This cd discusses the issues of ethinic hair care, beauty culture, & the dangers of using harmful chemicals on the hair.

9 MP3 Songs
SPOKEN WORD: Audiobook, WORLD: World Fusion



Details:
One evening, about 2-3 years ago, I was over Ms. Efua's house visiting. I noticed a book she had out on a table. I picked it up & read through it. The title of the book was 'Naturally Beautiful You: A Guide to the Care, History, & Culture of Black African Hair.' She wrote this in 1985. What fascinated me was the history and meaning behind it. In 1979, Ms. Efua was among the 1st to open an all natural black hair care salon in the state of New Jersey. To me, this was truly innovative because at that time, relaxers (perms) & Jheri curls were booming. To have a salon that celebrated the beauty & texture of natural black hair for that time was in my opinion, unique & pioneering. I told her, "We have to put this book on cd!!" In the summer of 2005, I recorded Ms. Efua. I was taking classes in recording engineering & was totally new & green. I want to thank Ms. E for making some of my 1st ventures in recording very pleasant & enjoyable. I enjoyed working with her. I also thank her for being so generous with her knowledge & information. It was fun recording her because I enjoying hearing about her experiences & how she turned her dream of owning a natural black hair care salon into reality. I'm also glad that she was able to tell her story & experiences in her own words. I want to note that unfortunately, there have been some who have taken advantage of Ms. Efua's generousity. Some have taken the information from her book/experiences to further their own books, projects, etc. without giving Ms. E the proper credit & acknowledgement that she deserves & for her help & contributions. For me, this is unscrupulous & goes against the meaning of black natural beauty itself. Natural black beauty means (to me) showing love for ones own natural self & love for each other. Taking someone else's material without properly crediting them, etc. is not showing love. This distrubs & bothers me, but Ms. Efua takes it all in stride & chooses not to dwell on it. We are very excited about having people hear it & we welcome all feedback. Whether you agree or disagree with the point of view that's on the cd, our main goal is to get everyone to THINK about the subject matter & to provide information so that you can make your own choices. We hope that you'll enjoy listening to Ms. Efua (she has a wonderful speaking voice) & we recorded it so it's like she's right there in the room with you; you can hear her bracelets in some sections. :)


-Jennifer B., Producer