Twisted by Emma Dabiri

Author:Emma Dabiri
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-03-17T00:00:00+00:00

I didn’t treat all hair as though it were kinky. I treated the hair as it deserved to be treated and some of the medium hair, hair that is a little more on the side of straight than kinky, looks so much better if it doesn’t have the life pressed out of it. And they were very pleased with the fact that they left looking so much more natural.27

This echoes the Madam Walker strategy of associating heavily processed straight hair with looking natural. Such processes inform the deeply internalized sense that our hair is so inadequate it is healthier when it is damaged. It also advances the nonsensical Eurocentric association of straight hair with cleanliness and health. With a self-delusion I recognize, Elizabeth Cardozo could actually claim that “The chemicals made our hair better.”

The Cardozo sisters cut their teeth in a salon frequented by whites. Their own clientele extended to both white women and, in the parlance of the time, “Orientals.”

Yet Elizabeth hastens to add that the Oriental customers are few and far between. They didn’t tend to bother much with the salon at all, because “oriental hair is beautiful to start with.” Considering how many black women continue to weave Asian women’s hair on to their heads, one of the many things that saddens me reading Elizabeth’s account is the depth to which her attitude and the beauty standards it normalizes remain potent to this day.

Black women, on the other hand, with their chronic malaise, required ongoing treatment and booked lifetime appointments (in fact, the business was famed for its long-term booking system).

Despite haircare requiring the expertise that can be found only in local salons, Elizabeth cannot disguise her distaste for the black businesses that operate in the informal market:

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