Growing up, Queen K’s hair was always permed.

As soon as the new strands sprouted, she was back in the salon chair.

“People were nice about it,” she said. “They’d say, ‘Oh, you’ve got really thick hair’, but when my hair started to grow out, it was, ‘Oh! You need a perm.’”

She could read between the lines.

“It was like, hide that real stuff,” she laughed. “That plays on your self-esteem.”

Her two books, I Have Good Hair and My Beautiful Hair, aim to send the opposite message.

“Growing up, I was always told that my hair wasn’t necessarily good hair. Good hair was curly, silky hair. That was what pretty hair was and I wanted to change that narrative by writing these books and showing that your hair is beautiful regardless,” she said.

“We see in the media that the wavy, straight hair is what we need. I wanted to change that and I felt that the best way to do that was from young.”

In I Have Good Hair, neighbours and friends Jamal and Nala learn that everyone worldwide has “good hair”.

The pair travel from their suburb to Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.

“They go to Jamaica and see locs,they go to Asia and Brazil and they have ‘fros there,” the author said. “It’s to compare that on both sides of the world they have similar hairstyles — ‘fros.”

In France and London they wear twists; Americans wear braids; Ethiopians wear knots. In Bermuda, kids cliff jumping have wet, curly hair; models flaunt their natural hair on the runway.

“They see that they’re fronting their ‘fros and say, these models have hair like me too.”

The moral at the end is that everyone has good hair.

“I was told that, for it to be a good book, there has to be some conflict,” she said. “We have enough conflict. Why can’t it be a happy book?

“It’s a happy book about hair and why I love my hair.”

The author went natural in 2012.

“I did the big chop — when you cut off all your perm. I had super short hair for a year-and-a-half before I decided to grow it all out and then it became this big fro,” she said.

The biggest test has been reading the book to children. Their excitement was all the confirmation she needed.

“They say, ‘Wow! They do their hair like me?’ I guess they never connected the dots.”

Queen K moved to the US three years ago to pursue acting, but her career took an unexpected turn when she got involved in the Black Lives Matter movement.

The activist made headlines two years ago when she organised a rally after Michael Brown’s fatal shooting in Ferguson, Missouri.

She said that is why the book, too, bears her alias.

“Queen K is the activist. She is protesting and speaking through the books, “ said the 29-year-old who lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Of the movement, she said: “I realised that it was more focused on speaking to the older generation and not the youth.

“It’s important to understand how powerful you are and to identify yourself and be proud of who you are. Through that I wrote these books to represent the power that we have and how being naturally you is amazing.

“I wanted to put that out there, because we have a lot of other books that cater to other demographics and we don’t have books for ourselves,” she added.

She used a black illustrator, American artist Cameron Knight, and a black-owned printing company to produce the two books. She gives credit to her former principal Dale Butler, who walked her through the self-publishing process.

She has shops in the US and England that are waiting for their stock. She asserts the book is equally as relevant for boys.

“When we talk about hair, it’s just for girls but boys grow hair too. They go through the same thing, but they just cut theirs off to avoid the whole conversation.”

She said that’s why every character wears their hair longer.

“You get to see the texture and how it grows and how it moves and how it stands on top of your head. That is you and that is beautiful — embrace it.”

Her ten month old daughter Nia spurred her to write the second, simpler picture book, My Beautiful Hair.

“The books I had for her were either too wordy, too long or not very exciting. [In My Beautiful Hair] the wording is simple but the pictures are fun.

“Inside is a big celebration — my beautiful hair party.

“I wanted it to be straight to the point. I have good hair and so do you.”

•I Have Good Hair and My Beautiful Hair are available at Robertson’s in St George’s, Fresh TV, Brown & Co and The Bermuda Bookstore.

Get a signed copy of the books at Brown & Co between 12pm and 2pm on Thursday and Friday.