Review: Phoebe Robinson’s You Can’t Touch My Hair

In her new book “You Can’t Touch My Hair” comedian and ‘2 Dope Queens’ co-host Phoebe Robinson writes about pop culture, race, and feminism. The book will be released on Tuesday, October 4th.

You’ve heard of the 2 Dope Queens podcast, right? If you haven’t, you need to go look it up, subscribe, and listen. We’ll go over that in a minute. If you have heard of it, then you know who Phoebe Robinson is. She is one-half of 2 Dope Queens which I suppose makes her…1 Dope Queen? (The other half is her “work wife”, Jessica Williams, who you probably remember from The Daily Show.) And you may also know that Phoebe Robinson has a book coming out tomorrow, October 4th, called “You Can’t Touch My Hair (and Other Things I Still Have to Explain)”.

Let’s explain 2 Dope Queens first, just for those who haven’t listened yet. Start with the obvious: Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams are two comedians living in NY. They’re both black women, they’re best friends, and they are hilarious. They talk about so many things, from sex and dating to U2 and Billy Joel. Each week, they’re joined by other comedians. Some of their most recent guests have been Jo Firestone, Jon Stewart, and Ilana Glazer. It’s a great show and you should definitely check it out.

For those of you who have listened, you’ll recognize some of Phoebe’s stories in You Can’t Touch My Hair, like the one about being upgraded to the front row at a Billy Joel concert or the time she got ignored by the staff at a Michael’s craft store. But because there’s more room in a book than in a one-hour podcast, you’ll get the expanded, even funnier version. She goes into more detail about her love for U2 and even spends several pages on ranking them in order of who she wants to sleep with. (You can tell she’s put some thought into it and, even as someone who isn’t much of a U2 fan, I totally agree with her assessments.)

NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 02: (EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE) Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams attend The Golden Probe Awards 2016 at Le Poisson Rouge on October 2, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by JP Yim/Getty Images for Lady Parts Justice)

Most of what Robinson writes about are issues related to being a black woman in America. As you can guess from the title, she writes about black hair. Not just her own experiences with various hairstyles over the years, but the significance of black hairstyles in general. She’s devoted an entire chapter to “A Brief History of Black Hair in Film, TV, Music, and Media” in which she explains how celebrities like Little Richard, Janet Jackson, Michael Jordan, and Halle Berry have influenced hair trends and the cultural significance of those styles.

She also addresses issues like “The Angry Black Woman Myth” and how this harmful trope has been portrayed in media since it first showed up in the Amos n Andy radio show in the 1930s, a stereotype that still affects black women in their personal and professional lives in the 21st century. One of my favorite chapters is the one titled “People, Places, and Things That Need to Do Better.” Among these are the NFL, Barney’s, Waffle House, and catcallers.

Book Cover Photo via Penguin.com

The title might suggest that this book is aimed at white women. (By the way, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, you really cannot just touch someone’s hair. If you don’t understand why that’s just not acceptable, Phoebe will explain it to you.) Yes, a lot of it does seem to be written with white women in mind. She writes about what it’s like being “the black friend,” the one everybody wants to turn to when they need someone to excuse that racist remark they just made. There’s a lot of stuff in here that white women need to understand and black women will relate to. And Phoebe does it in a way that’s both brutally honest and completely hilarious.

Even though there are a lot of political and racial issues discussed in You Can’t Touch My Hair, none of it comes across as preachy or lecturing. It definitely falls into the “Humor” category, and it’s just as entertaining as it is educational. It’s a Girls Night Out in book form. So the next time you get the urge to ask the black woman from your yoga class what’s wrong with the word “uppity,” just don’t. Grab Phoebe Robinson’s book instead.

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If you can’t find a copy of You Can’t Touch My Hair in your local bookstore, you can buy it in paperback, audio book or e-book format online via the Penguin website.