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girlcat36
August 12th, 2008, 05:23 PM
I came across this interesting straight vs. curly article today:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5565719&page=1

Starr
August 12th, 2008, 05:32 PM
Interesting. . .

thankyousir74
August 12th, 2008, 05:42 PM
interesting indeed... :cheating, is a wavy and checking out this thread lol:

And the author's closing remark makes sense, the difference between a judging a "look" and a person.

Overall it was a good article and I'm glad I read that even if I am in between :)

Shanarana
August 12th, 2008, 05:52 PM
That was an interesting read, thanks for sharing girlcat36. :)

Shanarana
August 12th, 2008, 05:53 PM
interesting indeed... :cheating, is a wavy and checking out this thread lol:

And the author's closing remark makes sense, the difference between a judging a "look" and a person.

Overall it was a good article and I'm glad I read that even if I am in between :)

Well since your in between, you must be perfect. ;) Best of both worlds.

Curlsgirl
August 12th, 2008, 05:56 PM
Pretty good but I would say an awfully small group to do a survey with. Interesting anyway though! Thanks for sharing!

girlcat36
August 12th, 2008, 05:56 PM
My daughter is a business student and recently bagged an internship at Smith Barney for her junior year.
She inherited my crazy, hard to manage 3a hair. It makes me wonder if she would have been chosen for an internship if she did not go in with her sleek flat-ironed hair.
The business school at her university is very 'image conscious', and has a dress code.

Rain
August 12th, 2008, 06:05 PM
I think the picture of the writer with straight hair just has a nicer facial expression. It would have been a better comparison if she was wearing the same clothes and had the same face in both. She didn't. :shrug: ETA: I also don't think her curly hair had the greatest style. Not because it's curly. Just because it looked kind of '80s. I don't know. I hear that's coming back. But I've seen nicer curly cuts.

girlcat36
August 12th, 2008, 06:29 PM
Rain--you are right. The curly hair could have been styled better. She could have used some LHC curly-wurly tips!

Slug Yoga
August 12th, 2008, 07:04 PM
Hm, very interesting. It would be interesting to do more studies like that, perhaps with hair color as well as texture, on a more scientific basis. Like what John T. Mallone does (the author of the Dress for Success books, who conducts rigorous, extensive and scientific sociological surveys about how people react to different types of clothing on others, in both business and social settings).

I don't think people overtly believe in physiognomy any more (the idea that a person's physical features directly correlate to personality traits), and yet it seems like we still often make associations and inferences based on superficial appearance factors.

Does anyone have any associations like that that they make, whether or not you really "believe" in them? Like the classic "blondes have more fun," "curlies are more free-spirited," "tight-bunned ladies are mean ;)", or something. There was a recent thread about different hairstyles and how they made people feel, which this reminds me of.

I guess when it comes to long hair itself, I of course associate it with the aesthetics of other, past times when women were more likely to have long hair. I also see long hair as a sort of "force of nature." It's growth, fecundity, a connection to our animal nature (pretty clear proof we are mammals, hair is one of the most mammalian things there is! Well, besides mammary glands.)

rhodochrosite
August 12th, 2008, 07:26 PM
:( I thought the article (at least the first two pages) was sad, actually. :( I kind of feel like I need straight hair now.

Even so, I used to straighten my hair every day and a lot of people like my hair better curly/natural (they've said).

Shelly_girl
August 12th, 2008, 08:09 PM
Rhodochrosite, the article made me feel a bit sad as well.

However, I think it is true that it does take confidence for a woman to wear her naturally curly hair when there are so many stereotypes regarding it. And it was noted positively when her career was concerned. I personally believe the way a person wears their hair reflects their personality, which is exactly why I have a mass of crazy curls!

flapjack
August 12th, 2008, 09:12 PM
That is stupidly sad that she got that kind of reaction based on her hair alone.


But on the other hand, what she did is useful. It shows that the general population is, in fact, dense as a ton of bricks, and will judge people at any given point in time based on something as meaningless and malleable as hair texture.


And if more people who naturally have curly hair would wear their hair curly, people would be forced to realize a few facts:

1) naturally completely straight hair is very rare
2) curly hair is common, not a big deal and many different kinds of people have it, so placing curly haired people in a category of personality traits is not the smartest idea in the world

harley mama
August 12th, 2008, 09:21 PM
It would be interesting to see the research if they used a larger group.

CurlyNinja
August 12th, 2008, 09:31 PM
I actually kind of hate this sort of "study" because it implies that we should care what others think of us to the point of changing who we are to please them.

