No Lye: The African American Woman’s Guide to Natural Hair Care

Author: Tulani Kinard

She starts it off with some pretty convincing arguments about why relaxing is a negative thing in the African American community including a rather shocking photo of a lady suffering from chemical damage to the scalp. She also gives an easy to understand lesson of the composition of hair and about relaxers in general. There are informative sections on scalp oils, deep conditioners, hot oil treatments, shampoos and conditioners, including recommendations on natural conditioners (such as fruit, etc).

One of these natural conditioner ingredients I am going to start searching for in my area as it has gotten me quite curious

Healthy diet and scalp disorders are mentioned in detail, making the background information very well rounded.

The pictures of styles are entrancing and plentiful. Mostly I saw  pictures of locs, braids, cornrows and variations thereof. If you are looking for new styles concerning any of those, then this book would be helpful. It also contains details on how to do braids with extensions. The loc chapter was full of information and some of the styles the locs were made into had me fascinated.  Probably the picture I stared at the longest was the micro cornrows. Dang!

Now I know we all can’t agree on everything and that the book was written 12 years ago, so things do change over time. What works for me might not work for other people but I disagreed with her use of shampoos so frequently. She also speaks of combing the hair out after rinsing out the conditioner. No can do, lady. However, she does mention proper technique when combing such as starting the ends and using a wide toothed comb.

My biggest complaint was that she did not spend a lot of time on other hair styles. Now I have the 1997 edition, so maybe a newer addition has more styles. Palmrolls (also called in some circles fingercoils) were mentioned, but just in reference to locing one’s hair. She has a short section called “Beyond Braiding” that briefly mentions 2 strand twists, TWA (which she calls “short and simple”), bantu knots, thread wrapping and flat twists. Knowing what I know about all of the possibilites of natural hair, this just does not cut it.

The book is all over some extensions. She goes into detailed explanation of extensions and has a guide on how to braid with them. I personally don’t use extensions and was a little put off that a book about natural hair care would focus so much on them.I do understand that extensions are a big part of braids for most people so I can understand why she went into so much detail.

There were practically no loose hair pictures at all. I can think of 2 off the top of my head. And I think one is in the children’s section. The children’s section is also full of braids and locs. It’s also picture heavy.

Long story short: This is a good book especially for those who want to loc or braid. I found it easy to read and the information helpful. However, it is a bit limited in other aspects.