Shut up and bounce

Straight talk about why pop culture hates curly hair. We're not witches, people. It's just the humidity!

- Urvee Modwel

Amir Manuel Mendez, a 14-yearold boy, proudly set the Guinness World Record last year for the largest afro on a living male. This is a long way from when Anne Hathaway gave up her curls for a shot at royalty in The Princess Diaries.

Haven't curly-haired girls suffered enough? We already spend more time and money on shampoos.

We already take aesthetic risks every time we step out on a humid day. Curly hair takes days of scheduling, it takes hours to dry. There's no lastminute hack for curls. And even when we get everything right, the spirals trap earphones, barrettes and oh, there's that earring that's been missing since Tuesday! What makes matters worse is that films and TV shows still depict curly hair as unprofessional, unsexy, at best unkempt, at worst uncivilised. All the shampoo ads are for straight, shiny hair.

Curls are inevitably the before section of a makeover montage - Vivian had them and lost them in Pretty Woman (1990). Mia gave hers up for a chance at royalty in The Princess Diaries (2001). Clearly, curls belong on ugly ducklings, not swans.