Product Description

Twist it! Braid it! Loc it! Enjoy the freedom and beauty of naturally textured hair.

Textured hair styles like Locs, Braids, Twists, Cornrows, and Knots are all the rage, adorning the heads of celebrities, athletes, and everyday folk now more than ever before. Yet, the actual caring, styling, and maintenance of textured hair still remains a mystery to many.

Now, Diane Da Costa, celebrity stylist and master designer of natural hair, unravels the tresses of textured hair, providing readers with information on the proper care of natural hair as well as a step-by-step guide on achieving various exciting styles.

Textured Tresses will help you:

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #90453 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

About the Author
Blair Underwood is an author and award-winning actor, director, and producer. He lives in Los Angeles, California. Visit his website at www.BlairUnderwood.com

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction

It's an era of rebirth and what do you see? Take a close look. Textured hairstyles are everywhere. Sexy cornrows and bushy afros work the runways of Paris and Milan, the sidewalks of both Tokyo and Philadelphia, as well as the sweaty courts of the NBA and WNBA. Locs and twists adorn the heads of your favorite celebrities. It's no wonder. Textured Hair is Beautiful Hair!

Most women desire something other than what they already have, especially when it comes to our own hair. We want longer, fuller, thicker hair with more manageability, control, flexibility, and options. Well, I have one word for you -- texture. Texture will give you everything you're seeking and then some. Textured hair allows you to have it all.

Sometimes reinvention is the mother of invention. With that said, I'd like to offer a new spin on something we've known all along. Texture is what you can see with your eyes and feel to the touch. Texture, as it relates to hair, refers to the straightness or curliness of the hair's surface, yet it is also the softness, roughness, or coarseness, if you will. Texture is straight, wavy, curly, very curly, and tightly coiled hair, too. Cornrows, afros, locs, twists, braids, and knots are styles with texture. Texture is what we all desire and want.

No longer must we apologize for our textured hair. Instead we should celebrate, love, and appreciate our God-given texture. This begins with taking pride in acknowledging that certain styles originated from specific regions in Africa. The Samburu people of the Massai Tribe in Kenya and Tanzania wore locs first.

The Samburus were herders who lived above the equator. Before becoming warriors, the young boys prepared their hair with ochre, a red clay mask. The boys would fling their ochre-colored hair in the face of girls they wanted to meet and the girls would flirt back with the young warriors.

The soft, wavy, textured hair like that of the cover model Waris Dirie is common in her homeland of Ethiopia. West Africa is the birthplace of Senegalese twists and many braided styles.

Our flair with textured hair in America is nothing new. It's merely a rediscovery. In the roaring 20s, the Marcel curls and waves were worn by practically every woman, both black and white. In fact, when Cicely Tyson needed to portray a character who wore Marcel waves during that era for the movie Hoodlum, she turned to Helen Graine Faulk, the oldest living cosmetologist at the time in Ohio. Apparently no one on the set knew how to create the waves without relaxing Ms. Tyson's natural hair (which was completely unacceptable to her). Ms. Faulk consulted with Cicely Tyson and created the beautiful waves by pressing her hair and using Marcel irons.

Think back to the shiny, slicked-back ponytail of the lovely Billie Holiday in the 40s, the luscious waves of Dorothy Dandridge in the 40s and 50s, and the fierce yet sexy afro of Pam Grier in the 70s.

Michaela Angela Davis, former editor-in-chief of Honey magazine, remembers getting her hair cornrowed and rocking afros in the 70s. "When the other kids in high school wore relaxers, I wore braids," says Michaela. "In D.C., there were braiders at the museum on Saturdays and Sundays braiding hair."

Remember the long loc extensions of Lisa Bonet in the 80s? Let's not forget Janet Jackson's Casamas braids in Poetic Justice. Many braiders can attest to clients, both regular and new, requesting the "Janet Jackson braids." And no one can deny the impact of Brandy's individual braids worn in various lengths, widths, and styles during the 90s.

Today we see the vibrant wavy hair of Tracee Ellis Ross on UPN's Girlfriends, the exotic cornrow extensions of Alicia Keys and Christina Aguilera, the sensuous, full, naturally coily 'fros of Lenny Kravitz and Maxwell, and the texturized Caesar worn by Blair Underwood in Sex and the City. The possibilities are infinite with Textured Hair.

