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How The Word Frizz Was Weaponized Against Curly People · We Are Spiraling

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is Priya Anand, and we are Spiraling.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: In this show, we talk about curly hair to learn more about our culture, from our personal identity to how the world sees us.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: We have been told our whole lives that the world sees us and sees curly hair as frizzy.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Tame frizz.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Frizz control.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Frizz rescue.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Curl control.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Smooth, frizz-free hair.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: These lines are all verbatim from very popular brands that sell curly hair care right now.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: They say we must seek to reduce, eliminate, and ease frizz.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Frizz is a word that has a very specific meaning in our culture.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: We've been taught to fear it.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: But what is the meaning of the word frizz?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Frizz.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Merriam Webster.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Noun.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: A tight curl.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Let me repeat that.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Frizz.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: A tight curl.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: The word inherently means only that, a curl.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And references to it can be found as early as the 1600s.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: It comes from the old French word frissur, which means to curl.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the word frizzle developed from there, meaning to curl hair specifically.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Back in the 17th century, a curling iron was called a frizzling iron.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: In the 18th century, frizzle was used to denote the teasing of hair.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know how hair can be teased to create more volume?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Note by the way that teasing hair doesn't really have the same connotation as frizz itself.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: I find that interesting.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been researching this because as I continue to build, we are spiraling and very soon launched my era, my hair care line.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I've wanted to understand how and why we got to a place where one word has so much weight and a loaded connotation for everyone with hair.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: It turns out that the word itself actually doesn't have this negative loaded meaning.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: The word frizz means simply to curl.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's what people did to the word, how they shaded it versus the term itself.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And as with many things in life, we assign our own meaning to things.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: The meaning we oftentimes ascribe or other people ascribe to something becomes part of the story of that thing.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So this idea of frizz, it's so intertwined in how the world sees us or speaks to us at least, and how many, many curly people see themselves.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Why are so many people secretly curly?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: That is one of our most popular We Are Spiraling episodes.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it's also the one that you personally message me about the most.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: When I give out We Are Spiraling Stickers on the Street, on public transit, I often first tell the person about this episode: why are so many people secretly curly?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And nearly everyone has responded with, that's me.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was secretly curly.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's their story, and it's our story.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason people give me so often is that they felt they were seen as too frizzy, not professional.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: The timeline I gave you earlier, let's remember it now as we get to the first known use of the word frizzy as implying hair was not smooth or neat in about 1870.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: The Oxford English Dictionary says the first piece of evidence for the word frizzy was in the writer, Sir George Webb Descent's writings.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: I found the passage.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Descent wrote in Annals of an Eventful Life: a woman, a thing with frizzy hair all down her neck, a dirty dress, unlaced boots, and a mop and a pail.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: It was a kitchen maid.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be clear here that this was published in 1870, and according to my research, Descent was born in the British West Indies into the family of a British colonial official.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: In episode two, where we investigate why it is that so many people are secretly curly, I interviewed a professor who said, yes, that is where these myths that we hold originated from.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: That curly hair is frizzy, not tamed, not controlled.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: They originated with colonialism and, of course, with that, racism.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the spreading of Eurocentric beauty standards.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And here we have what appears to be proof that I've connected this to.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Miss Frizzle and the Magic School Bus, witchy, devious, or clownish Hollywood characters, transformations like Anne Hathaway's and The Princess Diaries, where they clearly disparage curly hair.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, she's been in Congress for decades.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And for most of that time, she's been the only one with curly hair who actually wears it curly.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: When I interviewed her in episode three, I asked her, what was it like for political opponents to call you names like Frizilla and Ramen Noodlehead?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: The ramen insult is obviously absurd because who doesn't love ramen?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: But then we get back to that same word: Frizilla with Friz.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what she told me.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of women pick another aspect of their looks and people zero in on it.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: You and I have a very obvious trait that people can make fun of or highlight.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: You just have to let it roll off.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: These are idiots who, you know, the only way they can feel strong and feel like they're landing a punch is to make nasty comments about my hair.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's the best they've got.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so politics can be nasty.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's not news to anybody.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: We accept that.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: But what about everything else?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: What about Hollywood?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I've also heard from men who are secretly curly and have been secretly curly.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And what about the entire legacy beauty industry?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: What shocks and honestly just upsets me is companies allege to help us care for ourselves with products that should make us feel like our best selves, and they want us to patronize them.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And yet they double, triple down, preying on any possible insecurity we might have.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: They tell us that they'll save us from the greatest possible sin, being frizzy.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Manage your curls, tame your curls, smooth out your hair.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: The legacy hair care industry is full of this, and it makes me sick.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: I listed out marketing from all different brands earlier, and I don't want to name anyone, but there's one in particular that takes credit for launching a line four decades ago, specifically with language around being anti-frizz.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: They say proudly on their website that they revolutionized things for, and I quote, once untamable frizzy mains.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: If there's one thing you take away from this episode, please let it be this.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: You are not something to control.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Curly hair is not something to tame or manage.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: It is something to behold.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope everything I'm creating makes this clear.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: You are a work of art.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Curls that move with you, curls that are lived in, curls that are carefree, they're all beautiful and vibrant, like us.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: This idea that Hollywood and the beauty industry perpetuate that your hair should always be hyper-defined, almost wax statue-esque.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's absurd.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, it's also not always real curly hair.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: In episode two, I included part of an interview with a celebrity stylist who told me actually a lot of beauty brands straighten hair and then use a curling iron to get unrealistic ringlets that are all exactly the same.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: But we're not wax statues at Madame Toussaud's.com and Prias.ideas on Instagram.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can sign up for the Myura wait list at MyuraBeauty.com.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's M-A-Y-U-R-A-Beauty.com.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: We launch really soon next month.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Follow the show in your favorite podcasting app.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: I know the algorithm will give it to you anyway, but it really does help us as a small show.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And if you enjoy it, please rate us five stars.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: We are spiraling is hosted by Myura and audio engineered by Citizens of Sound.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Theme music by Love Gun.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to you soon.