hot comb

Her godmother's strong gaze felt like a hot comb whisking too close to her ear.

Although Black women undergo differing hair journeys, said Twigg, an executive producer of the new six-episode docu-series “The Hair Tales,” it is a shared experience, like the hiss of a hot comb or the banter in a beauty salon, that unites them.

A wide-brimmed hat covered her black hair, which she had pressed straight with a hot comb off the stove that morning.

We waited for our mothers to wield the hot comb like a weapon, ready to press our thicket of coils into submission to make us more culturally palatable.

“Good hair” in our vernacular then meant it didn’t require a hot comb.