Curl Nostalgia...

While recently thrifting for some new kitchen wares, I stumbled upon a copy of Modern Salon Styles from 1972.  It was seventy pages filled with all sorts of sprayed and meticulously coifed creations, which by the early 70s were on their way out.

On the back page was a feature titled "7 Steps to a more beautiful you!"  Among the pearls of wisdom was step 3:

"Perm, Baby, Perm!  Today's hair fashion world is a curly world.  To keep up with curl, a perm's the answer ... unless you're a too-curly girl ... then it's straightening for you.  Let your professional curl specialist show you the way to natural looking locks full of body and bounce."

Damned if you have, damned if you have not, indeed.

The wondrous irony of it all is the notion of using chemical alteration for "natural looking locks."  The sad realization, however, is how much of the professional styling world still sees hair as something to be controlled, lest it get out of hand and take over one's head.  ;)

Slowly but surely, I feel we're getting better at this.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to hear the follow-up to "I love your curls!" be "I bet you love them, too!", rather than, "I bet you hate them"...  

I eagerly await that day.  :)

Important read... Complex Curls: Issues of Race and Curly Hair

This is an unpublished piece presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in San Francisco by author Ja'Nean Palacios of San Jose State University.  

Her paper does a fantastic job of linking our perceptions of race with those of curly hair, analyzing how women and men of various cultural backgrounds connect with their own curls. 

I am hoping to locate Palacios' master's thesis which deals with the experience of having curly hair.  If I locate it, I will post the information here.

The link below is to the paper's abstract.  Scroll down the page to "Get This Document" for two links to a PDF file:

http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/0/8/9/5/p108957_index.html

All Sorts of Curly Heads!

As I mentioned in a previous entry, I recently worked with Genevieve Ruebel on my first photo shoot featuring my clients.  It was a TREMENDOUS success!  The pictures came out beautifully and I hope to see them up on the salon's website very soon.  But until then, I can share some of them here...

Thanks goes out to all the participants for your time and your lovely hair!

All photography by Genevieve Ruebel