In India where women are judged and discriminated in many terms like what she wears, what’s her skin tone, what she does and even what type of hair she have! Women are praised having silky,smooth & shiny straight hair whereas when it comes to women, who have curly,wavy & coily hair ,are believed to have hair which is not elegant and is not considered beautiful at any point.
People with curly hair often have to justify why they have hair like this, why they don’t comb their hair and make it straight, why they don’t make it silky & smooth? This topic is as simple as the concept of treating people with fair and brown skin. For ages we have been struggling with the comparison between skin colours, that’s a fact but no one ever talked about the underrated comparison between curly and straight hair which exists in our very own society, where people made fun of curly hair, the frizz, the dryness. People usually address curly hair as maggi, noodles, jungle and what not!
In fact, 60% of the population in the world has natural curly or wavy hair, while Indians had always treated straight hair as the perfect definition of beauty. The obsession is obviously influenced by the advancement in technology and the easy availability of salon-quality straighteners everywhere around the corner. The obsession with straight hair resulted in affirming and potraying curly hair as unruly and rebellious, and the conclusion was always to settle and tame the curls by using a particular serum or a shampoo, as advertised!
Potrayal of Curly Hair in the Media
This toxic pattern has been embedded in our society and we are somehow been trained to believe in it. Defined beauty standards and norms do nothing good but only make an individual more self-conscious and fills him/her up with self-doubt. In TV shows or movies, the ugly or awkward or weird girl always has curly hair. This is something that has always bugged me. I rarely if ever see curly hair tips in magazines or on beauty blogs.
The media industry of our country hasn’t shown curly hair ever in a positive picture, we see beautiful straight hair and fair coloured girls being the lead of films, tv serials, news presenters. Curly hair is always shown as the vamp or villain in almost all the tv serials and films. This trendsetting of the hair type game has also contributed towards the thinking of the society about curly haired woman.
India’s biggest national pageant – Miss India 2019, only fair skinned and straight hair women have got themselves placed in the advertisement, which resulted in a debate about India’s obsession with patriarchal beauty standards. Curly hair is never featured or addressed in any hair product advertisement and also they do not get the proper kind of treatment in salons because it is considered to be difficult for the stylists to handle.
Struggle of Curly Head Women
Curly hair is often treated as ugly and weird, and the struggle, the pain that women with curly hair have to go through is another story thats need to be ascertained. Women with curly hair are not considered beautiful in our society, people make them feel pity and sad about themselves instead of encouraging them and supporting them in managing their curls.
People usually address curly hair as maggi, noodles, jungle and what not! Having heard so many stories, many have shared that in school other students found it fun to put eraser or chits in their hair and it used to get lost in the hair, basically it have been a source of entertainment for them. People always told to straighten it but no one gave the advice to look into more information about how this type of hair is actually treated i e CG method.
How can certain texture of hair considered not beautiful/ugly? I know many such women who would rather straighten their gorgeous curls every single morning than accept their natural beauty. Not that there is anything wrong with straightening of hair. But the very fact that they do it only because they are not that confident with the way they look.
Looking a certain way has been made a top priority in our society. This rigidity in the thought process often makes people under confident. They start believing that every outcome in their lives depends on the way they look. They start living in immense self-doubt and are often unable to deliver to the best of their abilities. One more thing that curly hair women has to go through is peer pressure, they are told continuously to apply this particular ingredient to the hair so that it will get straight, or are advised by the peers to undergo keratin treatment, in that way one can look more beautiful but what’s wrong in here is that the kind of support and love curly heads needs in their life should be coming from their peer persons but its totally opposite in this case.
Curly kids from a young age have to struggle with how their hair reacts to humidity, the fly-aways and why their hair doesn’t look the certain way like other people with silky staright hair. Its really difficult for them to accept themselves with curly hair type because they are often looked down & treated in a different way.
Check out Curly Tales video on how to style curly hair at home: https://youtu.be/dFURuDzvWbU
Curly Hair Movement In India
Curly Girl Handbook written by Lorraine Massy in 2001, when it was published, the world noticed a cultural shift in embracing and accepting the beauty of curls. When it was first published, straight hair was the prevailing style for women in the USA, UK, and India, and many women felt the pressure to straighten their hair with flat irons or chemical relaxers.
