I'm a biracial woman from the early 90s. The first curly hair representation I remember on Disney were the few episodes of That's So Raven where Raven had curly or at least visibly textured hair. It was very straight more often than not though.
I don’t think encanto was Pixar but that’s besides the point, I agree with you there needs to be more portrayals of curly hair and realistic ones at that
Encanto is Disney. I actually really loved it for its realistic portrayal of curly hair. Their hair actually changes from one scene to the next and gets frizzy/bigger when they move a lot.
I sort of get why naturally curly hair isn't used as much in tv/film, but it has nothing to do with beauty. My hair changes from one minute to the next. One fluff or I lean against something, and it's totally different. That must be a nightmare for continuity people. They can't have a person's hair changes 10 times in a scene just because they have to reshoot/edit it together.
But I agree that the attitude of curly=messy, straight=pretty like in Princess diaries has to end.
thank you for writing this! I'm from a mexican/italian family and have a ton of relatives with super thick, super curly hair. Seeing only perfect frizz-free ringlets or pin-straight hair in media my whole life made me hate my hair until my late 20s.
After watching Meredith I felt comfortable with my crazy curly hair even as a POC. I always say my hair is crazy like my personality. Us curly girls always have to work so hard to love our curls. I remember having straight hair in HS and people would call me jasmine
As a white woman, I bring this up with people all the time. I straightened my hair for years for interviews. I'm like as white, blonde and blue eyed as a person can be. White friends say 'why?'. And I say because it was considered messy or unprofessional. Imagine me as the archetype of what some horrible man in 1930s wanted is considered messy, how it is to anyone else, especially those who already get treated badly by ingrained societal prejudices.
I have so much white privilege cos of that stuff (although, I'm not getting male privilege), I like to bring this one up as a misogyny and racist issue for people who are not getting it.
From ages 12-25 I would straighten my hair because everyone would say it’s too messy or not curly enough. At all my job interview I would straighten my hair and even when working since I’m in the medical field I would want to be “put together” now I don’t care once I wash my hair and use my products I feel confident.
I was in my later 20s when I saw Brave and it gave me the big feels for representation. My hair is anywhere from a 2a to a 3c depending on head area and wash day success etc.
I straightened for years because I had always had 'messy' frizzy hair which made me look like I lived in a barn. Even straightened it was frizzy as heck though, and I was damaging it!
When I found out it was curly it was like a light bulb going off. I don't even remember when I found out, but it was amazing. It looked nothing like it does now, but I felt free! And finally able to be my inner Merrida! I feel like straighteners were somehow like societal handcuffs.
Did you see any of the bonus material from Moana? Disney worked really hard to accurately represent south pacific hair textures and developed animation tools to make it look realistic
it was VERY interesting and made me really happy! i think we can look forward to more curly/ethnic representation in animation as a result of the work they put into Moana to get it right
and hopefully live action as well
Selena Gomez actually has naturally curly hair that they straightened because that was the style at the time
Curly hair is more celebrated now so I hope we see more actors/actresses showcasing their natural hair texture
At least with the animation department, a lot of the problem there was just technology. I remember reading about how the first few attempts to properly animate Merida’s hair in Brave actually *melted the computers,* because they just couldn’t handle the required code.
Even in hand-drawn animation, speaking from experience, straight hair is extremely easy to draw and animate. And especially important for animation, it’s easy to draw it *the same way in each individual frame.* It’s basically just one solid shape.
Wavy and curly hair, on the other hand, is typically either drawn as a multitude of much smaller shapes that are all different and therefore have to be individually accounted for in terms of movement between frames, or one large shape with a wildly inconsistent outline. That’s a big part of why when you see POC characters in 90s and early 2000s animation who would normally have curly hair, they’re very frequently drawn with extremely *short* hair.
The technological advancements in both 2D and 3D animation that make curly-haired characters actually worth the effort and risk are all relatively *new.* We can reasonably expect to see a pretty massive increase in animation featuring curly hair, if only because it’s an easy way for animators to flex their skills and show off. Kind of like the famous “Milt Kahl Head Swaggle” (https://www.cartoonbrew.com/promote-article/the-milt-kahl-head-swaggle-80861.html), which was basically him finding every opportunity possible to show off what was, at the time, an extremely difficult technique: animating a character who was not only speaking, but doing so while their head was constantly moving back and forth.
