African-American-Health Books

This product was not what I expected. For me it was a waste of my money. Did not give me the insight on how to care for my child's hair.

This book has several good points, however it was hard to keep focused due to bad printing. There were several pages with light print. This made it diffcult to follow the book. I know errors can happen, however it wouldn't hurt to have a preview staff on hand.

I expected more pictures not so many stories, they way it was presented it what a book about a hair needs, pictures

First of all, the author was CLEARLY biased against kinky hair and clearly favored what she described as "wavy" and "curly" hair. I was also apalled to read comments in where she refers to the delicate hair that very young children have as "angel hair" and then wrote that this "angel hair" turns into "something else," clearly attaching a negative connotation with kinky-textured hair.

She also used phrases like "training your childs hair" and endorsed relaxers and texurizers as if they were safe and possibly healthy; even insinuating that they become "neccessary" as the hair becomes more of a challenge with age. How irresponsible and misleading.

Another disturbing revelation of this book is that Lily generally limited kinky-haired girls' styling options to braids which I found apalling. As a natural woman with very kinky hair who wears her hair out [and has been complimented] I find this irresponsible and damaging. She made it seem like kinky haired girls should never wear their hair out; meanwhile the "curly" and "wavy-haired" girls had their hair out in many photos.

In fact, the only time she really showed kinky-haired girls with their hair out was when...you guessed it...the hair had been straightened with a pressing comb or permed. As I said her favortism toward curly and wavy hair was very obvious.

Also, not to be predjudice, but many of the little girls appeared to be mixed, a few even looked part asian. Of course if you're mixed with white or asian your hair is likely to be looser curled! I do not feel it is fair to portray biracial textures as black textures when a different race has directly influenced the texture of the child's hair.

And as a sidenote, I found the pictures of made-up, pageant-looking girls a little off-putting. She should know that mothers are likely to read this book and maybe seeing a 5 year old wearing a ton of makeup and posing like a grown woman wouldn't sit well...

Overall, Deborah Lily's book reeked of the old-school, grandma "we gotta train this bad hair" mentality. She should be embarassed.

The other reviews were right on target. I'll add: little substance, spelling/proofreading errors, unfocused photos, and very little useful information. I'm not impressed and I'm getting my money back. The only marginally useful part was the list of brand-name products and tools at the end. For a momma committed to my daughter's natural hair health, this book has way too much about chemical treatments.

My most used references: It's All Good Hair (Michele N.K. Collision) and Kinki Kreations (Jena Renee Williams). This just isn't worth the shelf space on my bookshelves.

the book did not have that much information in it about natural hair did'nt like it that much

while a semi-clever title, Howse's book left too much to be desired
maybe her next book will be better...

This book was helpful to me because it tells me that constantly applying chemical relaxers to your hair will eventually thin it out. You should apply relaxers less often because it is damaging to your hair.

I am a big Cathy Howse fan, and have used her products for years. However, I have to give this book one star. The first half lists the dangers of relaxing your hair, with a few pages in between that describe how to make the transition to natural hair. The other half of the book is comprised of Q&A, but she only provides answers for 2/3 of the questions! She could have taken the few pages of "useful" information from the book and listed them on her website instead, there was no need to print this book. I would highly recommend her second book and her products, but skip this one. I am returning mine this week.

I read this book in about 1 hour. It tells you something that you already know. Lye/ no lye perms are dangerous if you don't know how to use them. But most things in this world is dangerous if you don't follow the manufacturer directions. She now advocates not using relaxer anymore which is all good and dandy but don't do something become someone else tell you that you shouldn't. It has to be right for you. There's chlorine in tap water but you still drink it. This book was poorly written. Grammatical error everywhere. I really can't take Ms. Howse serious.

The kink Kollection is written by an individual who takes pride in the maintenance of natural hair! If you are one of those people who would rather do without processed hair, but still want lovely hair, this is the book for you! The author gives detailed illustrations on how to obtain and maintain your natural hairdo! Anyone can do these hairstyles on themselves or a friend!This approach saves money as well! .....................

The Kink Collection is not a 'how to' book for natural hair care. I say this in my first sentence because if that is your goal you can keep going to another book. I have chemical free hair and I am always on the look out for books discussing nappy/kinky hair and so I thought I had found one here. The book does have some basic info on hair care but if you want the Bible of chemical free hair care you should purchase "Let's Talk Hair" by Pamela Ferrell and get enough info to really properly maintain your hair.

While it was short of real technique info on basic hair care it did have some beautiful photos of natural hair styles. As another reviewer stated, they used extensions but I have managed to achieve some of the styles without the use of extensions. It was good to get some different ideas on how to style my hair and you can't beat that. Don't get too excited because there aren't that many pics but what they do have is of good quality.