Massey has introduced The CG method, i.e The Curly Girl Method, that inherently talks about various techniques and ways to handle & nourish curly hair. The basic principle it teaches about using silicon, alcohol & sulphate free products (shampoos and conditioners), and not combing the hair while it is dried up. Curly hair is supposed to untangled when it wet because if it is combed when it is in a dry state, it will become a frizz-ball. The CG community overseas has been thriving for over a decade now, but in India, it entered recently & has created a lot of buzz.
The first ever Indian blogger who started talking about this method and curly hair care routine was Indian Curl Pride aka Asha Barrack. She started the blog in February, 2015, now it has over 5k subscribers. Starting from posts, video tutorials and then to a Facebook group (Indian Curl Pride), her efforts and hardwork have helped many Indian women with wavy and curly hair. Now, she also has launched her curly hair line – Ashba Botanics.
Divya Madaswamy, runs a blog named Curlacious Blog, which is now three years old, her blog gets thousands of readers every month. Lets know her story- In 2014, she was having bad hair days for a long time and she was not aware of how to handle it and with a birthday party fast approaching, she felt compelled to tame her tresses which resulted in buying a straightner for her hair. She was not happy with the decision she made as she burnt her hair as she never wanted to tame the curls, she wanted the curls in their natural form and then she went on a journey to discover The CG method. That is how she came up with her curly hair blog which now inspires all the curly hair girls out there.
There are so many more unheard stories around us and the most common thing between them is the lack of awareness about and acceptance for curly hair which resulted them in discovering CG method and eventually share it with the world.
Actor Mithila Palkar says that she loves her curls and actually it has got a lot of attention to her. When she was asked if she ever lost out on a role because of her curly hair type, Mithila said: “Never. In fact, most directors I have worked with have vehemently opposed the notion of getting my hair straightened as well. So, in a way I feel my curly hair has got me a lot of attention and I don’t mind it. I love the fact that my hair has a life of its own”. ( https://www.hindustantimes.com/bollywood/mithila-palkar-on-her-curly-hair-most-directors-i-have-worked-with-vehemently-opposed-getting-my-hair-straightened/story-vAk4zuuDjYDfvQy5ikVyLL.html )
Check out this video about Mithila Palkar shares haircare and skincare tips: https://youtu.be/o8HlTofZagE
Be it Kavya Kulkarni (Mithila Palkar) in Little Things or Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) in Stranger Things, Supermodel Cindy Bruna who ambles proudly on every runway or Popular Indian Comic Artist – @straycurls who shares her struggles and achievements due to her hairstyle, Kangana Ranaut, Taapsee Pannu, Sanya Malhotra and so many more women are an great example of being a curly hair women and effortlessly flaunting her curls in her movies. Curly hair has been represented by all these famous personalities in different ways and they actually motivated millions of girls around the world by being the way they are in their films or any kind of projects. They never hesitated to share their hair stories, struggles that they have to go through while growing up.
Check out this video about Taapsee Pannu on how to maintain curly hair: https://youtu.be/_X2xPrdfcK4
The Change is Here
This shallow thought process needs to change. Every being is beautiful. Straight or curly hair is just one of the features that makes an individual look a certain way. Things are changing but at a slow pace. Beauty norms are being revised but it will surely take some time as it has been in our society for a really long time.
Under the pressure of society, women tends to make changes in themselves, but this should not be the case. In fact, society should change their thinking about their unacceptable beauty standards which make people doubt themselves and the confidence that should build up in women it is crushed by these defined meaning of being beautiful. Beauty is undefined, forever. Everyone is beautiful in their own way and no one has to the right to question about the outer appearance of a person.
Its not our choice to choose our skin tone and hair type when we born but its totally depends on us how we accept ourself. What society says, its not your fault, its society limited mindset and they want to see things in certain pattern.
In this world, we need to be more diverse and spread body positivity around ourselves. Curly hair, is beautiful!
Despite endless comparisons to Maggi noodles, curly hair people have found peace with their hair!
You can check out below links for more info:
- Check out this video about Mithila Plakar sharing her tips to maintain curly hair: https://youtu.be/wOEOSZQ7Dvo
- 5 Instagram Influencers That’ll Inspire You To Embrace Your Curly Hair: https://www.missmalini.com/2020/02/19/5-instagram-influencers-thatll-inspire-you-to-embrace-your-curly-hair/
- 5 BLOGS CATERING DEDICATEDLY TO THE OFT-IGNORED INDIAN CURLY HAIR: https://www.vervemagazine.in/fashion-and-beauty/5-blogs-catering-dedicatedly-to-the-oft-ignored-indian-curly-hair
