What Curly Hair Represents In Movies & TV (& How It's Changing) | Trope Explained

Curly hair, like hair colors, is often used to represent something specific about a character on screen. Sometimes curly hair is a positive signifier - like of an untamable strength within a character - but for a long time curly hair was used as an indication that something about a character needed to be changed and, well, straightened out. In recent years, things have begun evolving as we’ve seen more and more characters come to love their hair (and themselves) as is, following on the back of real world movements to do the same. So let’s unpack the different tropes that have sprung up around curly hair on screen (good and bad) and how we’re finally bouncing past those into a much more positive, accepting place.
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CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:48 The curly haired woman who must be tamed
02:20 A sign of evil
02:36 Powerful & not afraid to take up space
03:16 Quirky curls (& why they aren't forced to to straighten their hair)
04:48 Why society always wanted curly girls to change
05:59 They tried to make Julia Louis-Dreyfus blow out her hair forever
06:43 Film & tv's issues with black hair textures (are improving but not fixed)
08:59 Love your curly hair!
The Take was created by Debra Minoff & Susannah McCullough
Films & shows mentioned/shown in this video:
The Bold Type
Sex and the City
Black-ish
Clueless
The Princess Diaries
Foxy Brown
Broad City
Girlfriends
The Hair Tales
Seinfeld
Moonstruck
Insecure
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
A Wrinkle In Time
A Star Is Born (1976)
Almost Famous
Eyes Wide Shut
Fatal Attraction
Sesame Street
The Righteous Gemstones
Harry Potter
Tangled
The Today Show
Harper's Bazaar - How I Do (Tracee Ellis Ross)

[@thetake]

Thanks so much for watching! We couldn't fit all of our favorite curly characters in just one video, so if we missed your fave let us know who they are in a reply! & Up next, check out our video on movie & tv vacations (from the $$$ luxury to the hilariously relatable) kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYbHqKOkfKeCnrs | or our video on why SATC's Samantha and Charlotte are surprisingly... similar! kzbin.info/www/bejne/pH6VYoGjlpmCoc0

[@Hallows4]

The Black Panther movies made a point not to straighten anybody’s naturally curly hair; a symbolic representation of Wakanda never being colonized and subjected to outside beauty standards.

[@mlw9195]

Yup such a great message

[@tamiausten873]

No matter how much some people hate on those movies, we have to realize what exactly the impact they have. It's definitely refreshing to see a superhero movie with only black characters and even based on Africa 😅. I watched a lot of them and always wondered if the world was ending in Africa and other continents because it was mostly only New York 😂😂😂 and I'm in Nigeria, so naturally I was confused

[@loki2240]

"Don't you know straight hair ain't got no curl (No curl) Life ain't real funky Unless it's got that pop Dig it" Prince - "Pop Life"

[@La-wr5dn]

​@Mimi-ht6xr Kinky, course and coily hair IS curly as well. Just variations of the same thing. Tracee and Mariah inherited their hair from their Black parents gene pool, most likely.

[@amalakram8755]

exactly, whenever people ask for black representation they mean black american, as if africa doesn't exist

[@trinaq]

In "The Princess Diaries", I always disliked it when they straightened Mia's hair for her dramatic makeover, as if they were implying that curly hair isn't perceived as beautiful.

[@mundaneamazing]

They straightened her hair, took away her glasses, and plucked her eyebrows and the moment I saw that I thought, "So everything about my appearance is considered ugly?"

[@milymonsterr]

It broke my little 10 year old heart because I looked like her before 😂🥲

[@TerraJ-ug6nc]

It looked better tho she wasn't properly taking care of her curls

[@DeedeeMG4]

They didn’t imply anything it was pretty clear that her hair was tangled and out of control, so obviously when they made it polished she looked better

[@BelleChanson0717]

My sister and I both have curly hair and growing up our dad would always make sure to say how much prettier he thought Mia looked with her curls because he wanted us to feel good about our hair 🩷

[@hi.goodbye2167]

I don’t know who needs to hear this but NATURAL🗣️HAIR🗣️IS🗣️BEAUTIFUL🗣️

[@veronicado1016]

Thank you 😊

[@hi.goodbye2167]

@@veronicado1016 ❤️❤️❤️

[@GinaMarieCheeseman]

Amen!

[@camd0407]

🤗🤗🤗

[@camcat26]

One of the reason I liked Hermione so much was because she was the first character I met who had curly hair and instead of being “as wild and free as her hair” was an uptight stickler for rules, just like me at the time

[@niyamitchell6818]

Same

[@evs9949]

Right? The shape or color of your hair have nothing to do with what you are like as a person. Redheads get the same treatment, and the ones I know are, if anything, pretty reserved people. Most red hair occurs in nordic parts of the world where, culturally, people aren't known for being the most outgoing. Such a weird trope! Anyways, as a fellow curly person who doesn't conform to what is apparently expected from our hair type, I feel this.

[@rowanjoy419]

is not her hair just messy and straight?

[@pmw5422]

​@@rowanjoy419 Yeah it's not curly at all

[@sanaa94b17]

​@@rowanjoy419 book Hermione has bushy frizzy curls. In the films, they kinda gave up on curling Emma Watson's naturally straight hair after the 2nd film...

[@TopazPhoenix16]

How bout Kat Graham's issue on Vampire Diaries with being forced to wear struggle wigs on the show because they refused to let her showcase her natural hair or get her an efficient hair stylist

[@nicoleraheem1195]

😮😮Omg. That's horrible!

