Book ~ "Me, My Hair, and I: Twenty-seven Women Untangle an Obsession" (2015) Elizabeth Benedict

From Goodreads ~ 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.

My hair is long and one length. I don't fuss at all with it other than wash and condition it with nice smelling shampoo and conditioner. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, I spent more time on it ... I had bangs and a bob so had to dry it and curl it under. But my job had me doing seminars at times depending on the clients' schedules and sometimes I had to do early morning seminars (like 6am) ... I'm not a morning person so hated having to fuss with my hair that early. I grew out my bangs about 20 years ago and let my hair grow so I'd have wash 'n wear hair. The only time I've coloured my hair is back in the late 1970s/early 1980s with Sun-In and a bit of temporary colour last summer.

So it was interesting to read these 27 essays about how different women felt about their hair and how much it meant to them. It was also interesting to read how the different cultures value hair and the different rules they have about it. The majority (if not all) of the women were older than me so it brought back memories of perms and going to bed with old-school rollers/curlers since hot rollers, curling irons, etc. hadn't been invented then.