Five years ago I made the decision to cut off the straightened hair I’d spent the previous three years growing and blogging about and return to my natural texture. As a Black woman this was a fairly momentous decision because for me, hair isn’t just the stuff that grows out of my head. I made the decision for many reasons but chief among them was that I wanted to teach my future children that they are beautiful just the way they are.
Fast-forward to the present and the Daddy Do My Hair? series is just another part of my journey. As a mother, it is of the utmost importance to me that my daughter is able to see herself represented in the toys she plays with, shows she watches and most importantly, the books she reads. It wasn’t till I started looking for these toys and books that I realised how scarce they are. The lack of diversity and inclusion in children’s literature is an on-going issue.
I’d always wanted to write a book, I just never thought it would be a children’s picture book. My inspiration came one day whilst looking through my Instagram feed and I saw an illustration of a black father, doing his daughter’s hair. It was such a powerful image, especially for me as it mirrored the relationship between my husband and daughter.
As I work three days a week, my husband takes our daughter to nursery on those days. This meant that he had to learn to do her hair. It wasn’t an easy process and I once had to teach him how to tie a hairband via FaceTime.
The moment I saw that illustration, the title Daddy Do My Hair? popped into my brain and the book literally wrote itself after that. We live in a world where Black people are often only shown in a negative light. A world where people have to be reminded via hashtags that "Black Lives Matter" and where black men are rarely celebrated but are well "known" for being absent.
I wanted to show a different view, one that mirrors and better represents the diverse and culturally rich world we live in. There are lots of children's books celebrating fatherhood, several which feature black characters and even a few about hair but there aren’t many that cover all three at once. My aim with the Daddy Do My Hair? series is to show how beautiful the father-child relationship is and that it can take many forms – daddies can do hair too you know.
Daddy Do My Hair? Beth's Twists is the first in a series of books, designed to challenge some of the perceptions and preconceptions of skin and hair colour, relationships between fathers and their children, bullying, friendships, relationships and grief.
Released by Florence Elizabeth Publishing Limited, Daddy Do My Hair?: Beth's Twists