It’s safe to say we all remember that iconic makeover scene in “The Princess Diaries”. You know the one. The one where Mia Thermopolis’s dry, brushed-out curls, full of springy potential…. get chemically straightened to shiny perfection. And viola, she is suddenly beautiful, and I quote “A Princess”. Even as a young girl, I remember feeling incredibly perplexed by this. “Do you need to have straight hair to become a princess?” Moments like this in movies are ones that subtly plant beauty ideals into our subconscious, and can inform us what is making someone attractive and “good”. These influences can certainly affect the physical characteristics we grow up to find beauty in ourselves and others. As a girl or woman with curly hair, these representations of curly hair consistently being deemed “crazy” and “unmanageable” express a blatant message: change it. European beauty standards have dominated the media since its existence, and thanks to colonization this is a worldwide issue that some are still struggling with.
Even cartoon curly hair is not safe from being stereotyped as “out of control” or ugly. An episode of the children’s show “Winx Club” includes an episode where a dark-skinned character has a spell cast on her that turns her straight hair into an afro. This leads to all the other characters screaming in actual horror and the girl herself to begin pulling out her hair in embarrassed agony. Thankfully, this episode ended up being removed due to its controversy. Oftentimes, even men are mocked for their natural hair textures. Chase from “Zoe 101” was consistently the butt of the joke for his curls and referred to as “Jewfro” by his group of friends. All laughing without batting an eyelash
Thankfully, as time goes on though I have noticed the film and T.V representation of curly hair has begun to change. “Girlfriends”, the T.V show is an excellent example of this with the lead Girlfriend, Joan rocking the corporate world as a successful attorney while simultaneously rocking her big natural curls. In the early 2000’s we began to see a lot more natural hair representation in television and film in general such as Brandy in “Moesha”. In the last 10 years, the dialogue around curly hair has changed drastically for the better thanks to characters like Nola Darling in “She’s Gotta Have It” and Issa Dee in “Insecure”. A 2020 satire horror film, “Bad Hair”, takes aim at the subject of weave and natural hair. The film’s 4C-haired lead is pressured into getting a weave to attain a higher-level position at work, however, this ends up being a trade for her own bodily control and happiness and the weave is soon unable to be removed. Silly but efficient in its messaging to the audience.
A more realistically toned message and my all-time favorite curly hair redemption story is that of Viola Davis’s character, Annalise Keating in “How to get away with Murder”. This incredibly layered story shows us how Annalise’s appearance evolves with her character, including her ditching her carefully curated, “socially acceptable” look. We get to observe her ditch her heavy makeup and wigs for her gorgeous natural hair texture and makeup. I was incredibly empowered by her on-film transformation and it strengthened my love for my natural curls even more.
Growing up it felt like I could not escape these pressures telling me that I would be better if I changed my natural hair texture, and for a small portion of my life, I did. Thankfully, I grew out of this and it is my hope that others afraid to wear their natural hair will too. It is incredibly exciting to see the way film and television have begun to embrace natural hair and see curly and coily-haired characters move beyond the stereotype of their texture. I look forward to the day all curly hair textures are recognized for what they are: Unique, Real, and Beautiful.
