Review: My Hair by Hannah Lee, illustrated by Allen Fatimaharan

Bantu knots, high-top fade, braids, or cornrows?

A little Black girl needs a hairstyle for her upcoming birthday party but she just can't decide what to choose until a trip to hairdresser Miss Dawn proves just the inspiration she needs for her perfect new look.

Hannah Lee and Allen Fatimaharan are exciting breakthrough artists in children's publishing, having been runners-up in the Faber and Andlyn (Fab) Prize for undiscovered BIPOC authors and illustrators in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

In this rhyming story, Lee celebrates Afro hair in all its beauty and infinite versatility. She promotes children's freedom to choose their own hairstyles and to develop a sense of their own individual style.

What's particularly lovely is the way members of the extended family are included as the girl's muses — mum, dad, siblings, grandma, cousins, aunts, uncles are all mentioned — when she recalls, in turn, their gloriously inventive hairstyles and hair accessories (traditional and modern).

Fatimaharan's bold highly stylised illustrations, in mocha tones, capture the warmth and love of the Black family as well as the community atmosphere of a Black hair salon and barbers but, for once, it's the hairdresser that's miffed about a customer taking a long time, and not the other way around! He also does an impressive job of portraying a wide variety of hair colours, textures, tones, and styles as well as skin colours.

There are now so many picture books about Afro hair they deserve their own sub-genre, and this one is a delightfully entertaining addition for children in EYFS and KS1, although the rhythm and rhyme doesn't always hit the mark.

At a time when Black hair is still heavily policed by anyone and everyone, this uber-positive story encourages Black children to love their natural Afro hair, recognise its importance for their sense of identity and individuality, and to be fervently proud about it. 

All the Black children's books that I review are checked against my Jericho Benchmark.

My Hair is available for purchase at Black Star Books.