[@monica.hdez1]

That was super messed up

[@skallywalla502]

I was going to bring this up. I feel so much for how she was treated on TVD, especially because Bonnie was the best and got the worst treatment as a character. I'm glad the Take brought up how in order to keep up with diversity on screen, we need that behind the scenes, too. I wish Kat Graham had had that. 😢

[@samanthanyongani4549]

Her look terrible 80% of the time.

[@mjbelle23]

I didn’t think her wigs were that bad lol

[@UnboxingAlyss]

As a black woman with 4C type hair, this speaks to me a lot. As stated in the video, the way to get trough school and a job was straightening your hair. I had relaxers for years as a child. It did make management a bit easier, but it was very much see as "prettier" and "more acceptable" in school. I saw a plethora of straight-haired (usually white) women in school and on screen and envied them. That was what society deemed beautiful and I grew to resent my "nappy" hair. In truth, relaxers can be extremely dangerous, with some pretty strong chemicals in them. Chris Rock's documentary "Good Hair" explores this in-dept. If you could sit through a relaxer (which was sitting 20 minutes while feeling like your scalp was on fire), there was always the hot omb. The hot comb was a metal comb that rested on your stove. Your mom or grandma would then "comb" your hair, straightening out out in the process. The worst part was having to hold down my ears to not get burned (and still got burned half the time). After grad school, I started getting braids, since they were easier to manage, though extremely time-consuming to out in and expensive. I did this up til, covid. During covid, I started getting used to my natural hair, though wash days did take hours. All the while, I stared seeing more and more black people wearing textured hair, especially locs. I've always liked the look of locs and did a year of research before getting them in. I took the plunge last March and they are now full locked. It was easily the best decision I've every made. While it was expensive to get them in and too 9 hours, maintenance is only every 9 weeks, it's easy to manage, I don't use any chemicals in my hair, and I'm using my natural hair through it all. I hate the fact that I had such a negative view of my hair and black hair, in general. I'm glad I've been able to rise above it and truly love my natural locs. I'm even happier that more and more black people feel comfortable wearing whatever hairstyle suites them now and we have laws protecting that fact.

[@skallywalla502]

Thank you for sharing your experience. ❤

[@UnboxingAlyss]

@@Mimi-ht6xr Trust me. The problem very much exists, especially for black women.

[@PrettyPrincess9609]

I’m a black woman with a curly Afro and for years I hated my hair because I was taught that a curly Afro wasn’t beautiful or professional. I was taught that I needed straight hair to be seen as beautiful and to get a job. I was also called bald head and compared to Side Show Bob when I cut my hair short. After that, I grew my hair long and other black women who wanted to go natural started asking me for hair advice because of the length of my hair. I have also faced discrimination in interviews in the past for wearing my curly Afro out. I had to wear wigs and slick my hair into a bun to get a job in Corporate America after I graduated college. I just started wearing my curly afro out at my current job but I do work from home now. I’m glad that things are changing now with curly hair being accepted now especially after the natural hair movement.

[@kadesmith3054]

I’m just like you, as a black girl growing up with a short Afro around white kids, I didn’t feel pretty. I went from the shirt Afro to braided extensions, perms/relaxers,jheri curl, kinky twists. I’ve been natural for over a decade and it’s the best thing I ever done for myself. I get nothing but compliments on my curly locks, my proud black father says the black woman is only woman whose hair strands are shaped like the DNA helix 🧬 I love curly hair because there is a story to it, curly hair is thicker, more stylish and more personality than straight hair. You can do more with curly hair than you could with straight hair. It amazes me that there are still black people who hate their natural hair, but fail to realize that the texture of our thick, dry, coarse hair is the reason we can: braid, twist, lock, curl, wave or straighten our hair into any fashion we desire, our hair is like clay. People with straight hair on the other hand have a harder time styling their hair, because the silky, moist, bone straight hair texture makes it harder to style, if you ask me straight hair is the oppressive, unruly hair.

[@kadesmith3054]

@@user-vm6lx5yx1k Everyone has their opinion as to what is beautiful, but the video is stating that curly hair is less desirable than straight hair. It’s interesting that you mention the Asian race, because Asian women from the far east are known for their bone straight hair that ends up being sold in markets to black and white women to obtain the so called European straight standard of beauty, yet Asian women have the straight hair phenotype, Asian women are rarely recognized as a standard of beauty which is usually attributed to white women with straight hair. This would be a great topic for the next the Take presentation.

[@PaulinhaCardoso88]

It was the black women in the Natural hair movement who empowered me to fully embrace my curls. I'm white and curly (brazilian), but my whiteness didn't protect me from being called dirty, unkempt, ugly, ostracised because only straight hair was beautiful. I had no idea I could straighten my hair and when I did, it felt like the doors opened, and I ran away from it because after decades of bullshit had chipped a lot of my self worth. I learned so much from the movement, and then found the curly girl method and blah blah blah. But none compaired to the pride and joy of watching a black woman finding themselves in the acceptance and celebration of their bodies. It was your community who saved me, helped me find myself and take pride in who I am.

[@kadesmith3054]

@@PaulinhaCardoso88 There are over 8 billion people in this world, yet unfortunately the entertainment industry, media and society will have us thinking that there is one standard of beauty, yet there are multiple standards of beauty. I’m pleased to hear that the black woman hair movement inspired you to come out of your shell and express your beauty divine locs. # 🇧🇷 🥰✊🏾

[@samf.s.7731]

Because my hair got so damaged I started wearing wigs whenever I wanted a straight/different color hair style. I swear the damage of bleach and straightening, both chemical and standard hot tool, was not something that could be repaired no matter how many high quality products I tried. Lightest I'm gonna go, if I ever do it again, is medium blonde - level 7. Never straightening chemically, and no blow outs/ flat ironing. Curly cream and gels are my new bff

[@SharkWitchMeruna]

In High School Musical, Monique's actress had to so her own hair because no one on staff knew how to handle her hairtype.

