Polynesia was great for my curly-haired soul

[CurlyCap]

Hiya LHCers,

I recently visited several of the polynesian islands, and it was great to finally find a large population of curly-heads. I remembered that was the case from trips when I was a child, but as an adult, it was wonderful to see adult women and men have hair like mine and feel very little cultural pressure to change their hair's appearance or behavior.

It was also a high humidity environment and a huge lesson to me that no hair regimen is fool-proof. My tried and true routine (posted in my blog) completely failed, and I walked around for almost 2 weeks with poorly defined curls that were as big as they were long and completely horizontal in places. But it was also empowering because at home I would have considered this a "bad hair day", but on the islands, I was just another curly head.

Anyway, this is a completely random post. I know. I just thought it was interesting how much representation of similar hair types in the community changed my opinion of what was tolerable in my hair.

[jeanniet]

But did you take pics? ;) It must have been quite a feeling to have a "bad hair day" and know that you were in a place where it was just accepted as normal.

[HintOfMint]

What a great feeling and I'm glad you were able to have that experience and revelation in your adult life.

It makes me think about beauty in general. Like sometimes I think mainstream American culture has this one narrow ideal and that everyone is on a beauty spectrum compared to how closely they approximate that ideal, which is... dispiriting to say the least. It's a good feeling to reclaim curls (or any other feature) as something both beautiful and normal in its own right, not as something seen in relation to straight hair or styled, curling iron curls. It's incredible what American culture will deem a "problem" when it shouldn't be one in the first place.

[Mya]

I just thought it was interesting how much representation of similar hair types in the community changed my opinion of what was tolerable in my hair.

I guess it's true that it depends on what you see (or perceive) it's close to you. For example, many would consider my poofy hair terrifyingly frizzy, especially if (horror!) I brush it, but I really am not ashamed. As strange as it may sound, I like my poof and frizz instead, because I like "the nanny" and, speaking of hair, I feel much closer to her than to any mainstream fashion role model.