Hairy Dilemmas in D.C.

Another Atlantic blogger weighs in on a temporary appearance-related identity crisis. Chances are, your husband, and your mother (?), care more about your hairdo than your co-workers, I'm thinking, and you're making something out of nothing that nobody really cares about outside of 5th grade. Unless you think you got hired because of the pretty. Style over substance, no? Or are girl economists in D.C. really rated on their hairdos these days? (Plus, where the heck are the pics, if this subject rates a post??)

Friday Girl Talk: Can a Professional Woman Go Curly?
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Moreover, for better or worse, smooth straight hair has become synonymous with "professional" in America. Show up with curly hair, and you might as well show up with waist-length beads and an incense burner. [Ed. note: Not sure this prejudice is accepted as a "true fact" outside of the author's mind; see below.]

I would like to fight this, especially since it smacks so much of ethnic prejudice. Why on earth have we defined the hair type that most Irish, Jewish, and black women have as less professional than fine straight hair that can be blow-dried in 10 minutes? I know it's close to my brains and all, but they're not actually connected.

But I do not want to be a curly-haired revolutionary at the cost of my career. As one black female journalist said to me, "You don't want TV bookers referring to you as 'the curly haired one'." I want to be "the one who can talk about taxes".

Nonetheless, I'm experimenting. I went curly for a Cato event last night that I normally would have straightened for. We'll see how far I'm willing to push beyond the straight and narrow.

This is just the Midwest speaking, but it seems to me, if you don't want to draw attention to your looks (whether it be height, hair, weight or skintone), you'd stick to ... talking about taxes, and not your height/hair/weight/or skin tone.

Seems like an easy enough one fix... no?

ADDED: The first 5 commenters, anyway, seem to have a Midwestern sensibility about them. What was that Garrison Keillor line?*

MikeR:
Sheesh. Ladies have to worry about a lot of weird stuff that men don't. Curl your hair if it makes you more comfortable.

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Jens Fiederer:
What a rebel!

Bask for a good long while in that feeling of danger before you take the logical next steps of visible tattoos and piercings, though, please.
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vagabond2010:
Oh, no! Not another mental health day.

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Meaux:
"Moreover, for better or worse, smooth straight hair has become synonymous with "professional" in America. Show up with curly hair, and you might as well show up with waist-length beads and an incense burner."

Really? There are some curly haired women in my office and I never gave it a second thought.
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Evil_Spock:
I think this is one of those issues where what we think is professionally appropriate is much narrower than what is actually professionally appropriate. Like with wearing heels or jewelry or even makeup, you're paying a lot more attention to details of what you look like than the people around you are. There are androgynous/butch women who are professionally successful and high-profile, so I'm sure curly hair is fine.

Sometimes, the prejudices we put on others actually reveals our own ways of thinking:
for better or worse, smooth straight hair has become
synonymous with "professional" in America. Show up with curly hair, and
you might as well show up with waist-length beads and an incense burner."

Does she really think this of "non-confirming" Irish/Jewish/African American women, an if so, maybe then, isn't she part of creating the problem she's fighting back against?

First: Change your mind... and the rest will follow...


* Garrison Keillor: Beauty isn't worth thinking about; what's important is your mind. You don't want a fifty-dollar haircut on a fifty-cent head.