The Battle of Curly vs. Straight

Let’s talk about this article from the New York Times.

I found this very interesting because in all my days, I have never heard that curly hair is looked at as unprofessional. And I have worked in the world of business and finance for 11 years. Maybe because I myself don’t have curly hair, I never really thought about it?

Myself, I have always wanted curly hair. As a child, I slept in those pink foam and plastic curlers so that I could have curly hair for special occasions. It didn't help it was the '80s when curls ruled and perms never held in my hair. I am actually thankful looking back for that one.

Moreover, I spent a lot of my life in hot rollers and using curling irons. Namely, I hit the spiral curling iron pretty hard in the early 2000s. In 2002, if you’ll recall, Mr. and I met on a blind date. He was told that I had “short, spiky, blonde hair”. I in fact had at the time mid-length, straight, blonde hair. So he wasn’t quite sure I was me at first glance. He expected Anne Burrell.

Anyways, for that first date, I must confess, before work that day, I did spiral curl my hair because I always felt I looked better with some curl and I like to look good. It fell out like 5 minutes later as expected.

Not that I much cared, because I wasn’t expecting to meet my future husband on said date because I had already decided this was going nowhere due to the fact that I was told by the girls who set us up that Mr. was petit.

His nickname for a long time was The Jockey because I exclaimed, “You are setting me up with a jockey??????” when they told me.

And no, he doesn’t care that I called him this. He knows he’s short (taller than me by a couple of inches but still short) and can laugh at himself. Anyways, it doesn’t matter now because it all worked out in the end.

Or did it?

HA!

But alas, back on track, I have the straightest, thinnest hair on the planet. And it just won’t hold curls. I once had a hair dresser tell me that I had the straightest hair she had ever seen, that there just wasn’t an ounce of body in it. (Yep, lady, thanks for pointing that out. I hadn’t noticed. )

While I would love to have a head full of beautiful ringlets, it is not going to happen without professional assistance and many, many, many hair products.

I learned this from my wedding where the curls in my up-do involved lots of hair glue and about 5,789 pins. Also from BFF P's wedding when I had corkscrew curls that did hold all day but that took about an hour and a half to do when I only had a bob and like 4 bottles of hairspray. In the next chair over, BFF J, whose hair is naturally curly, spent about 3 seconds having her hair just put up in a pony tail which looked like a formal up-do. The cost of both hair-dos was the same. Poor lady that got stuck with me.

In recent years though, I have embraced the straightness. I love my flat iron. Because while it doesn’t make my hair straighter, what it does is control it and help it to look “polished” and like I actually care when most days I don’t. Either way, this has brought a bit peace in my life.

Acceptance is step 1.

Back to the article, why is curly hair unprofessional? Because it is more fun? Because straight haired peeps are jealous? You tell me. Personally, I think all hair types can look professional if groomed properly.

So my wish for everyone, curly and straight, is that we can all get along and let everyone embrace their natural hair type and not let anyone's hair styles divide us.