Why are curly-haired characters always brushing their hair? And why do authors not ever seem to have curly-haired test readers who can tell them to stop this?
The immediate impetus of this post is Sydney Salter’s MY BIG NOSE AND OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS, but it’s a longstanding puzzle/complaint of mine. In Salter’s book, the protagonist thinks her long blond curls are her only attractive feature, and as such, she’s often… brushing them.
Except. I have curly hair, so I can tell you this is the last thing you should do, unless your goal is a big bush of hair a la certain particularly awesome music videos from the decade of my birth:
And I feel confident in saying that this is not, in fact, your goal. So what’s with all the curly-hair brushing in books?
Back me up on this one, Emily.
-->Feed me text
May 1, 2009 at 9:18 am
THIS IS HILARIOUS.
I, of the curly-haired persuasion, just realized my protags always have nice, straight, manageable hair and their sidekicks generally have unruly curls. Dare to dream.
Man, I would have made an awesome ’80s chick!
May 1, 2009 at 10:07 am
So true! I somehow never noticed it in books, which is odd because somehow I wind up in conversations about hair care more often that I ought to. But yeah, I also have long curly hair, and the number one rule is don’t brush it. Especially don’t brush it when its dry. You will definitely wind up with an enormous frizzy bushy mess. And chances are the brush will get stuck in there also.
May 1, 2009 at 10:58 am
YES! Man, the word really needs to get out about this. If you and Hadas hadn’t told me about the no-brushing/conditioner rule, I’d still be in a pixie cut. Or possibly bald.
May 1, 2009 at 11:03 am
YES! Thank you. That drives me completely bananas.
May 1, 2009 at 11:05 am
Aaand for some reason I was logged in as not me.
Anyway, amen, sister.
May 1, 2009 at 2:44 pm
I still don’t subscribe to the no-conditioner rule (in fact, I can’t seem to live without conditioner), but you’re right about not brushing curly hair when dry….it ends up a disaster.
May 1, 2009 at 2:58 pm
oh, I use only conditioner – no shampoo.
May 1, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Author must admit to owning very straight locks–curly haired daughter, however, is big on brushing her hair to keep it controlled. Go figure!
My pet peeve: describing flecks of color in love-interest’s eyes while in dim lighting. (And, yeah, I’ve probably done it myself.)
Thanks for the post–made me smile : )
May 1, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Sydney: I cannot for the life of me explain this divergence of experience (I thought curly hair + brush = big bushy mess was a fundamental law of physics), but thanks for coming by to comment on it!
May 1, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Well, she’s only 9 so all that hair stuff is still pretty new to her. I do feel bad that I can’t help her manage her hair (will pass along tips learned here).
And, thanks, because I will no longer let curly characters comb so much : )
May 2, 2009 at 1:09 am
I can definitely back you up on this one. Although I’ve never heard of a “no conditioner rule.” That sounds terrible. My curls can’t function without conditioner, especially in a humid climate.
May 2, 2009 at 12:04 pm
That’s hilarious. For future reference I’ll never, never, ever have one of my curly-haired characters brush his/her hair. I’m fairly certain I haven’t committed this transgression as of yet.
How about twirling, is twirling okay?
May 2, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Sydney: Okay, that totally explains it. My mom brushed my hair (as did I) when I was young, too. I didn’t have much to compare it to, so no complaints at the time — although there were some particularly unfortunate Hair Moments, such as when they took our pictures for this little icon in 4th grade (you were supposed to use it to indicate when you went to the bathroom or otherwise left the classroom), and my hair was so big that they had to cut around it, despite my unusually small head. My bride of Frankenstein look was thus displayed in extremely noticeable form all year long. God, I hated that icon system.
If you want tips, the book CURLY GIRL is a good place to start. Its program is the one being described by several commenters here — no brushing, no shampoo, definitely always conditioner (I’m thinking the whole “no conditioner” idea on this thread was a misunderstanding) — although I am less ideological about it than I once was. I condition always, comb conditioner in in the shower to detangle, and shampoo every once in a while as I feel is warranted.
But don’t listen to me, listen to Emily: we have intrinsically the same hair (except hers is blond and mine’s brown), but hers always looks great and mine often looks like crap because I’m too lazy for even her minimalist gel routine.
I feel a bit absurd having now written so much about this, but perhaps it can be a one-stop research point for all straight-locked authors.
