Photo by Francesca Cappa
Pick a magazine with your eyes closed and you’ll find a Spring 2017 hair trend gallery. That’s cool. We like looking at hair trends, even if they look like the same trend we got last year. But after combing through all the spring hair buzz, we have to ask: Where are the curls?
Curly hair has an atypical place in fashion. We like it when it’s done well. We think it’s cute, but rarely think of it as beautiful and never as professional. And working with it is such a dreaded task for most stylists that you just don’t see many freshly done curly locks around Instagram or Pinterest, so we get saturated with easy flowing ‘dos. People jump to a hundred conclusions about anyone with natural curls without realizing it, and none of those conclusions involve work ethic or marketable skills. We attribute a lot of personality to the direction someone’s hair grows, and anyone with curls gets the short end of the equation. So for their sake, let’s spend some time asking why.
We Think It’s Adorable Instead
When was the last time you saw anyone with natural, intensely curly hair and thought it was “beautiful?” Generally the first words that come to mind are “cute” or “fun” or even “rebellious.” There’s something about curls that make us think of the face as softer. There’s no logical reason for this (if anything, curls should accentuate the angles on a face), but maybe we could still go to the Greeks for some explanation. Go check out almost any picture of Cupid, modern or ancient, and you’ll find a few babies with magical curls waking up in fields and playing with bows. Jump to the other side of the spectrum with Athena and you get fierce, long black hair, where it’s not covered in armor. They’re extreme, and old, examples, but that contrast between how we see the free-loving, curly-clad love god, and the long-locked, battle-ready god of wisdom seems too close to how we view hair styles in the modern day to day to ignore.
Maybe It’s Just not American Enough?
We originally set out to make a list of stylists who specialize in natural hair. What we immediately discovered is that most of those stylists, like Rodrigo Araujo, are in Brazil. Actually we’ve talked about a whole salon in the Dominican Republic with this speciality, so maybe Brazil isn’t the only place. The point is, you don’t find many in the U.S. There’s an overwhelming view here that curly hair makes it harder to get a job, so you get a horde of people trying hard to keep their hair straight so they’ll fit in. It becomes a self replicating problem, because the less we see curls in the workplace, the less we’ll associate them with a professional demeanor, and anyone who embraces their natural hair is seen as a rebel.
Blame Hollywood
Most of us watch TV every day, and at least one movie a week, so what we see on the screen has a big impact on how we see hair. If you pay close attention to who has what hair you’ll probably notice that the heroine almost never has curls. You’ll find those on the funny best friend, or the wacky mom, or the sweet neighbor lady. But the big love interest? The single mom just trying to keep her kids fed and runs into the handsome millionaire? She’ll have cool waves all the way down to her shoulders. You might see short hair. The hard case new boss standing at the front of a board meeting, or a frantic artist struggling with a new painting that just won’t come out right. Then standing behind both of those characters, or waiting in a coffee shop, is the support. The sidelined friend waiting for her next line while pulling on her springy hair to make it bounce.
How Does Curly Hair Become Professional
The simple answer is that employers, the people who actually pick who works and keeps working, need to understand that natural hair has nothing to do with politics, drug use, humor, or ability. If we can start hiring and promoting people without noticing hair then none of this will matter anyway. But that shift in perception doesn’t happen overnight; it happens through exposure, which brings us to you: the stylists.
You have a unique opportunity behind the chair to make those natural curls the best they can be and show the world how you did it. When someone comes to you asking if they should straighten their hair, try showing them how they can embrace the natural look and help them walk out of your salon doors with the confidence to hold those curls high, then post those before and after photos so we can see it too. Then over time maybe we can stop asking how to get hired with natural hair and ask the real important question: what cool stuff can we do with that hair?