'Partly due to bad experiences with chemical hair products, such as relaxers, more and more women are switching to natural hairstyles. We also see dreadlocks, afros and cornrows (hair braided in strips flat against the scalp) among men,' says Mireille Liong-A-Kong on the back cover of her book Kroeshaar, wat je moet weten en meer.
An interesting development that raises questions, says the author. In order to answer these questions for the reader, Liong-A-Kong takes the reader on a tour of the do's and don'ts of frizzy hair. The properties and care of frizzy hair are discussed in the various chapters. The many possibilities of styling, such as braids and dreadlocks, are also reviewed. Defrizzing, relaxing, of the hair is also discussed extensively in this book. Liong-A-Kong also examines the craze of waving - in which false hair is interwoven with one's own hair in such a way that it is hardly visible that it is false hair, which is also very popular among European women. At the end of the book, the author treats the reader to a lesson in 'Anatomy of the hair'.
When the invitation for the presentation of the book landed in my mailbox, I immediately called the publisher for a review copy. A book about frizzy hair, that's what I wanted to know. A few days later it was there.
Frizzy hair has been treated rather stepmotherly over the years. Due to the prevailing beauty ideal – according to commerce and fashion magazines long and straight hair – this hair type is considered not done. Top model Naomi Campbell and the Aliahas and Ashantis, black singers with waves halfway down their backs, have also contributed to this image. If you didn't know better, you would swear that these women were born with such hair.
Relaxer manufacturers are becoming filthy rich as millions of black men and women around the world seek to rid themselves of their naturally occurring hair.
In Suriname, some people still talk about good and bad hair, with bad hair being frizzy hair. It is therefore not surprising that girls are starting the painful ritual of defrizzing their hair at an increasingly younger age.
It is a missed opportunity that the book only deals with the external features of this type of hair. The question of identity – to what extent does frizzy hair have the same function for the current generation as the headscarf for many Islamic girls and is that why it is so popular – is unfortunately not discussed. The chapter on relaxing should not have been included, or could have been less extensive. I also wonder whether the title frizzy hair is intended as a nickname, instead of afro hair.
liong curly hair
With the book Kroeshaar, wat je moet weten en meer a need is met. With her book – which is based on scientific research – Mireille Liong-A-Kong has done pioneering work. Kroeshaar has been taken out of the corner of doom to which it has been relegated for years.
Written by Clark Accord