[@agnessofiacastrocarvalho774]

Maaaaany black actresses did their own hair

[@doll.ov.poetrii4682]

​@@agnessofiacastrocarvalho774 They have to do their own makeup too; especially models SMFH

[@lesliemonster92]

I didn't realize it back then, but something about seeing Anne Hathaway's photos of her "old wavy, frizzy-haired self" presented so as to infer ridicule or disdain...I no longer wonder why I didn't like my own wavy hair as a kid. Looking back, it breaks my heart.

[@harunakirisaki2602]

This reminds me of Kat Graham who played Bonnie in The Vampire Diaries and always suffered from terrible wigs and styling (on top of racism from producers), people not accepting her natural hair,... Her Vogue Beauty Secrets video about her haircare routine always makes me emotional

[@CherryBlossom32428]

Yes and her hair is beautiful, I can't believe she went through racism and made to wear wigs for the show.

[@grandtheftautov4874]

As someone who has curly hair i need to be here as fast I can

[@PokhrajRoy.]

Even in Indian movies, rarely will you find someone with a head of thick, curly hair. Very few characters are given curly hair.

[@adnaanu]

Maybe because most Indians naturally have straight hair?

[@MimiRox13]

​@adnaanu Lol no actually it's straightened and sometimes extensions are used for certain scenes like dance numbers. Most Indians' hair has some level of body and volume.

[@simplecoffee]

​@@adnaanunot true. Lots of us are wavy/curly. We're not taught how to maintain waves/curls and plenty of us, especially Gen X and millennials in urban areas, have experienced pressure to keep our hair straightened/relaxed rather than natural.

[@ninjabrown8560]

@@adnaanuliterally no

[@stutisingh7205]

@@adnaanuyeah nope, took me a long time to discover I had curly hair though cause growing up I just thought it was messy or tangled

[@ohbooyourselves]

Ok so I knew they were gonna talk about black hair (because duh 😂) so I just skipped to that part because I was eager 🤷🏾‍♀️🥴. I would like to add that black hair discrimination is even worse for black women that are mono-racial, dark skin, and/or with tighter curls like 4c. Just to be clear about the nuances of hair discrimination, or what the black community calls "Texturism" when it's discrimination inside the community.

[@kadesmith3054]

As a black woman I was happy to go natural, because I saw my natural beauty. Not long after I wore my hair natural, my black female coworkers suggested I straighten my hair, which I didn’t. A lot of times when people see you crossing a milestone that they could never achieve, they become jealous, which is very unfortunate with our own people.

[@ohbooyourselves]

@@kadesmith3054 Yeah, this issue in our own community is continuing to be addressed and I'm glad it is.

[@MsChisheba]

​@kadesmith3054 Some, no doubt we're absolutely envious, either wishing they had the guts to wear their hair naturally(wow. Even typing that, it's sad. It takes guts to be who we are. Whoa.) Or envious that you are rocking tha hell out of it and they're hating from outside the club!!! I don't know these women, but if they were older(or 'thought' older), they may have legit felt they were giving wise counsel. Sadly, like 'now baby, they not gon like that and it's just gon cause problems for you' type thing. Not fully trusting that times have changed; feeling like there's always a loophole in a law waiting to be exploited at our expense. Nonetheless, I'm glad mentalities and times have changed. I haven't had a relaxer in decades! I will still flat iron from time to time, tho😜

[@kadesmith3054]

@@MsChisheba While I have regrets about getting perms/ relaxers in the past, I have no regrets about going natural. It’s strange because I was explaining a similar situation to a former white coworker and I loved his response: “You can’t say that God you beautiful in his eyes but then say that must have must have made a mistake.” The strange thing is that on my journey of identity, men (of all races) were the ones who told me that I didn’t need to wear the hair extensions nor perms/relaxers, yet it was mainly black women who told me the opposite. Most times women are our own worst enemies.

[@abigailjohnson8611]

I love this! As a curly girl myself, I remember being a little gal and wishing there was a Disney princess who had curly hair. I was happy when Brave came out but I was even happier when Moana came out and she had like realistic curly/textured hair and I felt so happy there was finally someone who had long curly hair (hers is more textured than curly but it’s a step in the right direction). I was also super confused on why curly hair was seen as something that needed to be fixed or tamed. I personally thought Anne Hathaway looked way better with curly hair in the Princess Diaries than with straight hair.

[@antigonarosaura7845]

Some of them have wavy hair.

[@sophia_delrey]

@@antigonarosaura7845wavy hair is curly hair because it’s an s curl pattern

[@antigonarosaura7845]

@@sophia_delrey My point.

[@vixxexo6855]

@@sophia_delreyDepends on how wavy it is.

