What Is Your Hair Saying?

Friday, May 1, 2009

Have you ever noticed that in movies with makeovers, or those television makeover shows, women with curly hair always have their curls “tamed” or “smoothed”. I understand that there are bad hair cuts and frizz but for some reason the media has this aversion to curly hair, and they see it as a problem that needs to be corrected. The article Curl, Interrupted by The New York Observer Sara Vilkomerson asks why Hollywood feels that curly hair is an outward representation of a person’s inner turmoil, or perhaps shows their disregard for their looks. It talks about Meg Ryan’s curly to straight makeover in the movie The Women, apparently Ms. Ryan and her stylist felt that her character needed to come off as “earthy”. Vilkomerson says “since when does having curly hair make one earthy? Neither have we found in our unscientific gatherings that curly hair necessarily translates to being unconcerned about one’s appearance, or more romantic, wild, creative, or crazy and lusty.”

Meg's "Earthy" "Frazzled" Do. Hah!

As a person with curly hair, I find it ridiculous that my hair might be giving people the impression that I’m a wild ungroomed hippy (though perhaps I am some days). I suppose I, and the rest of the curly haired ladies (and maybe even some men) out there have Hollywood to blame for our stereotypes. I found this clip from Good Morning America that really got me going. Its an 8 minute video devoted to finding out which people like more: curly hair or straight hair. The part that really got to me was that most of the men, and the job interviewers seemed to think that curly hair was distracting. Why? It’s just hair? It's not a bright pink mohawk or anything too outlandish. Why should women with curls be spending an hour every day ironing their hair into submission so that they can conform to a shallow standard when they could be spending their time doing more important things? Women shouldn’t need to “tame” their hair to meet society’s approval, and there is an entire movement based around that idea.

Naturallycurly.com was created by Gretchen Heber and Michelle Breyer to promote and give tips about dealing with curly hair, and help girls embrace their natural beauty in general. This quote from their about us section sums it up nicely “ Women deserve to choose how they look. If they’re lucky enough to be born with curly hair, they should be able to show their ringlets to the world without losing their self-esteem, without being derided as less beautiful, less serious or less professional. We're sharing the beauty of curls and the beauty of choice. Hair is just strands of keratin on the outside of the head. It’s what’s inside the head that matters.” I couldn’t agree more, even the most flawless hair will do nothing to hide a person’s shortcomings in confidence, and self worth.