Straight Hair Is Over and Dead 2021

+5 Straight Hair Is Over and Dead 2021

“Everything old is new again,” etc., etc., whatever.

I’ve heard this phrase thousand times from various people in my life, and particularly from my mom. She's consistently aghast to seek out me spending $60 at a vintage haberdashery for Jones ny dresses and Cold Water Creek fringe jackets she owned within the ‘80s and '90s (and probably paid half the worth for). 

If you’re a daily here within the world of fashion magazines, the concept that trends are cyclical is perhaps obvious to you. But there’s one exception to the thought that everything that goes around, comes back around, and it's straight hair. 

Straight hair’s reign because the default style — the top results of every makeover montage in every '90s and '00s teen movie — has been long, and mostly unchallenged. But today, it’s not the de facto example of “professional” or “appropriate” or maybe “neutral.”

So, that has got to mean curly hair is that the new black, right? Er, kind of. Read on to seek out out what the experts need to say about the hair revolution we're within the midst of, and therefore the final frontier of hair trends.

Then and now

In the U.S., our obsession with straight hair has are available and out of fashion over the years. The hippies of the ‘60s let their hair fall to their waists, an homage to Mother Earth and every one things “natural,” also as a repudiation of their mothers' pin curled bobs. Cher inspired an era of shiny, stick-straight hair, parted at the middle within the '70s. The ‘90s grunge era of face-framing layers and limp, Kate Moss waves eventually gave thanks to the glossy Megan Fox glam of the '00s. Because this is often America, all of those trends were, of course, for white women — and for white hair. 

Hollywood trends aside, though, over the last seven decades, straight hair has always been safe. And for Black women, who have nearly always faced discrimination for wearing their natural hair within the workplace, relaxed styles or wigs were practically a requirement to be hired, including be taken seriously. 

The popularity has been attributed to Eurocentric or Western ideals, but it’s even as much a problem of sophistication . (Because doesn't everything boil right down to being white or being rich?) The sentiment, explains Rachael Gibson, hair historian, was, “If your hair looks that good, you're clearly not working very hard ... you are not running around after kids. [Straight] hair may be a signifier of your wealth, and therefore the incontrovertible fact that you've got the posh of your time on your hands.”

“It's like that hair says ‘rich and expensive,’” she adds, referencing Kate Middleton’s coiffed, cascading waves. “And i feel that's why people quite want it." 

Gibson alludes to the parable of straight hair as a neater blank canvas also , pointing to the 1920’s flapper bob — “the first modern fashion haircut” — as an example of the flexibility of straight hair that allowed women with either endless amounts of your time , or naturally straight hair, to participate in what was fashionable.

“If you were someone with really curly hair within the 1920's, and you are looking at these glamorous women and thinking, ‘I wish i used to be like them,’ you're probably also getting to think, ‘My curly hair isn't getting to sit like that. I'm not getting to be ready to use that style,’” she adds. “So i feel there is a kind of exclusivity in it, as well.” 

But exactly 100 years later, thankfully, the elite’s influence on hair trends goes only as far as their follower count. and therefore the rise of the “hair routine” has also given rise to an understanding of styling natural hair. 

On the runway

There was a time shortly ago when runway shows pursued a particular level of uniformity when it came to hair and makeup.

“Over the previous couple of seasons, you don’t necessarily see an equivalent look on everyone taking place the runway,” says Ted Gibson, celebrity stylist and owner of the STARRING salon and hair products. [Ed. note: No reference to Rachael Gibson.] “Fashion has opened tons more to diversify the definition of what hair means to a lady . it's about texture; the proper products and therefore the right tools.” 

“It’s the entire idea of being a private instead of feeling sort of a cookie-cutter,” he adds. “You don’t need to put a brush through it.” 

Don’t get me wrong: Straight hair remains an intentional style choice — emphasis on choice. Sleek, pin-straight hair that’s center-parted or slicked to the side will always be a press release , but it's not a requirement. Whether within the context of the workplace or within the context of how we define beauty, straight hair is not any longer the default. 

At work

When it had been announced earlier this month that for the primary time in its 113-year history, UPS was letting its employees wear their natural hair, my first thought was, “Wait, this isn’t already a thing?” 

Turns out it wasn't, because sometimes change moves at the pace of a sloth performing at the DMV. In fact, The Crown Act, which was written to guard people with natural hair from workplace discrimination, was only gone by the House in 2020. This, despite the very fact that studies have shown year after year after year that Black people, and specifically Black women, face bias for wearing their natural hair within the workplace, and are viewed as “less competent,” because, you know, bigotry and racism. 

In fact, it had been only six years ago, in 2014, that a lover of mine who was interning at a glossy ny fashion magazine (not this one), was told by her superiors that a blowout was required for an interview within the apparel industry (as well as a manicure — but a subtle one, read: not the acrylics made popular by Black women). the value of the “mermaid waves,” made famous by Blake Lively and literally every other “blonde bombshell” before her, is, of course, costlier for Black women, to not mention more damaging for his or her hair. So yeah, another sort of discrimination.

So, what’s next? 

Both Ted and Rachael believe that the longer term , while not straight, isn't necessarily super curly, either. It's more about working with whatever you've got . for instance , "Frizz," says Ted, "is not a nasty word."

Rachael adds, "I do feel genuinely like, regardless of your hair type or texture, or your personal aesthetic, i feel you'll find someone within the media probably who features a style that you want to emulate. and that i think there's numerous great curly hair role models now, and that we are becoming there with seeing that in ad campaigns and television ... we're in an era where hair trends are quite moving — we're kind of past just having a haircut or style. i feel we're just during this stage now where it's like quite anything goes."

Social media is a clear agent of this alteration , as we've access now, quite ever, to tutorials upon tutorials for each hairstyle under the sun. But the historically underserved curly and natural communities have also benefited from the creation of more products to assist within the expressions of those styles.

"Product development is at a stimulating stage, where it's like regardless of what hair you've got or want to possess , there are a) tools, and b) there are products, so you'll either achieve the thing you would like or enhance the thing you've got ," Rachael shares. "And with any quite hair trend through history, that's quite been the case. Like, when people decided to shop for home hair color, then obviously you started seeing people doing more of that [and experimenting with color]."

Both agree that the pandemic, while taxing during a hundred alternative ways , also will change the longer term of the many women's relationships to their hair, because it has created time for people to be comfortable with an attempt and error, to experiment with color and bangs and mullets and shaved heads without facing the sorts of repercussions you would possibly expect from school or your workplace or your conservative neighbors.

"I just think we're getting to have more of this move faraway from trends, to be honest, and just this concept of embracing what you've ," says Rachael. "Because for therefore a few years , since time began, people have used chemicals and products and things on their hair to vary it. and i am sure that's not just getting to get away overnight, but it does desire now, quite ever, and positively in recent history, you quite have this opportunity to only be who you would like to be."