[@cynthiainpublic]

“Fired”, Black women were not only stigmatized but at times fired for having natural or curly hair. Kids also get suspended sometimes at school for having locs. Up until the Crown Act in California was this illegal, and people are still suing today to be able to wear their hair

[@thaboiinblue]

Candice Patton who played Iris West-Allen on The Flash tv series talked a LOT about this very subject, especially the part about having to do her own hair for SO long… I was shocked she wasn't glimpsed here. Also on the cursed CW network… Kat Graham disclosed how she was never allowed to wear her natural hair and was forced to wear wigs (many of them horrendous) throughout the entire eight seasons of The Vampire Diaries… 🙃🙃🙃

[@terrancehall9762]

or batwoman. from straight to curly

[@QUEENVLOGZZBYKALIOFFICIAL]

It took all my life to love my hair and I'm 35 it's sad but I'm still learning and curly hair is a blessing and a curse all the maintenance it's a learning curve

[@lizgreer6888]

I actually really needed this. My hair is a thick, frizzy, wild, wavy/curly mess. I hated my hair, people tell me to straighten it all the time. Straightening takes hours, defrizzing products don't work. This makes everything make sense. Thank you for the validation

[@crissyt7015]

I grew up in an Asian family with ‘unruly’ ‘frizy’ hair. I was constantly told to fix my hair, as a way to be more beautiful. I used get teased in school because i had ‘a lions mane ‘instead of hair. And all media i consumed from tv shows to movies to advertisements, i was constantly reminded that my hair was something that needed to be fixed. From the age of 13-17 I practically straightend my hair everyday. I cant tell you how proud it makes me now to wear my unruly and frizzy hair naturally, and this is because I see more and more women in media and in real life have curly hair. It is incredible how powerful positive media representation can be.

[@ijustneedmyself]

When did you realize that your hair is not unruly, it's just wavy hair that isn't properly maintained (because you didn't know it's actually just wavy)?

[@franz3810]

your hair is wavy or curly

[@crissyt7015]

@@ijustneedmyself I realize my hair was “different” pretty early on. But caring for curly hair wasn’t and still isnt a thing in Asia. So most of the times my hair was poofy brushed out or put in 2 braids. I grew up in east Asia till the age of 12, and then my family immigrated to Europe. Thats when I started to find different products, but by then i had internalised the beauty standard that was to have straight (which is synonymous to healthy in my culture) hair. All that to say, i wanted straight hair for so long, that it took me longer to accept that my hair is wavy and i should just take care of it.

[@ijustneedmyself]

@@crissyt7015 That makes sense. It's hard going against beauty norms/standards.

[@Lilah_Ninigigun_Belet-Eanna]

Where's Fran Drescher from The Nanny? Her hair was so iconic. Or Michelle Pfeiffers manic Selina Kyle? So iconic! Natasha Lyonne?! Sandra Oh? Juliana Marguiles? Keri Russell, Andie McDowell? 😉

[@allabarkan671]

Omg Keri Russell! It was huge when she cut off her curls

[@sherylsmallwood-valdivia5375]

I love seeing Quinta Brunson as Janine in Abbott Elementary donning curly hair. She always looks so adorable and professional with her outfits and hair.

[@JB-ez3lx]

I think an interesting example is Tia and Tamera in Sister, Sister. Their hair was straight in the college years, which was “sleeker” and more “grown” 🤔

[@jumpdumppyy]

Even so, their curly styles were aided by texturizer ( a light relaxer)

[@WilliamsPinch]

It’s criminal that you didn’t include… *KERI RUSSELL* / Felicity 🗣️💨

[@ClaireLeslie-eu4tl]

I’m obsessed with curly hair. Always have been 🧚🏿🧚🏾‍♀️🧚🏿

[@missyface5]

Growing up I was made fun of mercilessly for my thick curly hair. It was made worse by not knowing how to take care of it. Now, at 35 I'm very proud of my hair as it's a part of me and my Sicilian heritage. Love your curly hair everyone!

[@rosewillow5757]

I always thought curly hair was the best! Rock it my Sicilian sis! ❤ God bless you!

[@franz3810]

I'm latina, but with middle eastearn heritage. We have to be proud

[@tessy4018]

I wish there was more of a conversation on texturism in this video among black women. The way 3c is viewed is very different from the way 4c is seen, and this video itself only shows 4c through Issa.

[@BellesView]

Agreed. Curly coily hair discrimination experienced by Black women is completely different from wavy/curly hair on white women and POCs.

[@em.415]

@@BellesView 💯

[@cadettipk]

I honestly didn't expect them to cover it, especially since they at no point said "kinky" with regards to black hair. Yet I still watched hoping there'd be some mention.

[@Shamwow78]

Why?? This video is talking about curly hair in general, not just specifically black women. You can find black content creators who talk about this all day in detail.

[@Yougotthis1212]

Issa doesnt have 4C hair

[@jcm85]

This was great. I have curly hair and I straightened it until I was 24. Growing up I never saw curly hair represented as beautiful and have been discriminated for my curly hair at work before too. I always noticed no one had curly hair in pop culture while growing up. It’s one of the reasons I loved Carrie Bradshaw so much. I never contemplated the meaning of curly hair in stories so I loved the insight. I’m grateful curly hair is more accepted than ever and as annoying as curly hair is, I’m proud of being curly. Power to the curls!

[@hinata167]

I'm a first generation American and my mom is Haitian. Back in her day having natural hair made you seem poor or messy. Soul from the moment I became 8 or 10 my mom did a relaxer on my hair. My hair used to be long enough to touch my shoulders and then once I started doing relaxers it got shorter. I remember the first time just seeing a trunk of my hair come out and being told it's a good thing because that's dead hair. I also remember touching my scalp and feeling the scabs. Once I reach my early twenties I went to being natural and my mom was really upset about it she even got me to go to a salon and said that they're just going to do a hot iron and they actually put a relaxer and my hair again and I was halfway done with my transitioning. Funny enough she has natural hair now.

