Hair book a fabulously fun and funny journey

A BOOK about hair had to happen eventually – it's talked about endlessly; historically how you wear your hair has always been a political/social commentary and, from Brazilians to Afros or natural hair, to creating your unique identity with your own style and your relationship with your hair, every one has had their own journey with their locks.

Jellars' book is a wonderfully compiled, chatty and informative one, affirming individuality and the fact that these days there is absolutely no pressure on individuals to do certain things to their hair. Wanna stand out in the crowd or wanna fit in? It's all your call …

The Big South African Hair Book is thus a celebration of natural hair and an exploration of the South African #NaturalHair community. Jellars in part peeks into what's causing generations of women to ditch chemical relaxers, and in part is simply just a very good and practical haircare guide – in short an indispensable companion for everyone from the curious to #NaturalHair veterans.

The Natural Hair movement has become a global phenomenon. Women are ditching decadeslong pressure to straighten and manipulate their hair and are, instead, embracing the way their own hair grows – celebrating their curls and coils.

The book is at times hilarious, heart-warming and definitely not within the bounds of a glossy magazine-style hair guide. It's filled with home-grown South African advice, tried and tested tricks and tips and haircare testimonials from some of the country's biggest hair influencers, scientists, stylists, haircare brand owners and other experts.

The dozens of tips and useful info include how to embrace your curl-curious and natural hair without having to wade through endless YouTube tutorials and blog posts.

You'll be advised how to deal with your hairline or with “postpartum” shedding. If you're parenting a child with differently textured hair to yours, find out more here. Interested in becoming a natural hair entrepreneur? Then Jellars will advise you.

Jellars includes a brief South African “hair story”, starting with the Population Registration Act of 1950 and ending with a teenaged Zulaikha Patel, holding up her fist outside Pretoria High School for Girls, in 2016 during a protest against restrictive hair rules.

For those who were around in the bad old days of apartheid, the “pencil test” was an infamous racial classification defining whether you were “white” or “coloured” – a pencil was stuck in a person's hair and if it fell out, you were classified as white; if it stayed in you were classified as coloured …

There's a host of diagrams, illustrations, charts and point by point guides – for example, hair typing according to Andre Walker includes straight hair; wavy hair; curly hair and kinky hair – each of which are described.

The writer's intensively researched book takes readers on a fabulously fun and funny journey. It also dismantles the many myths that were built over decades about hair.

Even for those who are not into unleashing their hair or conversely taming it, this makes for a fascinating and absolutely entertaining read.

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