Curly vs. Straight
There was an interesting story on Good Morning America the other day about the debate that will never die (at lease among the curly haired population) — Curly Hair vs. Straight Hair. With all the bad news there is in the world today, I guess they needed some mindless fluff, as a diversion.
Anyway, the reporter (who has naturally curly hair) had one photograph taken of herself with her hair curly, and another with it straight (wearing different outfits). She then went on to conduct a very unscientific survey of reactions to both photos from one group of guys (5 young white males) and a group of very young school kids. Her last experiment was in a job interview - wearing same outfit but with different interviewers.
The guys’ reaction was mostly negative towards the curly hair, however for an attractive woman it seems that they were very hard on her score-wise (25 out of 50 for curly, 31 out of 50 for straight) all together. They were either distracted by the hair, or didn’t offer an opinion at all. Not sure where they found those guys. The young kids also preferred the straight look to the curly locks, referring to them as “messy.”
The interview portion was actually the only interesting part of the story. This was also the only section of the experiment where she spoke as a part of the assessment, so they considered personality/behavior as part of the “whole package” – wonder if the earlier reactions would have changed had they been shown a video instead of a photograph. Apparently her confidence and comfort level were greatest in her naturally curly state and therefore she excelled in that interview, receiving comments like “intelligent” and “personable.” Her scores were much higher with curly hair than with straight hair. If you want to view the entire story in detail, visit the “ABC News Story – The Mane Conflict: Hair Curly or Straight?” for the full story and video.
Having had curly hair my entire life, I find this last section of her story very interesting and encouraging - especially since I am currently hunting for a job and will soon be going through those dreadful interviews. It’s nice to know that somewhere, people actually look beyond the surface.
