A Conversation in Hair with Sope Martins and Sean Qualls

Complementary children’s books released in the same year are a joy to discover. Read enough books for kids, or watch enough titles passing through your door, and you begin to pick up on a fair amount of overlap. Review journal editors see this kind of thing much more often than I do, and they tend to react accordingly (see the Publishers Weekly discussion between the three creators of biographies of Eunice Newton Foote, for example).

I am on record as saying that in 2026 we’ve seen a distinct downward tick in the number of books by Black creators. Black subject matter in our nonfiction is also less prominent on our shelves than it was even two or three years ago. Fortunately, it is also true that I recently saw these two stars on my library’s bookshelves:

Hairstory by Sope Martins, ill. Briana Mukodiri Uchendu

Fros, Fades, and Braids: A Brief History of Black Hair in America by Sean Qualls

If you haven’t seen them for yourself, let me sum them up for you.

For Hairstory, “There’s a reason it’s called your crowning glory!” This shows off the cultural significance of hair across African hairstyling traditions, and it’s chock full of beauty and history in equal measure. This book appeared at first to be a fictional picture book, but even a cursory read shows that this is a fact-filled fascinating dive into hair from a particularly African tribe and nation-centric perspective. You’ll get information about hair from six different ethnic groups (Mbalantu, Maasai, Himba, etc.) as well as regions. There’s history. There’s beautiful illustrations (Uchendu needs to do more books for us). It’s historical and it’s contemporary all at once.

As for Fros, Fades, and Braids, this is a celebration of the complicated and wonderful history of American Black hair, placed within the context of its times. Everything you ever wanted to know is now in one convenient book. Sean Qualls releases his talents in full in this thoughtful and downright glorious history and celebration of Black American hair. It isn’t the first Black hair book we’ve ever seen, but there’s a great deal of nuance and thoughtful explanations at work here. More so, in fact, than I’ve ever seen in a book for kids before. Qualls is able to, with seeming ease, explain the history behind conks and straighteners with a keen eye to the racism at work behind them, but without any judgement. Everything is placed within the context of its times. I was particularly impressed to see that with almost every style, he always takes care to include someone contemporary that kids might recognize. So you get Snoop Dogg on the page about men with straight hair and Questlove on the “Famous Fros” page. The book is split into different sections, one per style. Extra extra points for beginning not simply with Madam C.J. Walker but also with the woman who she worked for (and was her competitor) Annie Malone. Qualls also utilizes a kind of fantastic almost poster-style art that comes across with these images and words so beautifully.

So! With these two absolute bangers out this year, I wanted to get the creators in discussion with one another. How did they do their research? Where’s the overlap? What’s unique about how they chose to tackle the material?

Here now is my talk with Sope Martins and Sean Qualls about their incredible titles:

Special thanks to both Sope and Sean for taking time out of their schedules to speak with me. Thanks too to Antonella Colon for helping to put this together. Both books are currently available for purchase, so please be so good as to check them out. Preferably together.

Filed under: Best Books, Best Books of 2026, Interviews, Videos