnographic research is shaped around the real-life experiences of Black Women, while Rooks makes more assumptions on how Black Women felt. Banks and Rooks both classify that hair is a way people not only define others, but how they define themselves as well. Even though, both authors articulate their thoughts in dissimilar ways both of their theories agree on the main theme that hair is a badge of cultural pride that reflects notions about perceptions, identity, and