From Kate’s
Writing Crate…
As a reader, I always love finding
books that appeal to me. As a writer, I am twice as pleased when the authors
also provide masterclasses within their books.
Masterclasses
take place when performance artists and musicians work one-on-one with
students. Writers don’t generally have this option, but I have found some books
to be masterclasses for characters, backstories, plots, settings, voice, and/or
creativity.
The essays in Me, My
Hair, and I: Twenty-seven Women Untangle an Obsession edited by Elizabeth
Benedict address not only straight and curly, long and short, gray or colored
hair, but the cultural and political mores that pressure women to make
sometimes uncomfortable choices.
These essays from different points of view are eye-opening.
The writers’ descriptions, emotions, and voices are real and universal and
passionate.
I loved Maria Hinojosa’s essay “My Wild Hair” on page131
which is as much about her hair as a love story.
“…I let it be as wild, long, and curly as it is.
And yes, I do this for love. Because I love myself more like
this and because this way I show my husband my love, not in words or deeds, but
in hair.” (page 138)
“Why Mothers and Daughters Tangle Over Hair” by Deborah
Tannen on page 105 is a funny tribute to all the “helpful” comments from moms
whether their daughters’ hair is on display or hidden under a head scarf.
Serious topics are covered as well:
Baldness due to cancer is addressed on page 9 in “Hair,
Interrupted” by Suleika Jaouad. “Chemotherapy is a take-no-prisoners stylist.”
(page 13)
On page 19, “My Black Hair” by Marita Golden reveals the pain
and struggle Black women deal with when making hairstyle choices as “hair is
knotted and gnarled by issues of race, politics, history, and pride.”
A religious tradition of shaving a bride’s head the morning
after the wedding is the focus of Deborah Feldman’s essay “The Cutoff” on page
147. “And yet, my shaved head did not buy me full acceptance either, although
it purchased a kind of tolerance that, for a while, seemed like it would be
enough.” (page 152)
“While it’s easy to make light of our obsession with our
hair, very few of the writers in these pages do that. We get that hair is
serious. It’s our glory, our nemesis, our history, our sexuality, our religion,
our vanity, our joy, and our morality.” (Introduction, page xvii)
Women’s hair means much more than it appears.
