Black neighborhoods are known to have had a big influence in disco fashion. Was this due to the African American influence on fashion during this time. We see curls, waves and frizz as a metaphor for the untamed animal/nature side of ourselves with the exception of the 1970s when everyone wanted curly hair, even those who couldn’t rock it, as many thousands of photos of terrible perms can attest. In short, see curly hair as wild and wanton. We give that tussled, curly “just out of bed” look, to female temptresses and sirens. Actors have “fros” when we want them to be fierce. Even there, her curly hair helped to define her as adventurous and different from her friends. Just think of Sarah Jessica Parker as cute side-kick in Footloose before she changed to Glamazon in Sex in the City. We also don’t mind curly hair when it’s on the quirky, geeky girl (preferably with braces or glasses). That’s when curly hair is seen as pure and sweet and safe. Looking at perceptions about curly hair in America, we associate it with innocence when it’s long and flowing on a princess or an elven queen. Long hair is a big part of a woman’s femininity. It makes one wonder how the actress feels about having her long locks chopped off. Which brings up another interesting pattern in Hollywood TV shows in which the lead actress usually starts with long hair that gets hacked off by the second or third season. While this may be a great way to breath new personality into a character, it makes one wonder if Hollywood hair stylists and producers are just lacking on time to come up with something more original like dying it another color or making it curly. We see short hair as boyish, tough, elfish, cute, gamine or rebellious (if spikey and colored). In college I was vindicated as the compliments and looks of envy rolled in I began to see my hair as beautiful, a gift and an attribute rather than a curse. I could see how people responded to her differently because of that beautiful hair and did everything I could to straighten mine out, including getting up at 5 am to hike to a friend’s house to use her blow dryer (we didn’t have electricity), only to have my hard work undone at any hint of moisture. I longed for the golden curls of the girl down the street. I didn’t realize that they were simply doing what humans do when they see something different, they fear it. “Don’t sit next to her, she has cooties” was said on the bus and when a line of 9 year old boys made fun of me one afternoon and called me ugly I was convinced they were right. As a young girl I was often ridiculed and made fun of for having darker skin and hair that was different. Women who lose their hair to cancer often feel as much grief over the loss of their hair as they do over their illness. Growing up as a mixed-race woman with curly hair in an all-white town, I lived in a kind of limbo of acceptance, envy, ostracism and self-hatred about my hair. The number of bottled blonde celebrities is a clear indication of our belief in that edict and who can blame women for wanting a hair color idolized in the media?Ĭlearly hair is powerful and matters, so much so that women have been stoned over leaving their hair uncovered. Hitchcock apparently cast blondes as his leading ladies because he felt blonde hair personified innocence which contrasted nicely to his dark themes and cinematography. Take the “who has more fun, blondes or brunettes?” argument glamorized by Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russel in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. We typify people when we meet or see them by how they dress, carry themselves and by their hair. Hair, how we wear it, what color and length it is, defines our personality. While such a phenomenon on TV could easily be brushed aside as meaningless, I would argue it’s actually essential to look at and question because media has a huge impact on our lives.
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