Red's Magic Comb
Pressing Through the Kinks of Life
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Now that Red was a teenager, she was interested in exploring her talents by seeing what she could do by experimenting with her own hair. She didn't have hair straightening tools but learned that a fork with tines, resembling a comb's tooth, could be used to possibly help relax the coils and produce manageable results with black hair. She would heat the fork utensil inside a tobacco can that was first heated by placing and holding it over a fire. She experimented with this technique, trying to figure out what the outcome would be. She thought if she could realize acceptable results with her hair, she could offer her services to other females who lived nearby her home.
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About the Book
"Red's Magic Comb, Pressing Through the Kinks of Life" is an inspirational story that chronicles Henrietta "Red" Howard's journey from a childhood of extreme poverty in the restricted South and personal challenges to becoming the First Black Female Salon Owner in the town of Talbotton, Georgia. The book relies on the recollection of "Red," who is currently 90 years old as of January 16, 2023, to give accounts of her everyday life as a child, a teenager, and an adult. It tells how she always sought positivity and overcame some of life's most devastating blows to stay on course to achieve what she believed she deserved. Because of her own experiences early in her life, she had a vision of what she wanted and did not want for herself and her family. She once proclaimed about her then-unborn children, "My children will NEVER work in no white man's field!" Red's views on love, relationships, and life served as the wind beneath her wings to realizing her dreams, being a beacon of hope for others, and making history in the world of hair and beauty. "Red's Magic Comb, Pressing Though the Kinks of Life" will take the reader through emotional highs and lows but serve as inspiration in the end.