A Rom-Com Retrospective: Where Have All The Curls Gone?
the rise and fall of main character curls
It’s February again. The month of Black History, the Grammys, Super Bowl Sunday, NBA All-Star weekend, and of course, Valentine’s Day. It’s the unofficial holiday that conjures up delight or fear in the hearts of many young women. I’ve been single my entire life, so Valentine’s Day for me is primarily an excuse to rewatch all my favorite rom-coms. Think Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’ Diary, The Holiday. I love British humor and British accents. Sue me! The common thread between my favorite rom-coms is that they were released years, sometimes decades, before I was born. Modern rom-coms just don’t hit the same. Sure, you could blame it on streaming, studios, and audiences, but I raise another culprit – the loss of rom-com women with very big curls.
The movies, and specifically rom-coms, play a huge role in how we see ourselves which is why it’s so important that they’re diverse. Everyone should be able to see themselves represented in a rom-com regardless of their race, gender, and sexuality. Rom-coms are there to comfort us and remind us that love is well and alive even in the darkest of times. However, it’s not very comforting to turn on a rom-com in the hopes that it’ll cheer you up just to be faced with the reminder that you aren’t attractive according to Hollywood because your DNA decided you’d be born and burdened with curly hair.
Every curly-haired girl has been traumatized by the makeover scene in The Princess Diaries where Anne Hathaway’s curls are straightened to take her from “ugly” to “beautiful.” The message that curly hair isn’t attractive is very disheartening coming from a Disney movie meant for children. From a scarily young age, we’re conditioned to believe our curly hair isn’t beautiful and that we have to straighten it for any kind of chance at a romantic life and professional success down the line.
Growing up, I loved my curly hair, but as I got older, something changed in me, and I took every opportunity I got to moan about how much I hated it and how badly I wanted straight hair. All my friends had straight hair, and I figured it must be so nice to wake up in the morning and only require a quick brush before you could go about your day. My morning hair care routine, on the other hand, took forever. I needed water, leave-in conditioner, hairspray, mousse, custard, gel, the list goes on. My curly hair routine still looks like this, and even after all of that, I always end up putting my hair into a tight, low bun so that I don’t have to think about it until it’s time for me to shower before bed. The closest I’ve gotten to embracing my curls is through old rom-coms, but at the end of the day, it’s hard to ignore that they are old rom-coms. That kind of hair on women may have been desirable at the time, but the rom-coms of today seem to sell the message that they aren’t anymore. What changed?
When I think of curly hair romantic leads with killer comedy chops, there are three women that come to mind – Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts, and Sarah Jessica Parker. Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts are to rom-coms as Jamie Lee Curtis and Neve Campbell are to slashers. Ryan and Roberts, as well as their gorgeous hair, have been synonymous with the rom-com genre for decades now. Rom-coms have existed since the 1930s, but Ryan and Roberts became the face of the modern-day raunchy romantic through the string of successful rom-coms that kicked off their careers. Meg Ryan with her big blonde curls is best known for her collaborations with iconic rom-com writer Nora Ephron in films like When Harry Met Sally…, Sleepless in Seattle, and You’ve Got Mail. Julia Roberts rose to fame with Steel Magnolias and Pretty Woman, and the photos of her in an oversized Armani suit to pair with her big red curls at the 1990 Golden Globe Awards are my daily curly-girl inspiration. She kept that hairstyle for My Best Friend’s Wedding in 1997 and Runaway Bride in 1999 (although her movie star character in Notting Hill notably had straight hair, perhaps to better separate the character from Robert’s own movie-star status). Then, there’s Sarah Jessica Parker, a household name for her role as the iconic, curly-haired Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City which ran from 1998 to 2004. Sex and the City doesn’t work without its iconic fashion topped off by its characters’ flawless hair, especially Carrie’s big blonde curls bouncing around New York City.
Unfortunately, in typical, misogynistic Hollywood fashion, the rom-com lead roles for these women have largely dried up and with them seems to have gone the days of big curls on the women of the rom-com genre. During the 2000s, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Garner, and Renée Zellweger became the rom-com mainstays, and their curly-haired counterparts like Kate Hudson and Nicole Kidman ditched their curls of the ‘90s for straighteners at the turn of the century.
The most iconic rom-com men like Billy Crystal, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Jude Law, and Heath Ledger have great curls as well, but there’s really no comparing how hair has evolved for men in the genre since most male actors these days would rather take a role in the latest Marvel or Star Wars movie than be “reduced” down to a rom-com that will inevitably head straight-to-streaming and leave public consciousness almost immediately as it arrived.
It would be remiss not to acknowledge that most rom-coms these days are sent to Netflix to die. The biggest rom-com successes have been Crazy Rich Asians, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, and Anyone But You (all great films that I highly recommend watching to scratch your modern-day rom-com itch). However, nearly every other rom-com of the past decade or so that by some miracle received the green light to be made has been frighteningly forgettable and often just plain bad.
Maybe the key to making rom-coms memorable and fun again is simply to bring back the curls of the ‘80s and ‘90s. This is obviously oversimplified, but I do think there could be some truth to it. You have to start with a great screenplay, but from there, it’s really the actors and their chemistry that makes or breaks one of these films. When I think of a Nora Ephron film, my mind immediately goes to the silhouette of Meg Ryan’s head of curls, being tousled around in confusion or frustration as she sits writing at her computer, cooking in her comically large and organized Nora Ephron kitchen, or faking an orgasm in the middle of a diner. When I think of Julia Roberts’ rom-com reign of the ‘90s, I think of her red curls demanding my attention as the physical embodiment of her charisma and chemistry regardless of the character she is playing. I certainly think of Hugh Grant’s curls as the appeal of Notting Hill or Bridget Jones’ Diary and Jude Law’s curls as the appeal of The Holiday, so maybe that is the key. Rom-coms are nearly always about looking at pretty people fall in love in funny ways and whether they have fun curls to look at while they do so is equally important, at least to me.
Hollywood won’t like this, but the solution to bringing back the rom-curls is more diversity when it comes to rom-com leads. 2023’s Rye Lane (notably dropped on Hulu) starred two Black British leads with great hair in David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah and just so happened to be one of the most memorable modern rom-coms I’ve seen in years. Ayo Edebiri recently did a wonderful red-carpet nod to her After the Hunt co-star Julia Roberts at the 2025 Golden Globes, red curls and all. Maybe Black hair could very well be the future of the rom-com and rom-curl renaissance. Maybe all we need to do is cast Ayo Edebiri in a rom-com!
The movie industry has failed the curly girls, and these days, I find myself getting my curly hair inspo from pop stars like Chappell Roan and Charli XCX who have normalized being unapologetic about your big curls no matter how colorful and untamed they are. They’ve made me love my curls again, but I’m still yearning for the day the movies make me feel the same.
fellow curly gurly, resonated with this so much. still learning to love my hair...it's hard...
Love this! I just wrote about PICTURE THIS, and I really appreciated that they let Simone Ashley have curly and slightly frizzy hair!