Hot Comb offers a poignant glimpse into Black women\'s lives and coming of age stories as seen across a crowded, ammonia-scented hair salon while ladies gossip and bond over the burn. The titular story is about a young girl\'s first perm-a doomed ploy to look cool and to stop seeming \'too white\' in the all-black neighborhood her family has just moved to. Realizations about race, class, and the imperfections of identity swirl through Flowers\' stories, which are by turns sweet, insightful, and heartbreaking. (W/A/CA) Ebony Flowers