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A witty and incisive exploration of 7 iconic moments that expose the roots of America’s perverse entanglement with white women’s hair
America’s obsession with the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Kate Gosselin, and Britney Spears goes beyond headlines and clickbait. The stories we tell about white women and their hair are tightly woven with our ideals of purity, aesthetics, and power. This book unpacks white hair as a potent emblem of the “all-American” woman—and as a meticulously fashioned weapon of racism and classism.
From Reagan’s rise in the 1980s to the zeitgeisty early aughts to MAGA’s triumph in 2016, these essays uncover a nation’s entwined hopes and sins through 7 iconic hair moments in pop culture. Cheeky and relatable with the research to back it up, Tangled teases apart
- Bo Derek’s cornrows
- Mary Lou Retton’s bob
- Anne Shirley’s carrots
- Julia Roberts’s Pretty Woman curls
- Jennifer Aniston and “The Rachel”
- Britney Spears’s baldness
- Gwyneth Paltrow’s body hair
Some say “the higher the hair, the closer to God,” but white women’s hair has less to do with holiness than it does with hegemony. Tangled highlights America’s glorification of white bodies and the privilege it affords white women. And it calls those women in, urging them to confront their own hair stories so they can begin to untangle the knots.
“With surprising storytelling, gorgeous prose, and deep research into racism and hair history, Mesle moves gracefully between the impact of popular hair icons like Jennifer Aniston and Farah Fawcett and her own life experience. Her incisive cultural criticism and unflinching self-awareness call out and question the power given to whiteness and women’s hair.”
—Elizabeth L. Block, author of Beyond Vanity: The History and Power of Hairdressing
“I could read Sarah Mesle on white women’s hair for hours. For days! Tangled is such an incisive, clarifying look at the meaning of white women’s hair: how it quietly wields power, announces dominance, and reasserts white women’s place in the social order. This is a fascinating, addictive read that will make you think differently about your hair—and every hairstyle around you.”
—Anne Helen Petersen, author of Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation
“With agile prose and remarkable insight, Tangled exposes the political work that gets done when Americans assume white women’s hair has no political meaning. Many claim they want white people to confront their privilege to become allies and accomplices. Sarah Mesle more than answers that call; she equips others to join her.”
—Koritha Mitchell, author of From Slave Cabins to the White House
“With curiosity, insight, and careful reporting, Sarah Mesle’s Tangled uses the ponytails, bobs, and highlights of white women over the last half century to tell a story about race and gender. Entertaining and incisive, this work of criticism shows how hair—ever present but often overlooked—can be a tool of remarkable power.”
—Heather Radke, author of Butts: A Backstory