Curly Hair Hair Styles

Curly hair styles for women, despite a recent glitch in popularity, have had their admirers for a very, very long time.

Curly hair styles for woman, despite a recent glitch in popularity, have had their admirers for a very, very long time.

What's puzzling is that curly hair, with its long and distinguished history, should ever have been out of favour.

It looks great, after all.

Or it did, before blow-dryers, flat-irons, shampoos, relaxers, sprays, gels and other chemicals destroyed it.

It's surprising, too, and disturbing, that the creative, playful, outgoing temperament long associated with curly hair hair styles should fall so far out of favour. Part of living in a world that wants consumers, not thinkers.

Even now, as curly hair comes tumbling back to be flaunted with pride and pizazz, the corporate world continues to reject it. But curly-haired women and their hair cuts have always been welcome in creative fields like art, music and design.

This linking of curly hair hair styles and creativity may be one of humankind's oldest concepts.

Braided Curly Hair Style on the Venus of Willendorf
The Venus of Willendorf
Note the hair style

30,000 years ago the Venus of Willendorf was carved with a braided curly hair style. Even then, perhaps, curly hair was associated with creativity. This little statue is, after all, an original earth mother, a symbol of woman's fertility and her raw creative power.

The curly hair styles of Minoan, Classical Greek and Roman women were celebrated in painting and sculpture.

Curly Hair Style on Three Minoan Women
Three Minoan Women with Curly Hair Hair Styles

Curly Hair Style on Minoan Woman at Knossos

Long Curly Hair Style on Minoan Woman of Knossos

Above: Minoan woman with a long curly hair style.

Left: Minoan woman with a medium long curly hair style.

Try to find a Renaissance picture
where a woman does not have curly hair!

Detail from Botticelli's Birth of Venus
(Click to view a larger image at Art.com)

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, girls with curly hair were considered to be sweet-spirited. Curly hair hair styles were a definite advantage then. Such styles conveyed grace and could be extremely flirtatious. Straight-haired girls, on the other hand, were seen as awkward and reserved.

Victorian era woman with curly hair style
Victorian era curly hair style
http://hairarchives.com
(Michael Warner's Hair Archives is an excellent resource for
the history of hair and hair styles)

The glamour and appeal of curly hair went unquestioned until the age of mass consumerism. That's when things went wrong for curls.

Luckily, you don't need to repeat the mistakes that were made then. There's a great book that tells you everything you need to know about hair products - what's good, what's bad, what's in them, and what they can and can't do for you. It's called Don't Go Shopping for Hair-Care Products Without Me: Over 4,000 Products Reviewed, Plus the Latest Hair-Care Information, and it's written by Paula Begoun.

And if you want the most gorgeous curls your hair is capable of producing, Curly Girl, by Lorraine Massey and Deborah Chiel, is also a must.

Now that curly hair hair styles have regained their place in our hearts, can they go further and win a place in business? Doubtful. But the rest of us can look forward to vistas of delicious curls.