Braid Sculpture: The Art of Combless Hairstyling

In 1982, I self-published Braid Sculpture: The Art of Combless Hairstyling. My inspiration for this book was generated when I began to hear of Black women being singled out in their workplaces because they wore their hair braided. It would take resorting to the legal system to stop the harassment and affirm a person’s right to wear these styles at work. Braid Sculpture was the precursor of the modern natural braid styling magazines of today! It introduced, all at once, a wide variety of new design techniques (basket weaving, braided veils, fish tails, rolls, curled opened-ended braids for permed hair, braided hats, flat twists and braid styles of open-ended human and synthetic extensions). To this day, these design techniques are still being used, having become an integral part of the braid styling lexicon.