Getting Hair "Fixed": Black Power, Transvaluation, and Hair Politics

Hair is a feature that can be read immediately; it is ascribed meaning. Enter the afros that emerged during the Black Power movement (BPM) of the 1960s and '70s, which proclaimed hair as both important and political. By challenging traditional ideals of beauty that devalued natural black features--long, silky, preferably blond hair--afros became part of the larger politics of the BPM in its aims to promote transvaluation. Transvaluation is the mental transition from subordination to self-definition. Thus, with its cultural and historical implications, the politics of afros reflected the BPM's transvaluative goals. However, where "nappy" hair once denoted a transformed, self-defining mentality, it morphed several times to denote simply a trendy hairstyle, devoid of transvaluative import. Black female writers of the era address these hair politics in their work. Alongside historical implications and points of consideration, this book examines the poetry of several BPM-era female writers, whose works reveal not only the transvaluative messages of "nappy" hair, but also the contradictions that resulted from a politics that ultimately disavowed a white beauty ideal for a black one.