[@kadesmith3054]

A coworker of mine said that when you lose your hair to a relaxer or man made chemicals that’s God trying to tell you that God made you beautiful in his eyes and God doesn’t make mistakes. I remember hearing girls and women saying that they couldn’t get their hair wet at the pool or sweat out their perm. Looking back at it, that was really a messed up mindset, because we couldn’t let water, the most natural element in the world, touch our hair, yet we could apply man made chemicals to hair 🤣

[@MsChisheba]

​@@kadesmith3054Wow! That's so profound. Looking back, we had a great deal of unintended and subconscious trauma surrounding our hair. Reading everyone's anecdotes, I'm taken back to my childhood & young adulthood thinking, 'damn, the messages we were given were trash!' It makes me wonder how these messages impacted my social & emotional development and mental health that I didn't even realize.

[@cadettipk]

I'm first generation Haitian American too and I remember before perming my hair as a kid (which I requested because everyone around me had bad things to say about my hair and I never saw kinky hair featured on TV) my mom would say things like "I wish you had a white dad so that your hair would be easier to work with". It wasn't until my freshman year of college that I finally went natural. Of course my mom wasn't very happy about it. She doesn't really say anything negative about it either which I'm grateful for. She only compliments my natural hair when it's a loose hairstyle like a twistout or a super-defined wash-n-go. I'm 30 now and still learning to embrace and love my type 4 hair because I won't get it from the media or my mom.

[@kadesmith3054]

@@cadettipk Did your mom consider the fact that if you had a white dad you could get hair lice ? Every race, group and culture has their disadvantages. I remember my grandmother saying that you rarely hear about white people getting lice, but if black people got lice that you would hear about it everywhere 🤣

[@doll.ov.poetrii4682]

​@@cadettipk What your mom said to you was horrible omg...😞💔 I'm so sorry!

[@WhytheBookWins]

Great video! I straightened my hair so much as a teenager, mainly because I didn't know how to style it when curly. But sometime in my 20s I started to love having curly hair and now I rarely straighten it!

[@robintauber9994]

I now understand why, in "Brave" Queen Eleanore kept hiding her daughters head under that tight hood....and why Merida insisted on pulling one curl out. She has free and stubborn spirit and her tight red ringlets are part of that shorthand....so her mom, trying to marry her off and present her daughter as a "proper princess" felt she needed to hide this so the other families don't have second thoughts

[@WynnWynn-gl3fk]

It makes me sad see Nicole Kidman keep her hair straight and bleached.

[@idealstrontium]

Chandra Wilson's Miranda Bailey, from Grey's Anatomy stayed the same (short, straight) from seasons 1-3. It wasn't until after the writers strike in season 4, and the characters marriage problems came to the forefront of her storyline did her hair start to grow out. We now see her long beautiful black hair in all its glory as she continues to be more comfortable in her own skin ❤

[@jennifer.martin.48]

Growing up with curly hair wasn’t the easiest. My mom had no idea how to take care of it and I have the unfortunate school pictures to show for it. Keri Russell was my curly hair icon from the 90’s, I wish she brought her curls back because they were so iconic from her MMC and Felicity days. I remember wanting the have straight hair in school and look like everyone else, but in high school something clicked and I realized that I love that my hair is unique. My 4 year old daughter has beautiful curls, and I always reinforce when I comb it that her hair is different and special and needs to be treated as such.

[@WilliamsPinch]

I can’t believe she didn’t feature her at all, because Keri was ICONIC. Her hair was an obsession for a short time before she cut it.

[@marcelaperdomo1831]

OMG, please do short hair next! And women going from long to short, sometimes as a way of reclaiming themselves, like Britney. And the freaking backlash they get for it.

[@citihamster59]

I'm a black woman who had kept 3c/4a hair natural since my early 20s. The backhanded compliments where people just assumed it was a wig or permed has not gone unnoticed

[@CookieBear187]

It took me 26 years to learn how to love and appreciate my curls.

[@emberneko8640]

As a white woman with curly hair it always pissed me off when people asked me if i'v ever straighten it, or if i wanted to. In 26 years of my life, I only did it 4 times. Never again. I never once hated my curls. My mom has the same hair as me and if there's one thing she did right was teaching me how to love my hair. Even though, some part of me always felt like the odd one out compared to the other girls at school. It did bring attention to myself. Not always the good kind. It also pissed me off in media when the curly haired main character had to straight their hair to be pretty. i think the first character i've seen on screen that had beautiful curly hair and wore it with pride was Merida from Brave. We need to see more of that on screen.

[@lilyx77]

SAMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, up until a few years ago, having my natural curls out was seen as something almost brave. Thankfully it has changed and more and more girls (and even boys) wear their hair natural and let the curls be but it was painfull to grow up and always have attention on my hair for no reason at all.

[@emberneko8640]

@@lilyx77 exactly! The worst was people touching it without permission. I was once seated between two (mean) girls in class and they spent most of the class putting their fingers in my hair ,trying to find the best curls. Like i was a life size doll. And the teacher said nothing!

[@angelagokool9514]

I love my curly hair, and I wouldn't change it for anything! Curly girls rule!

[@katherinealvarez9216]

My hair is a mood.

[@FUJA-b3o]

I always looked at hair as fashion and something that needed to be styled. But the fact is letting your hair be its natural self is freeing somehow. So no matter how you like to wear your hair, let it be natural sometimes (most times) and notice how confident you become because you are showing up as your natural self

[@morgancrosby4190]

Both my mom and I have curly hair and so when we see it on screen it’s a really amazing feeling. But it’s so very often been the thing to be “fixed” and the undesirable.

