The Wisdom of Hair

by Kim Boykin

New Adult/Literary Fiction

Book Description

Life can be beautiful, but it takes a little work…

“The problem with cutting your own hair is that once you start, you just keep cutting, trying to fix it, and the truth is, some things can never be fixed. The day of my daddy’s funeral, I cut my bangs until they were the length of those little paintbrushes that come with dime-store watercolor sets. I was nine years old. People asked me why I did it, but I was too young then to know I was changing my hair because I wanted to change my life.”

In 1983, on her nineteenth birthday, Zora Adams finally says goodbye to her alcoholic mother and their tiny town in the mountains of South Carolina. Living with a woman who dresses like Judy Garland and brings home a different man each night is not a pretty existence, and Zora is ready for life to be beautiful.

With the help of a beloved teacher, she moves to a coastal town and enrolls in the Davenport School of Beauty. Under the tutelage of Mrs. Cathcart, she learns the art of fixing hair, and becomes fast friends with the lively Sara Jane Farquhar, a natural hair stylist. She also falls hard for handsome young widower Winston Sawyer, who is drowning his grief in bourbon. She couldn’t save Mama, but maybe she can save him.

As Zora practices finger waves, updos, and spit curls, she also comes to learn that few things are permanent in this life—except real love, lasting friendship, and, ultimately… forgiveness.

• Picnic or restaurant? The more creative the food, the better and it’s just more creative in a restaurant and you’re not constrained by trying to find food that travels well.
• Pool or beach? Preferably pool overlooking beach, or pool for lounging and beach for walking, but if I have to choose, beach.
• Trousers or skirt? Since yoga pants aren’t an option, long, flowy skirts.
• Flats or heels? Heelish shoes, the height between flats and perilously high heels.
• Analog or digital? Analog is dead. Digital.
• Venus or Mars?  Venus-unless there’s a good football game to watch on Mars.
• Snow White or Sleeping Beauty? Sleeping Beauty if I have to choose, but I really prefer Belle because she gets to read a lot.
• Spiderman or Batman? Christian Bale, I mean Batman. Spidey is a little too lanky for me.
• Kristen Stewart or Jennifer Lawrence? The one who can act and has an Oscar to show for it, and isn’t Kristen Stewart.
• Swimsuit or Bikini? At 55, I wish I could say bikini, but no.
• Coke or Pepsi?  Coke. I’m southern, all soda is a Coke, then you specify which Coke you mean, Sprite, diet, etc.
• Hungry or stuffed? Hungry gives me a headache. Stuffed puts me to sleep. Stuffed, which explains the answer to the bikini question.
• Lie ins or late nights? Night owl.
• Fridge or cooker?   Cooker, it’s just another creative outlet that tastes good and doesn’t require a certain number of words or pages.
• Cold feet or cold hands? Cold hands. Must type faster…Ahhhhhhhh.
• Shot or stabbed? Whichever is quicker, I’m thinking shot.
• Broken arm or broken leg? Arm, too many complications later on in life with legs as it is.
• Paper cut or kick in the shins? Paper cut, a little rubbing alcohol and it’s gone in no time.