Comments on: A Comprehensive Guide To Writing About Hair

By: Debbie Vilardi

Debbie Vilardi — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 23:41:16 +0000

I think you're missing the mullet.

By: dholcomb1

dholcomb1 — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 20:19:38 +0000

spiral curls, popular in the 80s, but some of us have that in our natural curly hair

great list

By: Jenny Hansen

Jenny Hansen — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 23:30:38 +0000

In reply to Karen DeBonis. Thanks, Karen! And things just got even more comprehensive some some great links in the comments. :-)

By: Jenny Hansen

Jenny Hansen — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 23:28:26 +0000

In reply to Erin Michelle.

Erin, I thought you might enjoy this book a friend of mine wrote for her daughter, Ava. It speaks about African-American hair in a very unique way. (Her daughter attends school in an Orange County district that is predominantly of Asian and Middle Eastern descent and Caucasian.)

https://www.amazon.com/Have-Make-Curly-Hair-Straight/dp/154306681X

By: Jenny Hansen

Jenny Hansen — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 23:14:21 +0000

In reply to Erin Michelle. Erin, I appreciate you taking the time to leave this thoughtful comment and point out this oversight. I've added that excellent link to Writing With Color into the post. Although many of these descriptors apply to hair from any ethnic background, the post did not pay special attention to hair from persons of color. Thank you for speaking up! It should be noted that these descriptors come from Sharla Rae's personal notebook and she tended to write early American historicals with a focus on Norwegians and Texans. Thanks so much for visiting us here at Writers In the Storm.

By: Karen DeBonis

Karen DeBonis — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 20:58:25 +0000

Better than Thesaurus.com!!

By: Erin Michelle

Erin Michelle — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 20:54:54 +0000

Great idea, but this post was pretty exclusionary of POC har descriptors and I think it was neglectful to leave this out of the conversation (I'm a while lady, but I pay attention to this stuff).

Just for example -- there's a difference between dreadlocks (not even on this list) and locs, with an important distinction:

"With the trans-Atlantic slave trade in full force during the 1600-1800s, Africans brought to America (and other places around the globe) were unable to perform their normal hair grooming practices, and so arrived looking unkempt. After traveling months on ships with no hygiene available, hair appeared matted and locked. It's said that slave owners referred to the "dreadful" sight of the captives, thus the term "dreadlocks" and its negative association." (https://www.byrdie.com/locs-or-locks-400267)

Hair and the description of hair is such a huge part of the black community in particular, and has so many connotations for other non-white cultures as well, it was remiss to not include at least some links for white writers to explore, ESPECIALLY if you ever plan to write a POC character.

This post is a great place to start: https://writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/post/94390338957/describing-natural-hair

By: Jenny Hansen

Jenny Hansen — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 17:32:45 +0000

In reply to Belinda. Excellent catch, Belinda! I made the change. :-)

By: Jenny Hansen

Jenny Hansen — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 16:51:56 +0000

In reply to ecellenb. Yes, Sharla was amazing at this. This post is a summary of 17 pages from her "magic notebooks."

By: Jenny Hansen

Jenny Hansen — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 16:50:19 +0000

In reply to Barbara Linn Probst. How cool, Barbara! That's sounds like a great story.