[@zenagitana]

I remember my first salon cut. I was 4 and it was the late 70s. They actually did a really good job cutting and styling my 3C curls into a bob. My mom says that, by the time they were done, all the clients were demanding the stylists "make my hair look like that little girl's". 😊 It took years and tons of trial and error to learn how to style my curls. By my early 20s I had it mostly figured out. And, contrary to what is stated in the video, more men hit on me when my hair was wild and super curly than when it was blown out. If my ex has one redeeming quality, it's that he loved my curls and hated it when I straightened them. So my curls never made me feel unattractive-actually quite the opposite. To this day I only straighten my hair once or twice a year and only because I enjoy the different look and the ease of styling. And I will help every single one of my friends to "discover" their natural hair texture.

[@greyLeicester]

Are we living in the same world??? Curls were HOT in the 80s. Everyone was getting a perm!! Big, backcombed hair was so popular!

[@thezu9250]

All of this is basically post 80s. It was “outdated” growing up.

[@AngryTheatreMaker]

It took me longer than it should have to embrace my natural texture thanks in part to the messaging we all got from popular media in the 2000s. (The 1990s were also a nutty time for people who didn't have straight hair, but nobody talks about that.) Needless to say, it took me years to stop frying my hair in the name of the beauty standard--not that I ever fit the standard anyway. So now I've been growing out my hair from a super short cut and loving it; it's almost down to my shoulders. My partner adores it and says he prefers my curls to straight hair, although I'll admit I'm letting my curls fly more for me than for anyone else.

[@Marsha_Ann]

Wow this totally went over my head all these years! And that's crazy since I'm a Black girl with super big curls like Joan. Why don't you guys just admit that this narrative created about curly hair is rooted in racism/white beauty standards/white supremacy? Black women deal with this crap all the time, which I'm glad u mentioned. But I didn't think about the other race of women with curly hair that also experience this preference from others to change their hair. Very interesting points u guys made...🤔 Great video!

[@BellesView]

Good point! That’s the root of it! It is a direct result of Northern and Western European beauty standards being seen as most desirable.

[@doll.ov.poetrii4682]

​@@BellesView Exactly. The truth is, the people who have straight hair make up the minority of the world's population. If you look around you, most people have some kind of wave or curl to their Natural, unaltered hair.

[@Vivalarosa45]

I have 4C hair and I get a lot of flack about my natural hair. My relatives always tell me to do something about it. And I always tell them .... Never!! 😂

[@MsChisheba]

Even the wording, 'do something about it', implies it needs to be FIXED; that its WRONG. Imagine a 4, 5, 8, 12 year old child hearing that over & over and internalizing that message. My, my. Our families love us, they mean no harm, but that underlying message to a 4, 5, 8, 12 year old child over the years can be so unintentionally damaging.

[@luciam9859]

It took me 20 years to accept my curly hair. I did a lot of silly things to straighten it, I was even embarrassed when people saw me with my natural hair. Fortunately today I love it and take care of it and I am grateful that it is the way it is because it gives me a unique feature.

[@messinalyle4030]

Didn't curly hair used to be more popular? When I was in elementary school in the eighties, it seemed like all of the girls wanted a perm. To be perfectly honest, the popularity of curly or straight hair hasn't been on my radar since then. Although a male college student who grew up at my church and still comes back occasionally had his straight hair permed a few years ago--only to end up shaving it as close to the skin as possible without skin being visible, and dying it purple.

[@bethanyvarre9142]

The pin straight hair of the 2000s are to blame

[@messinalyle4030]

@@bethanyvarre9142 Gotcha. Normally this channel is better at putting things in historical context. I felt like the implication was that straight hair had always been more popular. And hair fads didn't really register with me in the 2000s when I was in college.

[@mariaskabardonis8353]

Like I was saying when I was reading the early baby sitters club books written in the 80s the girls admired Stacey for getting permed. My mom said in Greece to be pretty women would use rollers

[@AngryTheatreMaker]

Historically, curly hair was a signifier of youth, beauty, fertility, status, etc., etc. So yes, the preference for stick straight hair is a recent thing. The underpinnings of this can be traced back to classism, racism, and white supremacist thinking. Curly hair, as a visual marker of the "other" (read: anything not white and northern European), was thus stigmatized as "dirty". For a long time it was only a certain curl pattern that was classed as acceptable; anything past that and women especially were told to straighten their hair. There are echoes of this in our own time. Example: I am still told periodically how much better I would look if I straightened my hair. (I count myself fortunate to have a partner who loves my curls and wouldn't have me any other way.) Sorry for the mini-essay!

[@messinalyle4030]

@@AngryTheatreMaker So, given how old racism against people of African descent is, what are we talking when we say "historically"? Like Ancient Greek/Classical times?

[@DMMA0726]

I always compliment people on how pretty their natural hair is. Recently I complimented a woman on her curls who was Jewish. Her reaction was very different as I could tell she was NOT used to anyone telling her that her curls were beautiful or acceptable, versus in the black community texture acceptance has come a long way very fast.

[@bethstovell8608]

I grew up in the era of Princess Diaries and other makeover movies that treated curly hair as a problem. But I knew that my 3c corkscrew curls were part of my Jewish heritage. My hair was part of my identity even when I was told I looked like characters “before a makeover.” I’m thankful now that my younger self embraced my curls as it’s one of my favorite parts of my appearance now.