As she alludes to at the end, it's the person that counts, and how we feel about ourselves, not what others may think or assume about our appearances.

Honestly it's like people have so many stereotypes, why should we dignify them, even if it's about something as seemingly innocuous as curly hair?

darkwaves
August 12th, 2008, 10:21 PM
This was interesting.

I thought her curly hair was really unstyled for a job interview -- so good for her! (I tone my hair down for work, but sometimes wonder why.)

And yes, I preferred her pose, if not her hair, in the "straight" photos, too!

ETA... I also thought she was trying to make her curly hair overly messy. I mean, from the shots of her hair when she was younger, my guess is her hair is similar to mine -- which means the curls drop out by day two or three and become more sleek, which makes the whole premise of the story somewhat flawed, as she has a half-life as a wavy/straight girl.

jessie58
August 13th, 2008, 09:52 PM
My 21 year old daughter has naturally curly hair but often irons it and she finds that most of the guys she knows or dates prefer the straight hair on her. One or two say they don't care but nobody said they preferred the curly look. I think she looks the most beautiful with the curly look, but my opinion doesn't count as I'm her mother. :silly:

CurlyOne
August 13th, 2008, 10:03 PM
That is stupidly sad that she got that kind of reaction based on her hair alone.


But on the other hand, what she did is useful. It shows that the general population is, in fact, dense as a ton of bricks, and will judge people at any given point in time based on something as meaningless and malleable as hair texture.
That's what I thought. I do think that they needed more guys than what they were using for this, pretty small panel there. The over all message I got was for guys and little kids to think you are pretty/want to date you get straight hair. If you want a job get curly hair. Flapjack is right, dense as a ton of bricks.

MountainGypsy
August 13th, 2008, 11:12 PM
Thanks for sharing Girlcat, that was very interesting. I have to say that there have been certain situations when I have felt like my curly hair has made me stand out and not in a good way. For some reason there are just not many curlies around where I live but I'll be da*$@ if I am going to straighten it! :twisted:

meichigo
August 13th, 2008, 11:32 PM
I've got straight hair, obviously, but I wanted to interject. I think part of the problem was the actual photographs used for the first two surveys. The one with straight hair is just a more flattering photograph, from the shirt she's wearing to the angle of her head.
Also, the way her hair looks in the curly picture doesn't look like she tried to make it look good; rather, that she was intentionally being as bedhead-y as possible to best "exhibit" her curls (as compared to the great sig pics I am seeing in the responses here). Maybe that's because they were tight waves rather than true ringlet curls... My best friend has the latter, and her hair is never ever that bushy.
Granted, that's just one person, and I can't relate or respond to hair care and styling for curly hair, but I do think that a general styling error contributed to the results of the survey.

Edit:

The over all message I got was for guys and little kids to think you are pretty/want to date you get straight hair. If you want a job get curly hair.

I think the message for getting a job was not to get curly hair, but to be yourself without unnecessary distractions like feeling like you have to straighten your hair.

jessie58
August 13th, 2008, 11:47 PM
Actually I saw another one of these in a magazine from last year and it had pretty much the same results.

Speedbump
August 14th, 2008, 12:06 AM
I'm just going to be honest: I liked her hair better straight myself, because frankly, her "curly hair" was not well styled, and didn't even appear to be that well kept. She went for breaking up the curls so it almost looks like what we have a joke photo thread about, ya know? I just don't view hair like that as being well-kept curly hair. But then, I HATED the 80s giant hair the first time it came around. I don't think *anyone* looks good with the "light socket hairdo" look, ever, so I am hugely biased. :lol: (This does NOT apply to afros, which I love and which are a totally different ball of wax.)

I also agree with Rain that she wasn't wearing the same clothes, and I agree with at least one poster above that the sample was too small to be statistically significant.

In spite of all that, it was interesting to see what people said about how her hair changed what they thought of her. If she had well-kept curls, I'm sure that she would have gotten a third reaction, possibly a lot more positive.

So in a nutshell: Who is going to invite her to LHC for some curl wisdom? :lol:

RedElephant
August 14th, 2008, 12:47 AM
:( Gosh, this makes me feel sad as a fellow curly. TBH, I don't think that her curly hair was styled well enough. I wonder if the results would of been different if her curly he was styled differently.

This reminds of an excerpt from Allure magazine which stated how a blogger signed up for a dating site with two profiles. One with straight hair and the other with curly hair. Both profiles were identical. She received 60 responses to her curly hair profile and 161 responses to her straight hair.

Just_Isabel
August 14th, 2008, 05:19 AM
Very interesting article, thanks for sharing, Girlcat.

