Hair/Power: Essays on Control and Freedom

Braiding together memoir and cultural criticism, Hair/Power explores the power, control, and ultimate liberation that hair can provide.

Growing up as a second-generation Indian immigrant, Kajal Odedra remembers the first time she cut her waist-length hair. It was an act of rage, of defiance, an attempt to push back against societal expectations and regain control

Odedra realized at an early age that hair is never “just hair,” and both its presence and absence can have a profound impact on our...