[@jumpdumppyy]

Honestly, the textures of black hair that are shown are so so SO limited, even down to putting 3c-4a wigs over actors naturally kinky hair. You’d think natural hair is all pencil curls at different lengths

[@0723niki]

Loved this. I'm quite obsessed with hair because of all I've been through with my unruly mop. It wasn't the curls that upset me so much as the frizz which was impossible to deal with and indicated underlying health problems. I also felt unprofessional and unattractive, as I idolized the looks of golden age Hollywood actresses with their stick-straight long hair. I empathize with curly-haired gals like me who could never find a stylist who understood dry hair, and tried every kind of chemical treatment, flat irons, even shaving off inches of the hair underneath to decrease volume. A few years ago after I finally found the way to improve my health, my hair has started to naturally lie flatter. But I enjoy my curls and waves more I think after so many more actresses and stars have shown off their natural curls.

[@Aplaceformermaids]

Love this! And love that you added the part that creating space for curly hair goes behind the camera as well!

[@Dartagnan010]

This is in a lot of Korean dramas as well. Every time a character is meant to be interpreted as an ugly duckling pre-glow up or as unkempt, they are shown with big curly hair, i.e. She Was Pretty.

[@mariaskabardonis8353]

It’s funny how in the babysitters club it was the cool thing that Stacy would get it curled 80s in the 90s and early 2000 it fell out it’s funny how me and my straight haired friend get it slightly curled on special occasions

[@camcat26]

A lot of those ‘80s perms were terrible. The grunge era equated straight hair with being to checked-out to care about looks while actually requiring quite a lot of effort for the naturally curly

[@mariaskabardonis8353]

That’s a intresting history. I felt they made it seem it was all straight hair when according to 80’s books and what people told me wasen’t the case

[@kalhue6165]

As a white woman with very very curly hair with curly parents I saw generational trauma it brought my mom who was call a sheep and straightened them always and never really learned how to take care of them till later in her life and so could not teach me and people went on to say I should wear them straight as it would be tidier and cleaner. And like my mom bullying and jokes went on. I wished so much to be like everyon else as most white people don't know white can be curly (sometimes we don't know ourselves 😅) Book Hermione was my only model as I had never met anyone with curly hair and I also felt a kinship for her personality wise. Now I love my curls with fierce passion and I always get compliments wherever I go and I can pull off some serious periods hairstyle without any effort (even my mom was a tiny bit jealous) And I have a boyfriend who did not know he was curly and I taught him all I know and he sport beautiful curls too ! And if we have a child I'll be ready to make her or him the most superb curly head and the star of the school!

[@morighani]

my mom was the same! I inherited her gorgeous dark, thick curly hair. I’m not sure when she stopped rocking it because i only remember her with straight lightened extensions. She had no idea how to deal with my hair and would straighten it every day, tell me it looked unbrushed even if i brushed it 500 times. and you’re sooo right about the periods hairstyle!! I feel like a straight up princess and i love copying Katherine Pierce’s hair from TVD! I think period dramas were very instrumental in me accepting my hair because i always had a huge crush on the curly girls until one day i was like oh i have that too 😂 and it’s hella sexy

[@goofyboots4828]

The Curly Girl Method really helped me figure out how to work with my curls. Scrunching is the best technique ever!

[@maeesther1]

thank you for this video and shedding light on what we go thru👏🏾

[@NoraGuy]

My profile pic is 11 years old. I’ve been embracing my natural curls the last several years and, combined with being tall (I was close to 6 feet tall at a work event tonight)), no one forgets seeing me! Sadly, I get told often how much “better” my hair looks straight, regardless of the crazy amount of effort it takes to make it that way, or how much “younger” I look. We have a long way to go.

[@teamLewis44]

It feels like sometimes thinking that your curly hair is not beautiful coming only from you, no one else told you that

[@kenyap101]

Thank you for giving us a list of the shows you mention on the video

[@fortune_roses]

Sometimes it's fun to straighten hair for *variety* (the spice of life)... like how people also curl/put waves in their straight hair when it gets boring

[@quietquintessa5270]

Really appreciated this video as someone with curly hair thank you so much

[@SSM654]

I'm so happy to finally accept and love my curly hair. It took so long to accept it, I'm happy to see the change in media and in real life.

[@Jasmine-ot8br]

7:05 I love that you took it there ❤❤❤❤❤

[@Gabeerojas]

I’ve been getting perms since I was 15. I just love curly hair ❤

Curly hair here, I'm glad I always had compliments on my hair and always loved it because I could identify with beautiful curly haired Italian women (I'm French-Italian, born in 1982).

[@crumbsintopebbles]

I'm not black, but I have curly/wavy hair and I love it. 😊

[@D415h4n34]

I appreciate the care in which they speak about how this affected the culture overall. It's important for Gen Alpha to know the history❤

[@PalomaNegra873]

Learning to love my frizzy, curly hair has been a long and painful process. I love my hair now.

[@lauraalba7151]

Good for you! I hope one day I feel the same about my thick massive curly hair

[@reginakc]

Y’all ate with this one

[@pipperlue]

It always makes me feel weird when I flat iron my hair and suddenly everyone stares and finds me hot. I never understood that…curls are so beautiful but they have this cutesy/silly/quirky vibe in peoples eyes, whereas straight hair is sexy. So stupid

[@margicates553]

Yep. Whenever I straighten my hair and someone suddenly finds me “hot.” I’m always deeply disappointed in that person. 😝

[@taotaostrong]

Nice conversation.

[@MeghanBean]

This made me feel good about my curls 😀

[@rowanjoy419]

Bellatrix was describe in books as having straight messy hair like Hermione's but for unkwon reason they make it curlier.

[@suzettewilliams2913]

Wow. As a black woman with naturally curly hair. I can say this is an amazing video that everyone should take the time to watch. Very well done.

