I too hated my wavy/frizzy hair for decades like Diana Spechler (I spent decades straightening my ‘Jewish hair’ – until I realised I was hiding my true self, 5 August). Long, straight hair was fashionable in my youth in the 1960s, so, like Spechler, I pulled, pushed, ironed and generally tortured my hair into straightness.
Unlike hers, straightness was when mine was shiny. But a drop of rain or a damp atmosphere would ruin it – the fringe frizzed up, waves and squiggles appeared, and so I hated rain. Then came Covid and hairdresser-lessness. And I thought, sod it, I’ve fought my curls for 60 years, now let them do their own thing. And everybody told me they loved my curly hair!
Now, another, more expensive decision is here: grey is encroaching. Not beautifully, but a flat, boring grey. I don’t think I can face the faff.
Kate Macve
East Budleigh, Devon
• I used to straighten my hair all the time. I would go to the beauty shop, which was filled with Jewish women and women of colour, and also iron it myself and use many other horrible ways to get the frizz out. As I got older, I changed my hairstyle every few years – going from letting it grow (still straightening it) to letting it frizz naturally to shaving it off and back again in a circle of styles.
The funny thing is that since I have turned grey, people, including young people, will stop me and tell me how great my hair is. So frizzy, long, grey hair seems to be what’s in these days – which is funny to me, because I never followed trends.
Jill Enfield
Newburgh, New York, US
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