Textured Tresses : The Ultimate Guide to Maintaining and Styling Natural Hair

Rating:
Summary: Understanding My Natural Texture
Review: After reading Ms. Da Cost's book I now have a positive attitude about my tightly coiled textured hair. Before I was led to beleive my "Kinky or Nappy" Hair was unruly and unmanageable. Now I love and accept my "Tightly Coiled" hair and know that there are many styles that I can wear. Ms. Da Costa covers shampoos and conditions that are especially formulated for my hair texture and names them. This is very different from all other books. There are many great books written before this one that break down structure and style, but I think this book brings a new dimension by concentrating on loving and accepting naturally textured hair, caring and maintaining for your hair with conditioners and products and the styles are easy to follow and achieve. Thanks for the wealth of information. Love the Photos.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing new...
Review: I also was really excited when I heard this book was coming out, but became quickly disappointed. I was hoping Ms. DaCosta would offer added information to the care and styling of natural African hair. There isn't anything that has been displayed better than Pamela Farrell's Let's Talk Hair or Tulani Kinard's NO LYE in this book. Unfortunately I saw nothing new.

Rating:
Summary: da Costa Speaks With Forked Tongue
Review: I am very disappointed with this book. While extolling primarily African American women to love, embrace and accept their unique, and highly textured hair, da Costa then devotes a chapter dealing with "texturizing" albeit perming your natural hair. For one who is contemplating wearing her hair in its God given natural state, this gives an incrdible mixed message. "Love your napps, however, if need be loosen them up with a texturizer.

I grew tired of the celebrity photos/tips. One celebrity featured has her hair texturized, hence, she is not natural. I also found it disingenous to have a Japanese model with braided styles. Sorry, but typical African American hair textures are not the same as Asian/Japanese. When do Asian women look to black hair care books for hair tips?

If you are in need of good books, please try Pam Ferrell's Let's Talk Hair or Tulani Kinard's No Lye. ALso the actress T'Kyah Crystal Keymah has a better book that completely extolls the beauty of black hair unprocessed.

Diane da Costa is a wonderful stylist. I am greatly disappointed in her duplicity.

Rating:
Summary: Good Reference, but not a DIY Guide
Review: I found Diane DaCosta's book long on photos and celebrity gossip, but short on practical advice for the sistah (or brother) who wants to do her own hair. While DaCosta offers step by step instructions for a handful of styles, I expected more. I was also annoyed by the weird layout of text, which made it hard to match photos with their descriptions. If she ever does a second edition, I hope it will include bigger captions. This book would really have benefited from more color photos and more detailed advice for people who are making the transition from relaxed to natural hair. The photos of men's styles are a nice touch. To truly get your money's worth, share a copy with a friend. Better yet, just check it out from the library.

Rating:
Summary: Some good Info but not much detail
Review: I liked the information regarding essential oils and their benefits. The section on braiding was a bit limited in my opinion and the featured hairstyle for that section (the braided ponytail thing) was most unattractive. The section on hair color could have been more informative as well (ie. recommending products under each type of coloring agent) especially since coloring AA hair can lead to a great deal of damage if done incorrectly and if the wrong product is used.

Rating:
Summary: Got compliments on my 'do after trying one from this book
Review: I live in one of the smaller medium-sized towns in North Carolina. It's a college town and I like it, but it's prone to hipness on a rare occasion. It's hard to find a salon to do something different on your hair. I tried two of the styles in this book and one in particular - the Nubian nots - netted me major compliments. Brothers in cars were even turning their heads and waving. One was crossing the street when I was leavng a book store and shouted "I like that a lot!" and he pointed to his hair and then pointed to my head. "Your hair!" he yelled. "I like that style." I could not stop smiling. It was my first time trying it and Diane's book inspired it. The best compliment was from a man at church who told me he wished he could get his daughter's hair like my style. The good thing is that not only can you get ideas for styles, you learn how to get a healthier scalp. I want to mix some of the natural oil recipes Diane suggests and massage them into my scalp next!

Rating:
Summary: The Essential Guide to Natural Hair Care
Review: Natural hairstyles and care is an area that is often overlooked by magazines
and style guides, however, in TEXTURED TRESSES, Diane Da Costa sheds light and
wisdom on this neglected area. Da Costa, a stylist to the rich and famous,
shares her perspective and experience on the uniqueness and versatility of
natural hair. She dispels the style myths which relegate natural hair wearers
to corn rows, afros, and dread locks and replaces that mindset with tools and
tricks of the trade that make a natural head of hair synonymous with a blank
artist's canvas.

Filled with rich black and white photos of musicians, models, and just plain
folks as illustrations of the various styles, TEXTURED TRESSES provides more
than a technique guide. Da Costa discusses the emotional, spiritual and
lifestyle aspects that may attract people to a natural hairstyle. She spends
a significant amount of time discussing healthy hair and the steps that you
can take to achieve it. She also names various products to use which is
helpful for people who don't know where to start the natural hair grooming
process.

