Hair/Power: Essays on Control and Freedom

404 Inklings #15

by Kajal Odedra

Hair is potent. It can be an emotional and intense matter across gender - it will grow in places you don't like, it may desert you - suddenly, or gradually. It is a symbol of gender, sexuality, status, and more. Part memoir, part investigation across history, politics, religion, and culture, Hair/Power explores the power, control and ultimate liberation that hair can provide.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Essays

112 pages, Paperback

Published January 26, 2023

Reviews

[aliya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I COMPLETELY DEVOURED THIS ! it’s a very short and quick read BUT OH MY GOD THE POINTS SHE MAKES ARE INCREDIBLE. the writing is fantastic. i wrote “real…” down one too many times.

“imperialism has created a straitjacket over cultures that appeared to be wild and uncontained.”

[Áine Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gobbled this book up. Kajal writes so beautifully. Her voice is friendly and warm and she interweaves her personal experience, the experience of others and big ideas together so eloquently. In only 89 pages she covers so much ground. She brings you with her on a journey and her arguments are logical, well articulated and human, it’s hard not to agree with her. This is a book everyone should read. Kajal Odedra will make you want to change the world, and help you to believe that together we can. More from this writer please. More more more.

[LC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of essays on one of my favourite subjects. As a queer person, my hair has been such a significant part of my self-expression throughout my whole life. While Odedra has a different experience to me, I really resonated with what she said about hair and its importance. Loved the section about her grandmother as well, having recently lost my gran. It felt very affirming. Can't wait to read more from this series!

[Kirsty · Rating 5 out of 5]

5* as always for an Inkling!

Just one very annoying typo on the SECOND page, come ON.

[eloiza · Rating 4 out of 5]

introduction hooked me IMMEDIATELY, Odedra calling the collection “a conversation with Foucault, Susan Sontag, and her childhood”

[Iffazu · Rating 4 out of 5]

a quick but powerful read! on things you probably wouldn’t have thought about hair before, this book had lots of ‘whoa, for real’ thoughts on my end.

how hair can convey powerful messages and acts of revolution, how it connects you to communities, your heritage and essentially your self, and how even through hair, we, are also controlled and colonized by the whiteness of society.

Kajal Odedra writes in a very warm and casual tone as if you’re listening to a friend as she tells mostly her personal experiences with hair and cleverly articulates the aforementioned topics above with said experiences. Overall a great 4.5 ⭐️ kind of writing for me!

[Anoushka Kolahalu · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Hair is, and always will be, my muse."

It's such an interesting topic that I couldn't have thought to be this engaging. The essays are written profoundly, simply and directly to the point, backed with historical facts and events to really emphasize the power of hair in so many different contexts through centuries.

It's been such an actual pleasure and realisation to read this book! I'm also grateful to have read it. We need more books talking about simple daily occurrences/obstacles that affect 'people of the global majority' to shift the narrative, exactly how this book has done it.

[Alexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up at a random book shop in London intrigued by the title. It’s a short collection of personal essays that combines the author’s life with history, politics, and theory. While some insights were really intriguing I do think there should have been more attention paid to connecting all of the ideas in each chapter as some appeared disconnected from the author’s arguments or the topic of hair altogether.

[ella sylvie · Rating 4 out of 5]

this profoundly affected me. read in one day across two sittings and wrote a substack response after. i found it very digestible yet intellectually stimulating - i love books that are rigorously academic but not packed with jargon that just ends up making me feel small and useless. thanks kajal<3 i will never again doubt the power of hair, though as well as opening my eyes, she definitely articulated a lot that i have always felt but never known quite how to say!

[Teddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars


I really, really enjoyed this short little book. I really loved how Odedra discussed how our hair gives us autonomy and control within an often tumultuous and hostile world, especially for those who are within marginalized communities. (I know that's incredibly true in my own personal experience.) I'm so glad that I picked this book up & spent some time with it.

[zahrahanif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book, such a range of ideas in such a lil read. The ideas about power influencing truth were so interestingg and I especially liked all the ideas about marginalised identities regarding hair, so insightful

[Laia Alonso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful and powerful essays on the role of hair in finding your own identity, fighting systems and re-scripting gender, yourself, and more! As someone who has deeply played with hair as a way of self-expression - I loved this read.

[fugglerfein ⋆.˚ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thought provoking and I really related to this book on so many levels. I teared up at the end, it was like having an older sister really see me and the struggles I’ve gone through, especially in relation with my hair and how it’s shaped my identity.

[Marie Lagast · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘The power to express ourselves, by cutting of our hair, to scream and shout when we can’t do it with our own voice. The power to style ourselves as other, to push against the status quo, have a mohawk or undercut and tell the world that we’re not like you, that we want things to change.’

[Rowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick but fascinating read about the different ways hair intersects with power and identity, would definitely recommend!

[Lisanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Luna L. Liboni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. It speaks about and to people belonging to different groups that share the use of hair to challenge the status quo and existing systems of power.

[Ayodele]

Recommend by In the Salon with Rubi Jones

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting reading and about more than hair.

[Parris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written & thought provoking

[Rakie Keig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great short book on a topic I'd not really considered before, always good to learn something new!

[Ley-Anne Haigh-Forsyth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have toyed between 3/4. It’s a good book which definitely covers the topic well and is very interesting.

[Milli]

She be little but read it

[mymona · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an awesome read!

Loved the breakdown of personal experience balanced with historical and world experiences.

As a South Asian woman in the UK, there was a lot here that I needed to read and engage with. To realise that our experiences are so similar even when though we felt alien during our childhood. And to be reminded every day that my hair does something a little different, and it is worth talking about that, enjoying that.

Particularly enjoyed the chapter about salons/community. This was arguably the most important chapter as community is something we will forever seek and it lays there, in the regular trip to the hairdressers/barbers.