Hot Comb

Description:

"Hot Comb offers a poignant glimpse into black women's lives and coming of age stories as seen across a crowded, ammonia-scented hair salon while ladies gossip and bond over the burn. The titular story 'Hot Comb' is about a young girl's first perm--a doomed ploy to look cool and to stop seeming 'too white' in the all-black neighborhood her family has just moved to. In 'Virgin Hair', taunts of 'tender-headed' sting as much as the perm itself. It's a scenario that repeats fifteen years later as an adult when, tired of the maintenance, Flowers shaves her head only to be hurled new put-downs. Realizations about race, class, and the imperfections of identity swirl through Flowers' stories and ads, which are by turns sweet, insightful, and heartbreaking."--

subjects: Women, black,  Hairdressing of blacks,  Hair,  Beauty, personal,  Comics & graphic novels, nonfiction, general,  Comic books, strips,  Black Women,  Social life and customs,  Race identity,  Personal Beauty,  African Americans,  Fiction,  Salons,  Social aspects,  Beauty shops,  Personal appearance,  Hairdressing of Black people