Thursday, July 30, 2015

Fashion, Curly Hair, and The Runway







Fashion, Curly Hair, and the Runway

With 70% of the population being curly- one wonders why do we see so much straight hair?

The history of style and fashion is long and storied with the emergence of Haute Couture during the reign of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI.  Although things have changed in the fashion world in recent decades, curly hair had a long run as the stylish woman’s texture of choice.  Lorraine Massey, author of the Curly Girl:  The Handbook, said it best “You never see straight hair on a Botticelli goddess or Rubens angel”.   As quickly as fashion changes, so do hairstyles and today the runways are filled with analogous straight hairstyles
So where did our curls go?!

Beginning in the 1900s we said goodbye to curly locks and welcomed in much shorter, straighter hairstyles.  The timing coincided with big events:  the Great Depression, WWI, WWII.  With the focus on finances, women entering the workforce and war, curly hair was manipulated into a straighter look bringing straighter styles into fashion.

With this shift, a multi-billion dollar industry was born in hair straightening products and services.  As a result of societal pressure to fit this cultural ideal of beauty, women and men alike endure sometime-painful or unhealthy hair treatments.  The recent boom of Brazilian Blowout hair straightening treatments was quickly followed by news that exposure to one of the main ingredients, formaldehyde, is classified as a known carcinogen in gaseous form.  This new definition of beauty has even drawn national attention as a tool for racism, sexism, and classism – but that is a topic for another day!
Thankfully for those of us who love our naturally curly hair, the trends are changing again!  Although high fashion has been slow to respond, relegating curls to ‘street fashion’ type shows, the natural hair movement is gaining steam!

To help celebrate, and help men and women everywhere to love your hair the way it is, Twisted Hare Salon & Spa is excited to be doing a charity event fashion show kicking off Fashion Week Minnesota #FWMN  showing curly hair on the runway, clothing by the Minnesota College of Art and Design modeled by Curlies from around the Twin Cities! #SavetheDate, September 20, 2015, come see Through the Looking Glass:  Where Curls Meet Fashion and help us team up with Crave, Muse Event Center, Lorraine Massey, and OIE to help raise money for Keepa Child Alive!,  Check out our event page www.events.thetwistedhare.com.   Amusee Wine will also be at the event pairing wine with your curl type.  Can you imagine...Botticelli curls....mmmm...Sauvignon Blanc?  Cheers! As Lorraine Massey says Curls are not a fad they're a life style.  Long Live Curls!!!

 

Sunday, July 26, 2015

INTERVIEW WITH THE LORRAINE MASSEY December 2014


You never see straight hair on a Botticelli goddess or Rubens angel.  But within the last twenty years, lots of people began hiding their curly hair, and hardly anyone talked about it. When we did talk about our curls, we usually didn’t have anything good to say. Those of us with curls used the same shampoos and styling tools as our naturally straight haired friends, and then wondered why, after twenty minutes of humidity or rain, our hair looked frizzy, unwieldy, and lifeless.  In the last two decades, a quiet revolution has been unfurling.  Despite the ubiquity of flat-ironed hair on makeover shows, in movies, and on TV, natural curls are starting to make their presence known. 

As founder of a curly haired salon chain, developer of a styling product line, and author of the seminal curly style bible, Curly Girl: The Handbook, Lorraine Massey has been at the forefront of this revolution since the beginning.  Lorraine met up with me to share her philosophy about why curls are poised for a comeback, and the need for all women to embrace our natural beauty. 

“From a very young age, I kept dreaming that somebody would one day jump out from a bush on the street and say, ‘I know what to do with your hair!’  I never imagined it would turn out to be me,” Lorraine said.  As an early advocate for eliminating sulfate shampoo, cutting curly hair dry, and scrunching to encourage curl definition, Lorraine initially faced skepticism from the hair styling community. “At first, I was so alone in this path with only a handful of loyal curly girls whose curls could not be contained, even if we tried. I’d go to hair shows for so many years.  I’d present curl care techniques, and hairdressers would hurry by our booth uninterested.  There was so much humidity around our curl booth they would run by because their hair started to curl at the mere sprinkle of hydration.  Or they’d stand there with their arms crossed, and armed with an arsenal of flat irons in their bags and on their heads.

“Our Cosmetology schools are still very archaic and many of them desperately need to update their data and curriculum. The teachers tell the students that cutting curly hair is the same as cutting straight hair. As logic set, stylists are starting to realize that curly hair cannot be compared to naturally straight hair.  Now have a new emerging breed of hairdressers have decided that there is more to hair crafting than blowdrying everyone who sits in their chair. There are new ideas, new products.  Curls are becoming very modern, and within the next few years they will be 'mane' stream-pun intended!” 

Lorraine noticed that one group of people has always talked about curly hair: curly haired women.  “Women with curls are truly curious about this natural garden growing on top of our heads. We look at each other on the street, Smiling, knowing that curly girl has gone through probably the same experience as me. It’s like a grass roots curl club.” Curly haired women ask one another for styling tips and commiserate about their worst hair disasters minutes after meeting each other.  Lorraine points out that many women impose the myth that straight hair is more attractive, polished, or professional, on themselves. “But, then again, many may have heard their boss say that their hair is not acceptable and needs to be sedated. It’s a subtle form of prejudice. Curls are not a symptom to be treated.  They need to be understood. To me, a blow-fry with broken singe, flying strands at the front and crown, and dried out ends doesn’t look professional at all but has become the norm.”

"We are not born loving our curls," Lorraine says. "To find their natural beauty, women have to “get to know their curls before loving them,”  but Lorraine acknowledges that that isn’t always easy.  “The young ones particularly are not comfortable with the forever changing aspect of their curls (like a mood ring). It can seem hard to manage as an adult, never mind as a child. It helps if mum is wearing her curls with pride so her little one will follow in her curly footsteps"

Lorraine also views embracing natural curls as a way we can take a stand for authenticity and diverse beauty. “I couldn't help but notice as I was at the gym, looking at all the TV screens that are imposed upon you, that all the women presenters were so fake-looking. Fake hair, fake boobs, fake nails, some with fake tans. I’m interested in what lies beneath. We are brainwashed to think this is what we should strive to look like. We may be craving to see someone natural, someone relatable but we don't know it, because this is all we know. I find it odd that we all want to look the same.” 

In spite of the narrow standard of beauty we often see in the media, Lorraine has seen signs that curly hair is poised for a comeback--although she maintains that it never really left. “I’m meeting new curly girls every day: Women in their forties and even their seventies who are finally ready to embrace their curls.  A new curly girl is born every day. 

Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has brought natural curls to the national political stage. The singer Lorde tops the billboard charts and graces magazine covers. Curly haired icon Annie is returning to movie theaters this year.  Lorraine herself is developing an original musical about hairdressers with an emphasis on the need for each person to find her own, unique inner and outer beauty. “What ultimately humbles us and brings us all together in the end is nature.  Curly hair is still not really mainstream yet, but it will be, as our DNA cross-pollinates and transmutes with amazing multi-textures.  There will be new species of curls emerging that we have never seen before because we were busy hiding them under weaves and flattening them with heat. Stylists will take their craft to a very modern cutting edge approach, once they have well trained their clients to know their curls better than anyone else can.  You’ll see individualized, beautiful shapes. It’s going to be very exciting. You might even see some curl envy perhaps.  Imposter curly girls with perms (for the truly naturally straight girl) might come back into style.”


When was the moment you realized that you couldn't fight your curls anymore?  When did you embrace your true Curly Hair Nature?