Wild, Wild Hair

by Nikki Grimes, George Ford (Illustrator)

Hating having to get her wild hair painfully combed and braided every Monday, Tisa decides to hide, but once her hair is done, she loves it so much that her mother cannot tear her away from the mirror.

Genres: Realistic Fiction, Fiction, Childrens, Picture Books, Family, Kids, African American

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Faloni © · Rating 5 out of 5]

Students love to hear stories about morning routines, self care and hygiene. I was once a child, like the character, Tisa Walker and didn’t like to get my hair combed. Has anyone told you stories about when you were a tender headed child? This book was excellent because our schools spirit day is about Crazy Hair Day. My baby brought this book and read it to the classroom aloud. Tisa Walker gets her hair done every Monday and her hair is really thick and wild. Her brother suggests that she get a fade like him since she doesn't like getting her hair styled. She ends up with 21 neat braids and a smile. It's a really good book especially since it's about having wild hair and crazy hair day is now!

[Akoss · Rating 4 out of 5]

By the time she was 4, my daughter made it clear she no longer had the patience for our nightly hair care routine.
So we chopped off her waist long curly hair.
Almost two years later she still very much loves her pixie cut hair style which is ok with me. I was really looking forward to her opinion on short hair vs long hair after reading this, which I got.
I wish my experience with my own mom was similar, but I sure got a laugh out of reading this book and appreciated the walk it had me take down the memory lane.

[Kalonda Mcknight]

Text-to-self

I can relate the book "Wild, Wild Hair, because I remember having to get my hair washed and comb every Saturday afternoon and I hated it. I loved my hair but I hated for anybody to touch or comb it. I dreaded when Saturday would come because I knew what was going to happen on that day. This was part of our Saturday afternoon routine. My sisters and I would fuss about who was going to get their hair washed and combed first. My mother would say "girls don't you want to look pretty for church tomorrow"?Honestly, I did but I didn't want my hair washed and comb. I felt like I looked pretty anyways. My mother would be very gentle but it still hurt when she combed it. Once my mother was done combing our hair, we all would get dressed and go out too dinner. I think Tisa and I are a lot alike because when I looked in the mirror at my hair, after having it washed and combed I loved the finished product as well.

[Keoki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so awesome! I read it many times to my daughter!

[Faloni © · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Wild, Wild Hair the main character hides [away] from her parents when the time comes for hair care hygiene so her big brother offers support. It takes many months to get one used to routine hair care especially when one has tender scalp.

[Akeyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my childhood favorites! I recall she never liked getting her natural hair combed. But everytime she got through it and loved it! A lot of Black girls should read this book. We often are told by society that our hair to this very day is unacceptable, unruly and inappropriate... and let's not forget ugly. It starts when we are little girls. This book along with constant reassurance and motherly bonding is great just for building a little girls confidence. Definitely reccomend this book!

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was really hard to find a Black lead easy reader before 2000. But Nikki Grimes has been writing forever and I was pleased to find this book for those beginning readers. The story was about a girl who gets her hair braided weekly and she doesn't want to do it. The story is great and I think it needs to be given new life with new illustrations. These current illustrations feel as dated as they are (1996) and ages a story that is timeless.

[Henessy Tolliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book because the main characters of the book experienced the same hair problems, I did when I was younger. I also loved the colorful images that with along with the words. I truly felt apart of the book myself.

[Kayla Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorites childhood memories is of my mother reading this book to me before bed.

[Kyrah · Rating 5 out of 5]

i can't read the book

[Phylicia Bohannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wild, Wild Hair is a fictional story about a girl who absolutely HATES getting her hair done by her mother every mother. She tries things like hiding and running hoping that her mother will forget about doing her hair. But after being caught and sat down to get her hair done, she musters through the ‘pain’ and in the end finds that she likes the braids she gets.
I would use this text in my classroom to show students that getting stuff over with can lead to a result that you like, such as pretty braids coming from a head full of untamed hair. Students could interact with the text in seeing that they might be going through the same routine task like getting their hair combed. After reading Wild, Wild Hair students might be able to actually find themselves looking forward to getting a pretty hairstyle out of the hard labor of doing hair.
Nikki Grimes is the author and she is also a poet and author from Harlem, New York. Grimes does a wonderful job of portraying the story in a very simple and straight forward manner making the point of the book easily understood. Wild, Wild Hair can teach children that different hair textures cause for different routines to maintain it.

[Breana Vining · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only does this book contain a good use of rhyming words, but it is also good for young girls with wild hair who do not like to get their hari combed!

[Eugene Magee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. Good to read to children just to give them an idea about some of the trials children of a different culture and ethnic group go through growing up.

[Maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wild, Wild Hair is about Tisa a little girl with wild hair. Every Monday she gets her hair combed and she hates it until she sees herself in the mirror. I would have this book in my classroom.

[Brandi Parkhurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tisa Walker is a young, African American girl with naturally wild hair. Each week, on Monday morning, her mother braids her hair, but Tisa is always reluctant to have it done. She hides and hides until finally, she gives in and is very happy with her hair after all.
This book is a very simple, easy to read piece of literature that would be valuable to be read by an African American child who struggles with the same issue. The writing style of this book is very well suited for beginning readers to read themselves, to others, and be read to as well.

I gave this book a 4-star rating because it is written in a very child-friendly manner. Unlike the majority of beginning reader books, it is also pertaining to a subject matter that directly appeals to African American children, making it a valuable part of any early elementary classroom library. There is a very high level of importance for children in minorities such as this one, and the struggles that they face, to be represented in literature; this is a perfect example of this being done.

[Melrose Brown]

Tisa is an African American girl that absolutely hates getting her thick, kinky hair combed and braided every Monday morning for school by her mother. She is extremely tender headed and hides whenever her mother calls her to do her hair. However, when her hair is done, she's in awe. She looks at herself in the mirror, admiring the beauty staring back at her. She expresses that pain is beauty and realizes that her thick, kinky locks is beautiful in many ways. This book is about self-love. It is relatable because I used to hate getting my hair done. Like Tisa, I'm very tender headed. I would hide from my mother when she would call me to do my hair very Sunday evening for school the next week. I believe that grade school kids would love this book as it expresses ways for them to love themselves no matter what or how they look.