Three is a lot of info in the back of the book on state licensing organizations and a check list of what you want to do if you are starting your own hair care business. So while that wasn't my interest I still kept the book....

First of all, I want to start out saying that I have approx 5 1/2 inches of natural hair and I was looking for a book that had pictures of styles and instructions of what to do with natural hair. All the book talked about was how to put in extensions and the different kinds. The writing was extremely poor and there were several spelling and editing errors. Someone looking for natural hair styles without mostly talking about extensions would be better off buying Pamela Ferrel's "Let's Talk Hair", which was my own personl hair bible.

In MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION "The Kink Kollection" is not even worth spending $1 on never mind the nearly $25 spent. The only valuable info is in the last couple of pages where she tells you the business aspects of how to start a natural hair care salon. You can get that info on the internet without spending $25.

As a feminist with a disability, I was eager to read what had been previously described as a seminal text on feminist disability studies.

Because so many other people had previously recommended this work to me, I had assumed that I would find much common ground with the author.

I had forgotten an observation from Gloria Anzaldua that people who are supposed to be friends and co-activists also place each other in demographic hierarchies. In this book, Barbara Hillyer wanted to talk about disability and feminism while selectively ignoring the voices of myself and other feminists with disabilities who would have lots to share.

Although this book gave me some perspective on the emotions my parents (who have since come out as feminists) went through with my own childhood...etc, the focus on Hillyer's daughter inadvertently emphasizes dependence and people-with-disability-as-children stereotypes.

I don't doubt that this experience itself is difficult, especially with ongoing sociopolitical limitations after disability is identified. But, the approach of this book ultimately is detrimental to the progressive world which we all supposedly wish to have.

Hillyer spends more time worrying about people with disabilities than actually wanting to hear our own experiences and perspectives. Her (admittedly 'new') analysis of care giving/assisting for people with disabilities through a feminist perspective is seriously weakened through this aforementioned limited approach. She does not consider that we are capable of caregiving for ourselves and each other.

Even if we are not saying the things she wants to hear, our own perspectives are also important for social justice obtainment.

Advocating on behalf of people with disabilities is impossible without our own voices and ideas being fully included. Echoing the general feminist movement, we also believe that the personal is political.

Several times while attempting to get through the personal aggrandizement readily placed throughout this book (ironically from a person who also writes that she does not want to be seen as a martyr!), I checked the publication date to see if I was reading something which was first published in the 1960's (if not earlier).

Because those earlier published 'disability' books also had 'experts' rushing to speak on behalf of people with disabilities ourselves, I am honestly saddened that so little has changed in subsequent years.

For all of her `revolutionary' intentions, Hillyer echoes the status quo assumptions of people with disabilities as being inactive, dependent, and child-like. One of the first widely accessible works on feminism and disability, this book now is thankfully overshadowed by far superior texts from Susan Wendel...etc.

Today, Hillyer's book would be a mediocre selection for library collections on disability, and a very poor choice for people with disabilities wanting to see how feminist theory and disability issues intersect.

Were I to meet with her at a conference...etc, Hillyer apparently would not consider me a colleague and/or activist associate. I too would become reduced to her stereotype of what people with disabilities ultimately were capable of doing.

I'll preface my review by saying that I am definitely not the intended audience for this book. I was forced to buy it when I took a class by the author, Lanita Jacobs-Huey, who is a professor at USC. Her class was called "Understanding Culture Through Film," which sounded interesting. As it turns out, she devoted almost the entire class to ranting about black women's hair.

If you are the sort of person who thinks that studying the social implications of black women's hair is a worthy pursuit, then you should probably buy this book. For the rest of us, it's full of academic psychobabble and deliberately overcomplicated terms for simple, unoriginal ideas. She could easily make all her points in 10 pages, and even then, they wouldn't be very interesting. The main argument is that for black women, hair is more than "just hair," it's a vehicle for expression that is often highly charged with political implications (I'm sorry, but it's hard to even summarize this book without sounding like academic psychobabble). But wait - at other times, hair is "just hair"! She never really develops the point much further than that or provides any sort of explanation for why things are the way they are, but peppers the text with meaningless words like "problematize" and "intertextual" to stretch out the length and make herself sound smart. If you find this sort of self-important drivel as obnoxious as I do, then don't buy the book. And if you're buying this book because you're enrolled in any of her classes, drop the class immediately.

There were too many personal topics and photos not related to the subject of breast cancer. I did not need to see so many photos of the author's family and friends. It was easy to become confused about exactly what the main topic really was. Not enough emphasis on the emotional aspects surrounding this type of surgery.

I am the former assistant to Willis Green, Jr. who wrote the entire passage credited to him within this book. Dr. Vincent Lynch, who I collaborated with extensively during Mr. Green's illness, knowingly and purposely refused to grant any sort of credit to my input. Sadly, many of my words were taken from lyrics of George Michael music...isn't that silly?