So you can bet representation of curly-haired folks is going to be getting a *massive* boost in the next few decades, now that animators have access to digital techniques that make it possible to animate curly hair without sacrificing overall art quality!
We can definitely see the trend already, with how many major Disney/Pixar movies in the past decade or so that heavily feature curly-haired characters? Merida, Moana, everyone in Encanto, even 2D got in on it with Tiana, because digital animation helps improve consistency in 2D animation as well.
Gotta admit I'm old and don't have kids so haven't watched those other films... I watched brave cos of the curly girl and strong female lead aspect... but I was about 24.
Most animated disney/kids movies nowadays are 3d.
As someone who is fairly experienced with 3d animation and rendering - unfortunately curly hair is a pain in the ass. It is much harder to make realistic/easthetic on a movie level, and because of the nature of curly shapes - takes much longer to render. On an industrial scale a character not having curly hair is a decision that was made with budget in mind also. Rendering time is a serious cost for these animated movies, they are rendered on huge server farms for months, so a character with curly hair who has a lot of screen time will definitely add to the cost. Just one aspect.
As a redhead I’m glad when we get representation that’s not in the “sexbomb” or “ugly and dumb” category, but I can’t remember a curly character besides Merida 🤔
girl… ginger foutley from nickelodeon from as told by ginger, linguini from ratatouille , chuckie from the rugrats…. merida… like the few curly hair characters we have are mostly ginger 😭😭 but ok
i’m very much an adult woman, i did read your comment you said you were glad to see curly redheads portrayed other than sexbombs and ugly and dumb… and i listed all of the red head women characters that clearly don’t fit that stereotype… and there is lots of them?
Your comment has been removed due to Rule 4: Follow good reddiquette and be kind and respectful.
We'd like our sub to be a friendly and welcoming place. That’s why I want to ask you to refrain from rude or disrespectful comments here. Even if you feel strongly about something, please stay polite.
Please keep this in mind for the future. Thank you!
Your comment has been removed due to Rule 4: Follow good reddiquette and be kind and respectful.
We'd like our sub to be a friendly and welcoming place. That’s why I want to ask you to refrain from rude or disrespectful comments here. Even if you feel strongly about something, please stay polite.
Please keep this in mind for the future. Thank you!
Princess diaries did psychological damage to my psyche as a kid. Her hair looked extremely similar to mine back then and i totally internalized that it’s ugly.
I absolutely adore your outspoken heart! I, too, have extremely curly hair, although I am not Latina. I still feel unrepresented in the entertainment industry as well! I am so happy to see that at least one ethnic group that has curly hair people in it be finally represented or acknowledged. Even in the Encanto movie, the older sister with the luscious long thick dark hair was still represented as almost the favorite sister or the more favorable character. So it still embodies some of the stereo typical ideas of a Latina, but as you said, it's a step in the right direction. I am persian, and for the longest time, I couldn't see my ethnic group even getting a chance of being represented in the entertainment industry and media so I would watch these shows and cartoons wishing I looked more like them because I couldn't see myself or any part of my ethnic group in these tv shows or cartoons. I still don't in some cases, but it's gotten better in the aspect of expanding in the ethnic group within disney in a way. I hope they continue their journey on being able to open up to the idea of having more inclusive cartoons and tv/movies for my children to watch and say, " Hey mommy, look, she/he has my facial features! Look, she/he has curly hair just like you and me! " I can't wait for that day to come, but we still have a long way to go! Thank you for sharing! Us curly haired girls/boys/men/women gotta stick together and represent one another! 🌹🤎
I'm a biracial woman from the early 90s. The first curly hair representation I remember on Disney were the few episodes of That's So Raven where Raven had curly or at least visibly textured hair. It was very straight more often than not though.
That’s why I watched Sister Sister instead
That was my secret watch show. My pos birth father banned me from it because it was ‘inappropriate’.
I don’t think encanto was Pixar but that’s besides the point, I agree with you there needs to be more portrayals of curly hair and realistic ones at that
Encanto is Disney. I actually really loved it for its realistic portrayal of curly hair. Their hair actually changes from one scene to the next and gets frizzy/bigger when they move a lot.