I guess that means I should go with curly hair for anything like job interviews, but with straight hair to first dates? :laugh:

Arctic
August 14th, 2008, 05:35 AM
They asked from men, children and corporate world... why not other women?
Anyway, interesting article.

I assume she wore her hair down in interviews like she did in those photos. Often it is recommended to wear ones (long) hair in an updo of some kind for a job interview, and to be as neat as possible. Ofcourse, the idea that curls are less neat and/or appropriate than straight hair is not right either.

Just_Isabel
August 14th, 2008, 05:40 AM
I think the picture of the writer with straight hair just has a nicer facial expression. It would have been a better comparison if she was wearing the same clothes and had the same face in both. She didn't. :shrug: ETA: I also don't think her curly hair had the greatest style. Not because it's curly. Just because it looked kind of '80s. I don't know. I hear that's coming back. But I've seen nicer curly cuts.

I agree with Rain and the other posters who brought this up, her hair could have been styled in a nicer way, but I don't think it would have made that much of a difference. I do think that we're perceived differently depending on our hair, or at least that's my experience.

I'd love to read about a study on this same subject but done more scientifically. I thought this article was very interesting (although I also thought that the first two pages were discouraging), even if it was done with a much too small sample and with some obvious flaws.

jessie58
August 14th, 2008, 10:36 AM
This article reminds me of my doctor. She has a mop of messy hair, very wild looking wavy hair and I always think that it makes her look a bit unprofessional. However if it were straight and pulled back, she wouldn't be any better or worse as a doctor, she'd still be the same doctor. It's silly how we do perceive "professional" women.

NurseMama
August 14th, 2008, 10:55 AM
That article is depressing. :( I agree with everyone that the curly picture is just poorly done in comparison with the straight.

pariate
August 14th, 2008, 11:00 AM
Ack. I hate articles like that. I don't know if it would be right to say that I don't care what people think about my wurls - of course it would sting if someone passed negative comment on them! - but I certainly wouldn't straighten it for an interview or a first date in order to make a good impression. It's my hair and if the opinion of the guy I'm dating or person I'm being interviewed by is going to be swayed by whether or not I have curly hair, then I don't have much time for them!

I think the most significant point that's been raised in this thread is that of well kept hair, the condition of the hair. I only feel uncomfortable about other people's perception of my hair when I know it looks out of shape. If I leave the house in the morning with hair that looks well cared for and well conditioned, everyone else can go hang for all I care! :D

Here's to LHC! :toast: Congratulations to all of us for taking care of our hair whether it be long, short, poker straight, wurly or curlier than a pig's tail :rolling:

jodiwynne
August 14th, 2008, 12:43 PM
Interesting article. When my son was 4 he said I had "monster hair" when it was curly. I think I wore it straight for the next year after he said that.:silly:

Dulci
August 14th, 2008, 12:52 PM
The article makes me sad. I think that even if a totally scientific study was done it would have the same results as these informal studies. :neutral:

Juneii
August 14th, 2008, 12:57 PM
hrm... that is interesting.
I did ask my guy friends about this before.
between curly and straight guys like straight hair
between straight and wavy guys like wavy hair
I'm not entirely sure why it's like that, and they don't know either.
I do know it's easier to run your hands through straight hair, maybe that's the case? my boyfriend has curly hair and it's hilarious to see him try to comb out his hair. not really a turn on there :P

Just_Isabel
August 14th, 2008, 01:00 PM
Yeah, and I think that even if her hair had been styled differently, it wouldn't have made much difference. People (at least here) are just much more used to straight (or wavy, but mostly straight) hair, it's the "norm" for most. So curly hair seems wild and unruly by comparison, even if it is styled in a way to reduce volume and frizz.

Also, IME, many people - if they don't know that you have curly hair - will assume that you curled your hair if they see you with curly and straight hair (or just held back in a bun or something that doesn't make the curls obvious) in different occasions.

So it makes sense to me that one of the interviewed man commented that the author looked like she was "trying too hard" (or something like that) in the curly picture.

Just_Isabel
August 14th, 2008, 01:03 PM
I do know it's easier to run your hands through straight hair, maybe that's the case? my boyfriend has curly hair and it's hilarious to see him try to comb out his hair. not really a turn on there :P

:laugh: Have you seen this thread (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=7003) already? ;)

Slug Yoga
August 14th, 2008, 01:03 PM
Interesting article. When my son was 4 he said I had "monster hair" when it was curly. I think I wore it straight for the next year after he said that.:silly:

LOL! I want monster hair! :D Ouch, though.