Afro-American Images: New Hair Fashion Trends [Cover title]

N.P./Norwalk, IA: Jim & RosanneAnderson/American Salon Circulation, Inc, 1990. Good. 12” x 9”. Glossy pictorial thin card wrappers, black plastic spiral-bound. Pp. [46]. Good due to front wrap partially detached from binding and moderately worn; internally very good plus.

This is an unrecorded glossy magazine full of spectacular photographic images of “Afrocentric Hair Fashion Trends” modeled by African Americans decked out in African-inspired clothing and accessories.

The only text in this great lookbook is found on its covers, which give credit for the cuts to “world class hair designer Barry Fletcher.” Per his own website, Fletcher is “the most sought after educator and competitor in the African American hair-care industry” and has “artistically waved his magic wands over the heads of” Tina Turner, Toni Braxton, Chaka Khan, Halle Berry, Maya Angelou, Prince and many more. Newspaper accounts reveal that he also wrote books to help Black women care for their natural hair, and was the first to win a national hairstyling competition with an African American model in 1994.

The book is composed of beautiful, giant head shots of African American women (and one man) modeling a variety of cuts and styles, dressed in a “coordination of Kente and mud cloth called 'Contrasting Blends' which represents royalty, enhancing this style book with a flair from West Africa.”

We found no information on the publishers, Jim and Rosanne Anderson, or the distributors, American Salon Circulation, other than a few OCLC entries for other style books published in the mid-1990s.

A lovely collection of fabulous African fashions and hairstyles, not found in OCLC or anywhere online. (Inventory #: 8312)