As a natural hair care specialist, colorist, and precision cutter over the past 15 years, I've seen many of my own textured creations become hair trends, including the Cosmicloc (a loc extension) that appeared in Moods magazine in 1990. In the early 90s, while working with model/owner Peggy Dillard of Turning Heads, one of the top-rated natural hair salons in New York City, I got my first big break. Essence magazine called the salon to request a style that I called the "Twist Out." Since then my work has appeared on their covers and in their fashion and beauty pages. I've also had the privilege of being the Hair and Beauty Advisor of Heart & Soul magazine as well as the first Hair Editor for Honey magazine. However, one of my greatest accomplishments was creating and owning Dyaspora Salon and Spa in New York City. This inspiring, trend-setting salon was created to bring artists together in different forums, such as book signings by authors and original artwork showings by painters, where clients would be pampered in a relaxed, cozy environment. It had been my dream since the day I first entered Robert Fiance Hair Design Institute in New York City, just two years after graduating from Pace University with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Marketing. I birthed many young, talented stylists, many of whom went on to open their very own salons.

I firmly believe that it is my calling to educate both consumers and professionals with this informative and inspirational natural/textured hairstyling guide that you hold in your very hands. I am an artist at heart and hair is my first canvas. My color tint brush, my shears, and my hands are my tools. I prep the canvas (your hair) before I lay the foundation for every style, then sketch the style that I create for all textures. The goal is to achieve the look. The maintenance serves as the sketch, the plan.

Many of my clients say that I'm a hairstylist to the stars. They say I have magic hands. But if I could perform any trick, it would be to help you rediscover and fall in love with your textured hair, be it straight, wavy, curly, or tightly coiled. Learning to love your textured hair and truly loving yourself go hand in hand. Trust me, I know from personal experience.

As a child I didn't fully appreciate what beautiful textured hair I had. My hair was thick, curly, and naturally long, but I wanted more manageability. I wanted it straighter, so I tried to roller-set my natural hair. That didn't work. It left my hair puffy and out of control.

Like many of you, I still vividly remember my grandmother pressing my hair. My cousins and I would line up one by one in her kitchen and wait for our turn to get our hair straightened by my grandmother. She pressed each and every one of our heads. My hair was bone straight with tons of oil, and it took quite a few hours to accomplish this task.

As I grew older I learned to care for my own hair. To the surprise of no one, at 15, I became the hairstylist for the entire family -- cutting, styling, braiding, plaiting, and creating coils with a wide-tooth comb.

Like many of you, I've sported every relaxed hairstyle imaginable -- short and long bobs, straight, and asymmetrical, and in practically every color, too! You name it, I wore it and loved it. Yet it was always in the back of my mind to lock my hair.

In 1986, after one full year of contemplation, I decided to shed my relaxed hair and go natural. I wanted to explore and experiment with the God-given texture of my hair. Instead of locking right away, I went to Kinapps, a renowned hair salon I'd read about in Essence, to cut off eight inches of my relaxed hair. As I looked in the mirror and watched Dexter, the barber, gather his shears, I reassured him continuously that this was indeed what I wanted. Dexter was still reluctant. He didn't want me to cut off my thick head of hair, but I insisted. I finally won, though he actually ended up leaving some relaxed hair in the front. Later I would cut it all off.

As I watched him cut my straight hair off inch by inch, it was simultaneously jarring and liberating. Waves of relaxed hair fell past my shoulder and onto the floor, while curly new growth peeked out at my roots.

My boyfriend at the time was shocked and hated it. Quite honestly, it took me a couple of weeks to adjust. But I had made up my mind that I wanted my hair natural and I wanted to lock it. I didn't simply adjust. I made the shift and fell in love with my texture. I began a wonderful, brand-new relationship with my textured hair and we've been in love ever since.

"Textured Hair allows you flexibility and versatility whether worn natural or relaxed," says celebrity stylist Oscar James. Accepting and loving your hair texture will enable you to try all textured hairstyles, providing you with versatility and options. Believe me, I've tried practically every textured hairstyle too, including Caesars; short, medium, and long cuts; braids (micros, cornrows, Cherokee, individuals); coils; twists; Senegalese twists; the Twist Out; flat twists; locs (crimped, rolled, rodded, and colored from black to blonde); and Genilocs. Not only have I had my hair done by African hair braiders, but I've also experimented with fusion and interlocking weaves. Now I don't care whether my hair is long or short. My only concern is that my hair is healthy, shiny, and manageable. If I want longer hair I just add braid extensions. I no longer have to overprocess or over-blow-dry and neither do you. Options, options, we all have options.