TEXTURED TRESSES uncovers a world of styles that will push anyone over who is
sitting on the fence of trying to decide to go natural. Da Costa gives
easy to follow instructions and wonderful examples of a plethora of
hairstyles. As a wearer of a natural style, Da Costa provided some answers I
sought on hair coloring and I was thrilled when I found the Salon Directory
that she included in the back of the book that lists a number of salons around
the country that specialize in natural hair care. TEXTURED TRESSES is a must
have for anyone who is curious about natural hair.

Reviewed by Diane Marbury
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers


Rating:
Summary: Should be: Da Costa & Celebrities' Hair She's Done. Period.
Review: Textured Tresses doesn't provide any worthwhile tips on styling or caring for natural African-American hair. It's an ill-informed, deceptive book full of celebrity namedropping. Da Costa first tells the reader there's no such thing as "bad hair", yet a few chapters over she tells the reader to reach for a jar of chemical relaxer if their hair is too tightly coiled. Da Costa deceptively refers to this as "texturizing", and accompanies her recommendation to "texturize" with verbiage that "texturing" enables one to achieve the full range of styling possibilities that our beautiful natural hair deserves. I presume this means Da Costa finds the styling possibilities of my tightly coiled hair deficient, insufficient, limiting...? Early in the book, Da Costa describes African-American hair textures as ranging from bone-straight to tightly coiled. Yet she devotes much discussion to celebrities and other clients with textures in the first-half of that range. She leaves hanging those of us with very curly to tightly coiled hair--other than her shoddy advice to "texturize."

As to damage that chemical relaxers cause, Da Costa displays a cavalier attitude. She tells the reader that when people ask her if chemicals damage hair, she responds with "What is damage?" (Sounds to me like Zen and the art of avoidance.) She goes on to write that damage is caused by stripping protein from the hair (true), and that hair can be saved from damage by piling various treatments onto the hair (false).

Da Costa devotes much of her book to details about how this or that star called and asked her to style their sister's/daughter's/wife's/niece's son's hair, or how the star wanted this particular style for the filming of this movie or for their tour with that famous band or for shooting the cover of this CD or that music video. Actual discussion on how the rest of us can obtain and maintain natural hairstyles is trite. For instance, when Da Costa briefly addresses the subject of haircare products, she instructs the reader to experiment with different products to see which ones work best with the reader's hair! Period. No lists of products matched with particular hair types. As far as Da Costa is concerned, you're on your own--and no more informed than you were before you bought her book.

The book jacket claims Da Costa will explain how to make beautiful loc styles. Her explanation for one of the styles begins with "Wash locs... " I thought perhaps I'd missed the section that tells how to "get locs." But no, nowhere in the book does Da Costa explain how to start locs. She explains only how to create mock locs--that is, styles that look somewhat like locs, but that disappear by the end of the day. For example, she instructs the reader to set hair vertically on rods to get "Shirley Temple-type coils." She doesn't mention that the style will last a day at best. And her equating a loc "look" with "Shirley Temple hair" is a disturbingly mixed message.

To find genuine information about caring for natural hair, try one of the many honest authors out there: Lonnice Brittenum Bonner (who has a loc book due to be released in February), Tulani Kinard, and Pamela Ferrell.

Rating:
Summary: Best Guide
Review: This guide teaches you how to accept, love and style your natural hair. I decided to grow out my chemical relaxer and found DaCosta's description of "natural sets" very easy to do and helpful . . .my hair has never looked healthier! I also appreciate her recommendations of hair salons all over the US and UK as well as her hair product reccomendations. Easy read and very affordable.


Rating:
Summary: Easy to follow guide to natural hair
Review: This is an easy to follow guide used in assisting in care for natural hair. Da Costa is a star in her own right and she definitely shines in discussing the 411 on natural hair. She takes the time to honor our ancestors by charting the history of locs, twists and braids.  The book is written for African-Americans who are considering the transition from relaxed to natural hair as well as debunking many of the myths about natural hair. African-American men and women are given the freedom to love, embrace and accept the uniqueness of their crowning glory - natural hair.

The book provides a step-by-step guide to mastering several styles and different looks of the stars. Da Costa discusses the styles she has developed and how she works with clients to keep their natural tresses healthy and strong. There are pictures as well as directions, which guide you through every aspect: from picking a stylist, washing, drying, cutting and coloring. An entire chapter is devoted to understanding the transition from relaxed to natural is a big commitment that can be spiritual in nature. Da Costa recommends products, salons and styles while in keeping your natural hair professional enough for the workplace without compromising your heritage.

I definitely recommend this book for anyone considering a natural do or for the sister that is ready to be free from the bondage of chemicals. I'm currently going through the transition from relaxed to natural hair, and I found some much needed moisturizing tips to keep my hair healthy. Now I'm more familiar with the terminology needed to openly discuss my hair care with my stylist. The only shortcoming of this book was that the styles presented were limited and many were difficult to discern the exact look from the photo.

Reviewed by Monique Bruner for Loose Leaves Book review