I remember going to the bathroom in the middle of a hot day in elementary school. I glanced in the mirror and was disappointed to see that my hair had grown to twice its size again. I now love my curls and am grateful to know exactly how to manage them. It doesn’t matter. I became obsessed with flat irons and keratin treatments.
It wasn’t just manageability that drove straight curls, but a desire to conform to Western beauty standards. is a trait they often identify with Jewish identity. When I tell people about my cultural background, they often exclaim, “That’s where curly hair comes from!” As a teenager, I mostly saw straight-haired Jews, so this confused me. I got
The Controversial History of ‘Jewish Hair’
Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield and Maytal Friedman, in their article “Wearing Your Natural Curls, Is a Jewish Act of Resistance,” to further promote anti-Semitism through stereotypes. Discusses how anti-Semites exploited Jewish physical traits. Black curly hair explains what Jacoby Rosenfield and Friedman characterize as the “Jewish demonic character” It is an important feature used for Curly hair is beautiful, but for centuries it has been used against us through labeling and identification. It highlights the anti-Semitism and anxieties that are internalized even within communities that share what is encouraged and wear their natural hair.
Within the black community, Chanté Griffin wrote about how wearing natural hair has become a legal issue. Griffin talks about the specific case in 2010 when Chastity Jones received a conditional job offer. A study examining body and beauty image issues surrounding black women in college pointed to hair as a major concern. Because of this, it is a pressure that many face at great expense to encourage them to achieve a certain westernized look. It is clear that it exists in
Brandeis University student Alison Kirk, 20, always kept her hair straight. She said, “You don’t look Jewish. You can’t recognize typical Jewish features.”
It is not uncommon for Jews to be told, “You don’t look Jewish” as an inside-out compliment. Why is being Jewish in appearance viewed as unfavorable? Do you have built-in beliefs?
nazi eugenics
Hannah Dylan Pasternak, Associate Director of Special Projects self The magazine explains that hair straightening is not just about assimilation. We have these inherited, almost unconscious, very embedded notions about how best to be, how to act best, and how to look best. think.”
Its history is well documented. In Nazi Germany, certain instruments were used to measure skin, eye, and hair color to “determine if someone was Jewish.” This philosophy is known as eugenics, a white supremacist pseudoscience created with the goal of fostering a “pure” society through the displacement of minorities and racialized groups. Some rituals include forced sterilization to “guarantee” the purity of the dominant race and prevent “degenerate” races from breeding. In Nazi Germany, eugenics facilitated the genocide of Jews. Given that curly hair was used as a eugenic indicator to identify and harm Jews, perhaps the urge to straighten curls can be seen as a manifestation of intergenerational trauma. .
Rhinoplasty and keratin treatment
Hair straightening is just one of many body modifications that are common among Jewish women to address body image issues. At the surface level, modifications like keratin treatments can be done for hair manageability, but can stem from a subtle desire to conform to Westernized beauty standards for Caucasians. The same can be said for rhinoplasty. Both have been used as a way to identify and label being Jewish, and have often been used to stereotype or discriminate against Jews.
For centuries there have been stereotypes surrounding the “Jewish nose” in relation to “Jewish hair”. Indeed, in the eugenics-influenced Western scientific literature, the “Jewish nose” is a term used by surgeons to characterize certain race-related physical defects, which they refer to as malformations. I’m seeing Some doctors even felt that the “Jewish nose” modification could lead to “patient health.”
“My mom had rhinoplasty in high school at her mother’s recommendation, so it’s very generational in that sense,” said Kirk, who also had her younger sister undergo the keratin treatment. I think it has a lot to do with these features not being overrepresented and celebrated, so there’s a lot of pressure to adapt.
male gaze
In her article on Naturally Curly, Teri Evans shared an experiment she did. She had her dating profile with curly hair, and a profile with straight hair.Teri flat her iron her profile got her 181 messages, while her profile with curly hair It was her 60th. Her straight hair profile got her 120 “winks”, while the curly hair profile got her only 60.
I found myself relating to Evans’ experience. As a Bumble user, I recently received a notification suggesting I use my “best photo” for users to see first. It was the only picture of her with straight hair.
I decided to test this theory too, but this time I tried it directly. I went to the bar with curly hair one night and straight the next. With curly hair, the question arose a lot: “Where are you from?” With straight hair, no one asks about my cultural background. My curly hair is like a potential suitor’s opening line. But it clearly made me seem ethnically ambiguous, and some may view racist investigations as inappropriate.
For blacks and other people of color, whether or not they have their hair done, this series of inappropriate questions about where they are from can occur on a daily basis. Being able to straighten out is certainly a kind of white privilege.
Online, many matches start with an opening line that has something to do with my hair. People who swipe right or approach me directly seem attracted only to my hair, but when I wear it straight, my hair doesn’t count. It’s ingrained in our minds early on that our dating interest seems to favor straight hair.
Personal Perspective, Different Generations
“I would say there are some Middle Eastern countries where hair is unkempt and unacceptable if it’s not smooth. Another aspect is manageability,” says curl expert and owner of Curly Girls Studio. Adina Sherman. As Sherman explained, one of her reasons why she prefers straightening is that it’s a more “predictable style and curly is unpredictable.”
“Even going back decades, getting your hair done means it’s always been treated like it’s straight,” Sherman notes, in a way, “to make you look like something you’re not.” This is related to the history of most barber and salon schools, where education was primarily oriented towards working with straight hair.
Diane Litchen, 76, a real estate agent, has amazing curly hair. However, adopting a natural look was a difficult task. “My hair has been the bane of my life! All I wanted was a center section of straight hair. That’s what I wanted more than life!” described it as “horrible”.
“I knew girls at camp who literally ironed their hair on ironing boards. Some girls did rollers with cans of frozen orange juice on their heads,” Litchen said. .
Training to cut curls is still scarce within the United States, but by the time Litchen came of age in the 1960s, curl education was even scarcer among stylists. And only mature women are attracted to curly hair,” she said.
For Hannah Rosenfeld, 23, a recent Laurier University graduate, the need to straighten her hair every day is internalized and subconscious. . Rosenfeld was in an environment where there were not many Jewish students, which increased how pervasive these beauty norms were. she said. “Growing up, I didn’t feel Jewish enough for my Jewish kids, but I felt too Jewish and different for my non-Jewish classmates,” Rosenfeld said. I reminisced. She “felt much easier to distance myself from the fear of being rejected.”
Alison Kirk detangled her curly hair with “embracing her true identity.” “In the sense that I’m non-binary, I’m also queer, and I’m also a lesbian. I think that included how I dressed and how I presented myself.”
Kirk gave me advice. “I know it has been very empowering, at least for me, and it has helped me control my image and how I want to present myself. It has also helped me accept other parts of my body that I don’t particularly like, whether related to , body shaming, or body dysmorphia.
After all, the road to embracing curls isn’t easy. My family still straightens their hair, but I’ve never actually seen curly hair. Others got rid of flat irons years ago. Kind of funky and fun style, some days straight, some days curly, enjoying the hybrid look. What makes it better. Curly hair is not easy to care for, it is a trial and error process that needs to be accepted and most importantly loved within ourselves.
featured photo contributor Unsplash Tamas Pup