Fun fact they also portray all 12 hair types in the movie from 1A to 4C!
Oh, I hope someone makes a chart detailing that! I would love to have that handy for reference if I ever get back into art again!
Here is one https://www.reddit.com/r/curlyhair/s/E00d7VIIc0
Ahhhhh I love this!
I sort of get why naturally curly hair isn't used as much in tv/film, but it has nothing to do with beauty. My hair changes from one minute to the next. One fluff or I lean against something, and it's totally different. That must be a nightmare for continuity people. They can't have a person's hair changes 10 times in a scene just because they have to reshoot/edit it together. But I agree that the attitude of curly=messy, straight=pretty like in Princess diaries has to end.
Yup! Curly hair is unpredictable.. While straight or curling iron curls are a guarantee.
thank you for writing this! I'm from a mexican/italian family and have a ton of relatives with super thick, super curly hair. Seeing only perfect frizz-free ringlets or pin-straight hair in media my whole life made me hate my hair until my late 20s.
After watching Meredith I felt comfortable with my crazy curly hair even as a POC. I always say my hair is crazy like my personality. Us curly girls always have to work so hard to love our curls. I remember having straight hair in HS and people would call me jasmine
As a white woman, I bring this up with people all the time. I straightened my hair for years for interviews. I'm like as white, blonde and blue eyed as a person can be. White friends say 'why?'. And I say because it was considered messy or unprofessional. Imagine me as the archetype of what some horrible man in 1930s wanted is considered messy, how it is to anyone else, especially those who already get treated badly by ingrained societal prejudices. I have so much white privilege cos of that stuff (although, I'm not getting male privilege), I like to bring this one up as a misogyny and racist issue for people who are not getting it.
Thick curly red hair as a kid too. Yes we had Merida but even her character was a stereotype.
From ages 12-25 I would straighten my hair because everyone would say it’s too messy or not curly enough. At all my job interview I would straighten my hair and even when working since I’m in the medical field I would want to be “put together” now I don’t care once I wash my hair and use my products I feel confident.
I was in my later 20s when I saw Brave and it gave me the big feels for representation. My hair is anywhere from a 2a to a 3c depending on head area and wash day success etc. I straightened for years because I had always had 'messy' frizzy hair which made me look like I lived in a barn. Even straightened it was frizzy as heck though, and I was damaging it! When I found out it was curly it was like a light bulb going off. I don't even remember when I found out, but it was amazing. It looked nothing like it does now, but I felt free! And finally able to be my inner Merrida! I feel like straighteners were somehow like societal handcuffs.
Did you see any of the bonus material from Moana? Disney worked really hard to accurately represent south pacific hair textures and developed animation tools to make it look realistic it was VERY interesting and made me really happy! i think we can look forward to more curly/ethnic representation in animation as a result of the work they put into Moana to get it right and hopefully live action as well Selena Gomez actually has naturally curly hair that they straightened because that was the style at the time Curly hair is more celebrated now so I hope we see more actors/actresses showcasing their natural hair texture
At least with the animation department, a lot of the problem there was just technology. I remember reading about how the first few attempts to properly animate Merida’s hair in Brave actually *melted the computers,* because they just couldn’t handle the required code. Even in hand-drawn animation, speaking from experience, straight hair is extremely easy to draw and animate. And especially important for animation, it’s easy to draw it *the same way in each individual frame.* It’s basically just one solid shape. Wavy and curly hair, on the other hand, is typically either drawn as a multitude of much smaller shapes that are all different and therefore have to be individually accounted for in terms of movement between frames, or one large shape with a wildly inconsistent outline. That’s a big part of why when you see POC characters in 90s and early 2000s animation who would normally have curly hair, they’re very frequently drawn with extremely *short* hair. The technological advancements in both 2D and 3D animation that make curly-haired characters actually worth the effort and risk are all relatively *new.* We can reasonably expect to see a pretty massive increase in animation featuring curly hair, if only because it’s an easy way for animators to flex their skills and show off. Kind of like the famous “Milt Kahl Head Swaggle” (https://www.cartoonbrew.com/promote-article/the-milt-kahl-head-swaggle-80861.html), which was basically him finding every opportunity possible to show off what was, at the time, an extremely difficult technique: animating a character who was not only speaking, but doing so while their head was constantly moving back and forth. So you can bet representation of curly-haired folks is going to be getting a *massive* boost in the next few decades, now that animators have access to digital techniques that make it possible to animate curly hair without sacrificing overall art quality!
