How Disney Is Complicit In Suppressing Curly Hair
Free Moana's curls.
Happy Friday. Today’s pre-weekend newsletter is about the forces that push people to straighten their curls, with some fresh news that shows why We Are Spiraling.
Disney put out a trailer for its live-action Moana remake this week. And people noticed a change to Moana…
Original Moana vs. New Moana
And, by the way, this is what Catherine Lagaʻaia actually looks like.
I don’t think I need to say it at this point but…they straightened Catherine’s hair! To play a character who had curly hair in the original animated version!
Yes, there will be people who look at these photos and say: but see Catherine’s hair has a light curl at the end. To that I say eyeroll.
Why did Disney straighten Catherine/Moana’s hair for this live-action remake? Let’s unpack the possible reasons.
Hollywood generally almost never portrays curly hair on leading women. “They” (I am going to use that to refer to the industry and its forces writ large) do not like it and curly hair is viewed as unruly.
Celebrity stylist Matthew Collins, who works on film and TV sets, explained this to us in Episode 2. “It’s technically looked at as more disheveled.”
Here’s the other thing Matthew explained to me, which could be part of the reason Disney straightened out Catherine’s curls. When filming, some scenes or segments that are part of one moment in the movie are shot across multiple days or even weeks. So a character’s hair should look exactly the same throughout.
Naturally curly hair can look slightly different day to day, based on the weather, how it dried, how you slept, other reasons you cannot always figure out. Matthew said the straightening is sometimes out of necessity, to make sure there is “continuity” between shots.
Most normal people do not look *exactly* the same over the course of a single day – makeup fades, one starts to look increasingly tired, people rub their eyes, they get sweaty, etc. But I understand continuity as an important value for filmmakers, even though at times it sets unrealistic standards of beauty for the rest of society.
The continuity thing doesn’t quite square here though. Moana sails on a boat. She’s in and around wind, water, waves the whole time. Those circumstances do not necessitate that each strand be exactly the same moment to moment because they’re constantly shifting and turning with environmental factors anyway.
If even Moana cannot be portrayed with natural curly hair and an active decision was made to turn Catherine into a straight-haired Barbie, what does that tell kids?
It tells them to straighten their hair to look “presentable.” That’s what so many secret curlies — a doctor, a dad, a professor — told us for Episode 2.
The global hair straightener market was valued at nearly $7 billion in 2023 and is projected to hit nearly $15 billion by 2033, according to Market Data Forecast. Another report I found pegged the number at almost $3 billion. Either way, we are in the billions.
And these numbers don’t even include the chemical hair straightening industry – keratin and other treatments – that many rely on so they don’t have to re-straighten their hair with a flatiron or blow dryer after every wash.
Before our current Dyson boom times, people turned to more crude methods to smooth their strands.
Madam C.J. Walker, the first Black woman self-made millionaire in the U.S., achieved that wealth by popularizing the hot comb. The hot comb was made of metal and could be heated so it would straighten stands as it ran through.
Hear about how this issue goes back generations from communications powerhouse Jacqui Miller, who is 40. Her mom is 72. Jacqui sent me this voice note about how her mom used to straighten her hair in the pre-Dyson days.
“Part of her routine to get ready to go to high school was to stand over the actual ironing board with an iron. First she’d iron her little plaid skirt and then she’d iron her hair.”
I got an Instagram comment from the sibling of a guy who used to try to *tape his hair to his face* to straighten it. Still trying to get in touch with him because I need to hear firsthand how this turned out for him.
Disney’s decision isn’t just about Moana or Catherine Laga’aia. This is how the cycle repeats, generation after generation.
Free Moana’s curls!
Thank you to the at least three people who texted/DMed me about the Moana news this week. This reporter always loves tips and story ideas. Keep them coming.
*This post was edited to note that I reached out to a representative for Catherine Laga’aia’ to invite her onto the show. I also reached out to Disney’s media relations team to ask if they’d like to comment on Disney’s suppression of curly hair and contribution to a multigenerational stigma against curls.
Next Week On We Are Spiraling:
How Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former head of the Democratic party, resisted career-long pressure to get rid of her curls. Our interview with her is the most in-depth she’s ever done about how she has been vilified for her curls throughout her time in politics.
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I feel this so, so deeply.