Actress/Author T'Keyah Crystal Keymah recently visited the offices of the Windy City Word Newspaper in Chicago as a publicity preview to her national book tour which kicks off in January 2003 promoting her newest project, Natural Woman Natural Hair-A Hair Journey: Hairstyles and Hairstories from the Front with Simple Step- By- Step Instructions on Taking Care of Your Natural Hair. Most widely known for her role in the popular TV comedy show, "In Living Color" and her role as Bill Cosby's daughter in the sitcom, "Cosby," T'Keyah has been featured in magazines around the world.
Upon meeting her you quickly notice that she is a woman of uncompromising beauty and elegance, wearing her hair like the crown she obviously feels it is. She doesn't feel her natural hair is in competition with straight hair-or anybody's: just that African hair needs special treatment because it's-well, special. T'Keyah is like a really good friend who laughs easily and often, who is so positive and upbeat she makes your own failures seem like successes. After years of wearing her hair exclusively natural, translation: without the benefit of chemical relaxers that straighten the hair or cause the hair to be curly unnaturally; she buckled down to the urge in her spirit to share with other sisters how wonderful the hair can be naturally and wrote this book.

T'Keyah Crystal Keymah is a natural woman, and it doesn't appear she needed the encouragement of a man to get her there; ala the popular song by Aretha Franklin which describes how her man somehow makes her feel natural. T'Keyah's a combination of a lot of natural things-naturally funny, naturally articulate, naturally compassionate, naturally focused, naturally driven and deep-in a natural way.
To talk to T'Keyah forfive minutes is to read the very essence of her book and to read her book is to develop a keen sense of the love she has for women and girls who she refers to as sistahs from every walk of life. This book is a tribute to the beauty that is locked inside each woman; particularly women of the browner persuasion-naturally. Page after page of practical, natural hairstyles are displayed with clearly written step-by-step instructions on how to achieve the styles and care for them. And for the novice home hair stylists you'll be happy to know that the hairstyle descriptions contain no technical hair phrases like some of the other hairstyle magazines. There are some hairstyles though natural, that still call for a professional beauty operator in order to achieve maximum results. T'Keyah is not trying to send beauticians to the unemployment line, but instead providing a plethora of easily achievable hairstyles that can be styled on natural hair. The photos are large and you can see the process and the end results close-up. Her use of models that look natural and real adds to the charm of this book. These are not fantasy-looking people, but realistic men women and children from the community-folks you might really see.
In addition to the hairstyle and maintenance information, the book contains stories, poetry and commentary by T'Keyah. Using the African art of storytelling, T'Keyah weaves (no pun intended) tales from ancient history to explain the phenomena of changing the texture of African curly hair to straighten hair through the use of harsh chemicals. She candidly relates some of her early hair disasters with relaxers and jheri curls while experimenting to achieve her signature look and she shares some actual letters from fans who wanted to know how she kept her hair looking so healthy and beautiful-naturally. This book is a must read for women and would be a wonderful present to a little African-American daughter, neice, granddaughter or cousin, before she begins the process of transforming her natural hair to make it more manageable-unnaturally.

WindyCityWord (WCW): How long has this book been in the making?

T'Keyah: Upon my arrival in L.A. there were no professional TV hairstylists experienced in styling natural hair for African Americans. I solicited referrals from the community, but couldn't find very many stylists interested in doing my hair. Finally, I ended up doing it myself. This was a very time consuming process because I have a lot of hair; and taking it down and rebraiding or twisting it took over an hour every time. As a little girl I had been wearing my hair in a press-n-curl style. Growing up in Chicago, I had a woman on my block and my grandmothers do my hair for years. In college I received my second chemical relaxer while I pledged my sorority. I never received a touch up and my hair was severely damaged. I decided to cut the relaxed hair off and start to wear a curly afro, using rollers made from strips of torn paper bag. During the Miss Illinois pageant in 1985 I wore relaxers.......>>>more