[@sidney7129]

Finally someone talk about this

[@tjsmith5276]

I'm thinking of this one episode of Judge Judy where the plaintiff has curly hair and the defendant says "look at her hair, how would you NOT pull a head like THAT?!" Eliciting a huge laugh from the courtroom audience AND the plaintiff herself. 😂😂😂

[@annaiuga]

Curly hair is still not well seen in social media. My daughter has beautiful curly hair that she keeps frying to get it straight. And I just love her adorable curls.

[@theatrechick4ever]

I was told I needed to tame my curly hair to get a promotion. When I started straightening it, I got promoted and praised for having more "professional" hair.

[@WynnWynn-gl3fk]

I knew where this direction was going but glad they did it! ❤

[@PokhrajRoy.]

6:19 Omg that’s quite a phone call to get

[@PokhrajRoy.]

6:39 Also, she looked pretty in a sari and the curly hair

[@ShadowGalactica]

Sadie clip followed by Miss Noodle is top tier.

[@pudazucker1334]

I can't BELIEVE you didn't mention The Way We Were! I know you showed a frame of curly-haired Barbra but that movie is such an essential example of a whole story being told through her hairstyle

[@vaderladyl]

That is what Miranda on Sex and the City clip scene was talking about. They used the reference for the movie done on the show. They had a whole episode referencing the movie.

[@NellyNutmeg]

Star from Lost Boys has beautiful curly hair

[@donnadeckelman9803]

I have wavy hair. When i was younger, the blow dryer was the accessory that was attached to everyone 's hand! Motive? Straighten that hair! Be like all those models/movie & TV stars in the 1970-s with the perfectly straight hair. After many years of fighting frizz brought on by too much use of blow dryer I realized especially in the summer months that hair is going to do whatever its going to do, and that the best thing is to work with what texture you have! Life is far too short to try to change what you are naturally blesed with! I

[@PokhrajRoy.]

3:11 Such an absolute icon

[@thegossamerlady]

I've always loved my curls, but I've always had a hard time finding someone who can cut them correctly and educate me on how to maintain them properly. I've had a lifetime of bad haircuts that sometimes made me envy straight hair, but I’m always grateful that I decided to stick with my curls and not try to change who I am❤.

[@iamthenicheee]

I loooove my curly hair……but I notice that I still subconsciously think it can be a bit…..much. Some days I feel out of place and unsettled, thinking that I need to do something to my hair to make it look put together. This video however makes me feel so blessed to have “unruly” and “wild” curly hair. ❤

[@tf8187]

This reminded me of a nursery rhyme I learned in elementary school about different hair types.

[@jordanalmond3458]

I have naturally curly hair and when I was little, I was constantly compared to Shirley temple. But I grew up in the 90s/early 2000s so my hair NEVER looked like the girls in the movies unless it was a “before” shot of a makeover. I straightened my hair every single day all of high school and college. But as I got older, I realized curls are super cute and I really love mine! I have a straightener and will do that sometimes in the winter but I really love not having to do much with it. I worked with children up until recently and I hope I inspired some of the little girls to love their curly hair too!

[@fionaspencer9559]

My curls were coarse, S-shaped, abundant, and high-maintenence. I was obsessed with getting my hair Japanese straightening perm. But, those are way too expensive, so I got a keratin treatment instead. My stylist said it probably wouldn't straighten it out completely, but it would make it easier when I flat iron it. I guess someone was into granting wishes because it took out all of my curl! However, now I have to keep up with getting the keratin treatments. And it gets less effective with each one. I never thought I would miss my curls, but when I see pics of myself with my curls (when I was having a good hair day😅) I miss them. Be careful what you wish for, I guess.👩

[@Leticiapais_]

I have a wild 2B hair much like Anne Hathaway in The Princess Diaries and have never straightened it if not for special occasions. I've grown up with people telling me my hair would look better straighten out, but I always thought it would be too much work to maintein and accepted my hair as ugly. About 8 years ago people tell me it's cool and pretty and it felt so weird for me. It took me a while to get used to it

[@singingsarah8133]

I will always be grateful to my mom for helping me love and accept my hair. Starting very young, my mom would always compliment my hair and curls. In 6th grade she took me to a hair dresses who taught me how to style it and gave me curly products. I was always a little jealous of the girls with straight hair, but she would tell me they were jealous of my hair instead! It did wonders for my self image. Until the age of 23 I didn’t straighten my hair more than once a year because of it. Now I do it often because I live in a colder climate (so I can’t go out with wet hair often). Either way, so grateful for curly hair representation and its normalization, and my mom!!

[@romypotash7114]

The real reason why end up straighting actors hair : mush easier for continuity ti main. If it doesn't have a symbolic meaning it's basically cheaper to straighten actors hair

[@liabe18]

I have really straight hair and I always always wanted curly hair. I saved up at 15 to get a perm (even though I was 15 in 2005 and everyone was straightening their hair).. and I still get one every few years to give my hair texture. 😅I guess the grass is always greener on the other side

[@Anonymousie]

This does explain why my ex-girlfriend resented me with my straight hair every time I would absolutely adore her curls. Seriously though they were gorgeous 🤷

[@MotherEingana]

I have straight hair, but I've always loved curly hair. Especially when I was a kid, I had wished I had naturally curly hair. In the 4th grade my mom let me get a perm, and that was the most fun my hair has ever been. Now into my 30s, I do notice a small section from the nape of my neck that curls sometimes, depending on how my hair sits when it air dries. I always stop and appreciate that one curl haha.