We are living in a hair movement. So many of us are wearing our hair natural and free. We should really understand what a privilege it is to be able to wear natural styles in all walks of life. Not long ago, textured styles were viewed as political or unprofessional. Our natural hair pioneers like Sonia Sanchez, Angela Davis, and Nikki Giovanni wore textured styles and were often prejudged and sometimes shunned. However, today we see our people in any profession sporting locs, braids, and twists with much more assuredness and much less retribution.

In Sisters of the Yam, the renowned author bell hooks emphasizes the...

Customer Reviews

Should be: Da Costa & Celebrities' Hair She's Done. Period.
Textured Tresses doesn't provide any worthwhile tips on styling or caring for natural African-American hair. It's an ill-informed, deceptive book full of celebrity namedropping. Da Costa first tells the reader there's no such thing as "bad hair", yet a few chapters over she tells the reader to reach for a jar of chemical relaxer if their hair is too tightly coiled. Da Costa deceptively refers to this as "texturizing", and accompanies her recommendation to "texturize" with verbiage that "texturing" enables one to achieve the full range of styling possibilities that our beautiful natural hair deserves. I presume this means Da Costa finds the styling possibilities of my tightly coiled hair deficient, insufficient, limiting...? Early in the book, Da Costa describes African-American hair textures as ranging from bone-straight to tightly coiled. Yet she devotes much discussion to celebrities and other clients with textures in the first-half of that range. She leaves hanging those of us with very curly to tightly coiled hair--other than her shoddy advice to "texturize."

As to damage that chemical relaxers cause, Da Costa displays a cavalier attitude. She tells the reader that when people ask her if chemicals damage hair, she responds with "What is damage?" (Sounds to me like Zen and the art of avoidance.) She goes on to write that damage is caused by stripping protein from the hair (true), and that hair can be saved from damage by piling various treatments onto the hair (false).

Da Costa devotes much of her book to details about how this or that star called and asked her to style their sister's/daughter's/wife's/niece's son's hair, or how the star wanted this particular style for the filming of this movie or for their tour with that famous band or for shooting the cover of this CD or that music video. Actual discussion on how the rest of us can obtain and maintain natural hairstyles is trite. For instance, when Da Costa briefly addresses the subject of haircare products, she instructs the reader to experiment with different products to see which ones work best with the reader's hair! Period. No lists of products matched with particular hair types. As far as Da Costa is concerned, you're on your own--and no more informed than you were before you bought her book.

The book jacket claims Da Costa will explain how to make beautiful loc styles. Her explanation for one of the styles begins with "Wash locs... " I thought perhaps I'd missed the section that tells how to "get locs." But no, nowhere in the book does Da Costa explain how to start locs. She explains only how to create mock locs--that is, styles that look somewhat like locs, but that disappear by the end of the day. For example, she instructs the reader to set hair vertically on rods to get "Shirley Temple-type coils." She doesn't mention that the style will last a day at best. And her equating a loc "look" with "Shirley Temple hair" is a disturbingly mixed message.

To find genuine information about caring for natural hair, try one of the many honest authors out there: Lonnice Brittenum Bonner (who has a loc book due to be released in February), Tulani Kinard, and Pamela Ferrell.

Not really much help.
For someone who is already natural, and just looking to learn more about how to care for her hair, this book is rather disappointing. The author's basic message is to tell the reader what hair is, what it is made of, to be proud of our hair, and then to put it in the care of an trained professional. That didn't help me. Even the products that she recommends are expensive -- and I can't afford $15 shampoos and conditioners! She should tell readers which brands to buy in the drugstores and beauty supply stores, because we don't all have expensive personal stylists. My verdict: If you just want a little more knowledge, or if you don't know anything about natural hair at all, this book could be helpful. Otherwise, it didn't offer me anything at all useful, and it is no different from the other books out there.

OKAY for starters
I ve read other hair care books ,and this wasnt the best as far as informative help-Care tips .Da Costa focus on how to style hair and not on how to keep it healthy.For those who need helpful tips on how to take care of natural hair I would suggest Lets talk hair or No Lye.Both are more informative and less "advertised".