To truly connect with your curly and coily hair, understanding its unique nature is key. While the internet is brimming with tips, it often presents conflicting advice. Sometimes, diving into authoritative books on the subject can offer quicker, clearer answers to your questions. My personal library boasts an extensive collection of these resources, as I'm deeply passionate about curly and coily hair – I find its beauty truly extraordinary. So, without further ado, here's a curated selection of books to elevate your curly and coily hair care routine...
Books in French
1 -“Long, Kinky Hair Within Everyone's Reach: Collection of Hair Care Secrets Finally Revealed” by Kenoa
This book is a practical guide to afro hair care. It provides the reader with essential care strategies for growing their hair. It covers the science of afro hair, its specific characteristics, care methods, and suitable products and ingredients.
2 - "Black Hair in All Its Forms” by Corinne Vincent
This book explores afro hair care, focusing on suitable treatments. It discusses the differences between natural and relaxed hair, protective hairstyles, the importance of pH, and more.
3 - "The Little Manual of Kinky Hair" by Nathalie Avomo Essono
The book explores the specific characteristics of kinky hair, hair growth and loss, and the basics of hair care. It offers golden rules for maintaining your hair, building a suitable hair routine, and choosing the right products. This book is an ideal companion to start your journey towards healthy and beautiful kinky hair!
4 - “Grow Them! Cultivate Them!: How to Grow Afro Hair Best in a Relatively Short Time” by Chicoro
This book explains how a six-step method can make a difference in achieving magnificent, healthy afro hair. It encourages returning to natural hair and offers tips for caring for afro hair.
Books in English
5 - The Science of Black Hair by Audrey Davis-Sivasothy
A reference! A comprehensive book to understand the biological structure of kinky hair, its specificities, and different care methods. It delves into details to help readers better understand their hair.
The author offers methods to maintain chemically treated or natural hair in optimal health. She also discusses the protein/moisture balance to prevent breakage. The book explains how to select the right products, considering pH for shinier, more manageable hair.
Readers will learn how to grow their hair longer, stronger, and healthier for life.
6 - “No Lye” by Tulani Kinard
A safe and easy alternative to harsh chemical products for afro-textured hair.
It covers the art of braids, twists, and locs, as well as recipes for natural products and care methods. The author shares tips for treating damaged hair and quick styles for all hair lengths and textures.
7 - "Curly Girl" by Lorraine Massey
This method encourages natural care for curly, wavy, and kinky hair.
It advocates the use of conditioners, the exclusion of silicones and harsh tools; it's the bible of the famous "No Poo" method, an interesting approach depending on hair type or for occasional use. The goal is to treat hair gently, hydrate it, and enhance its natural texture.
8 - "Good Hair" by Lonnice Brittenium Bonner
This book explores the powerful role hair plays in creating a positive self-image. It offers tips for having beautiful hair without harsh chemical treatments.
9 - "Basic Care for Naturally Textured" by Diane Carol Bailey
This book covers hairstyles and care for very curly or afro hair. It provides advice on hair structure, treatments for hair loss, and products to maintain hair health. Whether you're looking for unique styles or natural hairstyles, this book will help you care for your hair.
E-book format only
10 - "Longer, Stronger, and Healthier Kinky Hair: Healthy Hair Healthy Me: 3 Months to Regain Healthy Hair and Confidence in Your Beauty" by Clarisse Libene
You will learn how hair grows and what it needs to grow healthily. The book offers tips to stop breakage and prevent hair loss.
Clarisse Libene discusses diet and stress management to promote hair growth. You will learn how to establish a care ritual adapted to your growth profile, balancing hydration, proteins, and porosity.
Practical and unique exercises will help you love your hair and gain self-confidence.
Loving Your Kinky Hair...
We reconnect with our hair, but caring for it isn't enough. It's a long process to accept letting it down and wearing it proudly without fearing others' gazes or comments.
To reach this state of confidence, you must learn to love them. Everyone progresses at their own pace because we all have different upbringings, more or less heavy baggage to shed, and childhood traumas related to hair experiences can be difficult to heal.
Many people think hair is a superficial subject, but that's not the case; kinky hair has been so devalued for centuries that the only legacy we received was to hide it, flatten it, straighten it by all means, dangerous or not.
Some books can help you in the process of accepting your kinky hair, by understanding where this devaluation of kinky and curly hair comes from and that it is possible to free yourself from it.
11 - “Americanah” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The novel follows the lives of Ifemelu and Obinze, two young Nigerians who find themselves leaving their country for different reasons. The action takes place in a Nigeria under military dictatorship, where people seek to leave the country if they can.
Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love in Lagos, but their paths diverge when Ifemelu leaves to study in the United States.
Ifemelu lives in Princeton, New Jersey, where she keeps a blog about race in America. She explores issues of identity, discrimination, and culture there.
Meanwhile, Obinze lives as an undocumented immigrant in London. His American visa was denied after the September 11, 2001 attacks. He experiences ups and downs in his life in England. The novel explores their reunion, their memories, and their personal evolutions.
12 - “Black Skin, Kinky Hair, The Story of an Alienation” by Juliette Smeralda
This book focuses on the kinky hair/black skin pairing to reveal the pathways of ethnocultural domination of one group by another.
Of course, I will simplify this sentence to make it more understandable:
The author discusses how beauty practices affect our bodies and health, and how these practices are often influenced by Western beauty standards, which tend to dominate and change the traditions of other cultures.
Juliette Smeralda also examines how societies that have been colonized by other countries can lose their own cultural identity and instead adopt the customs and ideas of the dominant culture.
This is a process called cultural alienation, where people can feel disconnected from their own cultural heritage.
For Children
13 -“Like a Million Black Butterflies” by Laura Nsafou
This is the story of Adé, a little girl who doesn't like her kinky hair because of her classmates' teasing.
With the help of her mother and aunts, she learns to discover and love the unique beauty of her hair, which is compared to black butterflies sleeping on her head.
14 - “LITTLE NAPPY - Mom Teaches Me the Story of Our Kinky Hair” by Hashley Auguste
This book tells the fascinating story of afro hair through time, explained to children by their mother during a picnic.
It addresses topics such as slavery, chemical straightening, segregation, and discrimination, while celebrating the love of afro hair and the importance of self-esteem.
It's up to you to choose from all these references.
Happy reading!
