...a grass-root fiction...black in the day, old-school kinda' drama.
This book is dedicated to Jim Williams and all the African-American Hairdressers in America
Your Ends Are Raggedy, Girlfriend! The year is 1982, the place Harlem, USA. Mildred Evans and Claude LeBeau are good friends who met at Walker Beauty Academy. Through perils and disappointments, they established "Shampoo Time", a chic beauty salon in Harlem. They run the successful salon with their colourful staff. They are continuously confronted with issues surrounding love, greed, jealousy and sex...
The climax of this novel is the period from '82 to '86 when black issues and world events affect the livelihood of their clients, as they discuss their concerns in the salon. Their opinions and stories are listened to by the packed salon. They comment on abortion, Jesse Jackson, Ms. America, Marvin Gaye, Eubie Blake and much more. Your Ends Are Raggedy,Girlfriend! will make you laugh, cry, love and hate.
Excerpt
Claude LeBeau’s left eye began twitching as he gathered the remainder of his beauty supplies. His strong black hands trembled as he picked up his favorite hot curling irons, Belson’s Gold n’ Hot. He glanced at the burn marks the irons left on his hands over the years. He placed each one neatly into his worn out Louis Vitton duffel bag. The bag was a gift from one of his many dedicated clients. Claude walked casually to the back of the salon and checked the stockroom for supplies that might bear his LeBeau product label.
The packed salon was in an uproar. The clients whispered, shaking their heads in shame. Claude could hear the hum of the salon as he stared at the cluttered stockroom. Bottles were mixed with containers, half used haircolouring application bottles ere left open and instruction sheets were pushed to the back. He now understood why Mrs. Sadie’s haircolour didn’t take.
Thinking back to better times, he called Mildred’s long smooth black stocking legs with her black Christian Dior panties pulled down to her ankle. He recalled how she held tightly to the shelf that stored his very own product line “LeBeau”, as she clung to him breathing heavily and gasping for air.
Forcing his mind back to the present, he looked again around the stockroom. Spatulas caked with creme relaxer and empty containers of various products that left a strong odor in the stockroom. All this disarray was exactly like Mildred’s apartment - cluttered with expensive junk.
Claude was furious and yet saddened by the ruthless attacks he had suffered from Mildred, his one-time love and confidante. He became panic-stricken and started feeling nauseous from the stockroom’s odor and his thoughts of Mildred’s black bare ass. Claude began to wonder what he was going to do, and where he would go. He didn’t know where Mrs. Sadie, his three o’clock appointment would sit.
Claude exited the cluttered stockroom and there stood Mildred patiently waiting for him. The salon quieted down and paid close attention to Mildred, the high-sprung, sophisticated and attractive owner as she walked boldly toward Claude. You could hear the clicking of her Charles Jourdan high heels as she strutted her God-given round ass. She showed a slight glimmer of sarcasm as he checked Claude’s bag to see if all the contents were indeed his.
“Your shit was raggedy Claude, and you know that”,
Mildred said. “So don’t even think about coming back until you can get your act together.”
“Humph”, Claude thought, “now isn’t this just like a bitch, gonna tell me my shit was raggedy. Hell I remember when she couldn’t make it without me in this damn hair salon, let alone the bedroom.”
“Well”, he said out loud, “I guess only you know how raggedy my shit is, right?”
Her voice was so sweet and enticing, her lips, big and thick and full. Why in the fuck is she doing this? After all I’ve done for her , literally kissed her black ass. That’s okay, what goes around, comes around. I’ll break the bitch one way or another.
Mildred slowly placed her manicured, bright red polished fingernails audaciously on her twenty-four inch waist and stood face to face with Claude. She noticed the hurt and fury in his handsome face and his twitching left eye. She felt a momentary weakness of lust, but no compassion.
“Right Claude, I do know…” she said.
Claude gently grabbed her chin and kissed her luscious ripe red lips, licking his tongue across the protruding soft appendages and uttered in a soft, bust raspy whisper,
“Trust me, you will want more…”
He slightly nodded his head and walked towards the door with his bulging duffel bag. Turning for his last look at Mildred, the mesmerized staff and stunned clients, he exclaimed in a loud baritone voice,
“…real soon bitch!”
He slammed the glass door causing it to shatter and break into jigsaw pieces.
The packed salon jumped and screamed in unison. Mildred still felt the tremor in his voice and the wetness of his tongue on her lips as the shattering glass sent shivers down her spine and made her stomach turn.
Professional Reviews
Beauty Salon Drama, February 11, 2003
Pazge takes us into Harlem, New York in her debut novel, Your Ends are Raggedy, Girlfriend! The book focuses on the friendship of Mildred Evans and Claude LeBeau who both attended Walker Beauty Academy and after a rocky start, became close friends. In the background is the well-known beauty salon scene--one of gossip, debates on social and political issues, as well as drama, sex, and lies, and lastly the camaraderie we see in everyday beauty salons.
Mildred and Claude have struggled to complete their training and with assistance from her parents, Mildred buys a salon and with Claude as her right hand man, they set up Shampoo Time. A little over a year later, the business is quite successful, yet Mildred begins to change, their friendship crosses over the line into something more, and additional drama surfaces. As a result, each of them questions themselves, each other, and the future of the salon.
This book had an interesting plot and storyline, but both were overshadowed by numerous typographical and grammatical errors and inconsistencies as well as issues with the characters. I would have liked to know more about them. In spite of this, I enjoyed the focus on beauty salons and reminisced of times spent getting my hair done and the fun that can be found in this type of environment.
Reviewed by Tee C. Royal
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers --This text refers to the Paperback edition
Your book was very, very good. I read the review by R.A.W. Sistaz. Did they read the same book that I read? I thought my original review had posted, but I guess it didn't and now I can't remember what I said. Anyway, I know I said something like it should be a movie. The opposite of "Barber Shop." Good story, good imagination.
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