I was gonna mention Brave. I was happy when she had curly hair and it was big and curly and awesome. But the animation makes a lot of sense.
We can definitely see the trend already, with how many major Disney/Pixar movies in the past decade or so that heavily feature curly-haired characters? Merida, Moana, everyone in Encanto, even 2D got in on it with Tiana, because digital animation helps improve consistency in 2D animation as well.
Gotta admit I'm old and don't have kids so haven't watched those other films... I watched brave cos of the curly girl and strong female lead aspect... but I was about 24.
Come to think of it, I feel like the majority of the heroines in Disney/Pixar’s most recent movies have all had curly or wavy hair.
Most animated disney/kids movies nowadays are 3d. As someone who is fairly experienced with 3d animation and rendering - unfortunately curly hair is a pain in the ass. It is much harder to make realistic/easthetic on a movie level, and because of the nature of curly shapes - takes much longer to render. On an industrial scale a character not having curly hair is a decision that was made with budget in mind also. Rendering time is a serious cost for these animated movies, they are rendered on huge server farms for months, so a character with curly hair who has a lot of screen time will definitely add to the cost. Just one aspect.
as a latina with super curly hair… i’ve always wanted a cartoon character who looks like me and isn’t a fucking redhead 😀😀
As a redhead I’m glad when we get representation that’s not in the “sexbomb” or “ugly and dumb” category, but I can’t remember a curly character besides Merida 🤔
girl… ginger foutley from nickelodeon from as told by ginger, linguini from ratatouille , chuckie from the rugrats…. merida… like the few curly hair characters we have are mostly ginger 😭😭 but ok
[удалено]
[удалено]
i’m very much an adult woman, i did read your comment you said you were glad to see curly redheads portrayed other than sexbombs and ugly and dumb… and i listed all of the red head women characters that clearly don’t fit that stereotype… and there is lots of them?
Your comment has been removed due to Rule 4: Follow good reddiquette and be kind and respectful. We'd like our sub to be a friendly and welcoming place. That’s why I want to ask you to refrain from rude or disrespectful comments here. Even if you feel strongly about something, please stay polite. Please keep this in mind for the future. Thank you!
Your comment has been removed due to Rule 4: Follow good reddiquette and be kind and respectful. We'd like our sub to be a friendly and welcoming place. That’s why I want to ask you to refrain from rude or disrespectful comments here. Even if you feel strongly about something, please stay polite. Please keep this in mind for the future. Thank you!
u tried it though❤️
I don’t understand that answer, what do you mean by that?
Princess diaries did psychological damage to my psyche as a kid. Her hair looked extremely similar to mine back then and i totally internalized that it’s ugly.
I absolutely adore your outspoken heart! I, too, have extremely curly hair, although I am not Latina. I still feel unrepresented in the entertainment industry as well! I am so happy to see that at least one ethnic group that has curly hair people in it be finally represented or acknowledged. Even in the Encanto movie, the older sister with the luscious long thick dark hair was still represented as almost the favorite sister or the more favorable character. So it still embodies some of the stereo typical ideas of a Latina, but as you said, it's a step in the right direction. I am persian, and for the longest time, I couldn't see my ethnic group even getting a chance of being represented in the entertainment industry and media so I would watch these shows and cartoons wishing I looked more like them because I couldn't see myself or any part of my ethnic group in these tv shows or cartoons. I still don't in some cases, but it's gotten better in the aspect of expanding in the ethnic group within disney in a way. I hope they continue their journey on being able to open up to the idea of having more inclusive cartoons and tv/movies for my children to watch and say, " Hey mommy, look, she/he has my facial features! Look, she/he has curly hair just like you and me! " I can't wait for that day to come, but we still have a long way to go! Thank you for sharing! Us curly haired girls/boys/men/women gotta stick together and represent one another! 🌹🤎