Andrea: as a compulsive hair player-wither, I think twirling is just fine.
May 2, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Your icon story made me laugh out loud. So funny! Thank you so much for this post, not only am I going to make sure I get things right next time, I’m sure you’ve saved my curly daughter from a few unfortunate hair days. Just the other night I thought she was delaying bedtime when she insisted on a thorough post-shower combing, when she was simply saving herself a mass of really tangled hair.
Thanks again! Great blog : )
May 2, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I second Elizabeth on the haircare routine, although I use my fingers to detangle with conditioner in, rather than a comb. I used to use no shampoo at all, now about once a week I use this product called “no-poo” (same name, different effect from the Weasly twins’ U-No-Poo), which is a cleanser that doesn’t dry out your hair the way regular shampoos do. And I then leave a tiny amount of conditioner in (makes it less frizzy), and a bit of gel. Also, you should blot dry, never rub, and its better to use an old t-shirt or other smooth cloth rather than a towel – rubbing dry and towels both increase frizz.
On twirling: Once it dries, the basic rule on curly hair is the less you touch it, the better. But I play with my hair all the time, so who am I to judge hair-twirling characters.
I never would have predicted we’d wind up with a long thread on hair care, but I’m glad we’ve been able to provide this useful service to authors, parents, and curly-haired folks.
May 3, 2009 at 7:51 am
Conditioner is the curly-haired girl’s friend. The secret is ends only for conditioner. But brushing is the devil.
May 4, 2009 at 10:53 am
Yeah, no brushing! I comb it out after my shower, put some mousse in to cut down on frizz, and don’t touch it after that. The more you mess with it the worse it gets. (I do brush it before bed and before getting into the shower, and don’t go out in public while it’s a fuzzball.)
May 4, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Another curly-haired reader who agrees! I never brush my hair but if it would look like that in the video if I did brush it, I totally would! Every day! But I don’t have enough hair for that, I think, it would just get fuzzy but stay small.
May 4, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Why..I never thought about this but you are so right. This oversite perhaps ruined my teenage life, reading all those books and brushing my really curly hair. All I got was a Jew-fro and lots of laughter! Thank you for doing this community service for our curly haired sisters.
May 4, 2009 at 5:09 pm
So true, I have a curly haired friend who didn’t own a brush until she started straightening it, because well what would be the point?
May 4, 2009 at 7:48 pm
I am amused.
I’m doing a mental checklist of all my character and any mention of hairstyling….. and, yup, I’m safe. I don’t think I’ve had any characters with really curly hair — a few waves, though.
As I have long hair (really long, like mid-thigh long), I’m always amused by romance scenes in movies where the woman lets her hair loose before rolling around on a bed (or in the hay or whatever) with her love interest. Obviously, neither the actresses nor the directors have ever thought about how much long hair gets in the way of any kind of “rolling around” — with or without a partner.
Another bit that pops up in books is women with long hair letting it fly loose in the wind.
Uh, no. That could mean a good hour of combing out afterwards. No fun.
So, although I’ve never committed your crime of having a curly-haired character brush her/his curls, I will remember what you have said.
Here’s to realism!
May 5, 2009 at 6:58 am
Another bit that pops up in books is women with long hair letting it fly loose in the wind.
Uh, no. That could mean a good hour of combing out afterwards. No fun.
Not to mention that long hair + wind = hair wrapped all around your face. Not much fun either!
May 5, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Hannah: If you want BIG bushy hair, try flipping your head over and brushing upside down. When I do this, the results are spectacular. In the sense that Chernobyl was spectacularly disastrous, for instance.
May 6, 2009 at 11:59 am
How funny! You know, I’ve never really thought about this, but you are absolutely right. I can only imagine that all these characters are walking around looking frizztastic.
May 7, 2009 at 12:57 pm
I used to be a no-conditioner-girl, believe it or not it actually made the my hair frizzier and made the curls fall out! Things have changed since i started colouring my hair though- can’t live without the stuff now since my hair texture’s changed.
May 9, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Amen! As a curly-haired librarian who reads a lot of kids’ books, this “trend” drives me crazy! When I got to meet Maureen Johnson at a library conference, I thanked her for NOT having her curly-haired protagonist in _Suite Scarlett_ brush her hair!
May 9, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Curly Girl is the bible.
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