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Author: Karen Marie Shelton
Book Reviewer
HairBoutique.com African Hairstyles: Styles of Yesterday and Today |
African Hairstyles: Styles of Yesterday and Today
by Esi Sagay
This book is focused on African hairstyles from the past and the present up to
1983 when the book was published. This book is still in print and available from
Amazon.com. I must say, the photographs that are included are spectacular. The
cover of the book describes the book as being "dramatically illustrated with a wide
range of elegant, exotic and straightforware hairstyles." This description is
absolutely true. Although all the photos are limited to black and white, they are
stunning. Esi Sagay mentions that this book took over 7 years to complete. One
look at all the elaborate hair designs and photos and I can understand why it would take
that long to produce this book.
This book has a fascinating section on cornrowing. There are over 50
different photos of cornrowed styles including styles for men. The decisions are
beautiful works of art. There are step by step instructions on how to recreate all
of the cornrow styles. The beautiful hair in the cornrow chapter demonstrates the
highly specialized hair design talents of Esi Sagay who resides in Lagos, Nigeria.
Ms. Sagay studied at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and the University of Science and
Technology. She has a degree in fine arts and is also a graphic designer. Her
artist talents are applied with true genuis to her hair designs.
Her book explains how to do different scalp designs including the Star, Crown,
Pineapply and the Kudeti. She also explains hair threading and the design on threaded
strands including the Onigi, Okoto or Puff, Dada, Sungas, Bubbled Sungas, Ejo, Twist,
Sulpher and the Koso.
I really enjoyed this book. I will probably never be able to duplicate any
of the extremely sophisticated and artistic designs that Ms. Sagay demonstrates in her
book, but I learned a lot of new information and was very impressed with the overall
artistic quality and content of the book. I recommend this book to anyone interested
in creating advanced Black or African hairstyles.
Buy The Book
Paperback: 118 pages
Publisher: Heinemann (May 1, 1984)
ISBN: 0435898302 |