Jul 31, 2026 · 7 min · 8 segments
There’s an unwritten dress code across corporate America: everywhere you go, there are secret curlies. We unpack why this isn’t just happenstance, just like how it’s not a coincidence that a…
Priya AnandHost
One woman explained that her manager at Kohl's told her she couldn't come into the store with her natural hair.
Another told me that her career counselor in college said she would not get a job unless she did straightening treatments.
College professors have also told women they need to straighten their hair for the office.
To understand how this whole perception took root, that curly hair is not professional, where did the myth even come from, I interviewed Dr. Midge Wilson.
She studied race, perceived attractiveness, cross-race relationships, and women's issues.
And guess what? She told me that she used to tell her students that they had to straighten their hair to be taken seriously and get jobs.
And she said that she regrets that she had that perspective at one point, and she's so grateful her students didn't listen to her and proved her wrong.
So even someone who has studied these issues and knows the origins was perpetuating this myth inadvertently without thinking about it.
And like I said, she has said that she regrets that and she doesn't spout this myth anymore herself.
Just like how it's not a coincidence that a disproportionate number of CEOs are white men over six feet tall, I found a stat that indicates that about 14.5% of all men in the US are six feet or taller, but among Fortune 500 CEOs, that number is 58% reportedly.
And for so many people, this myth around curly hair and its perceptions sank in so early and that leads the cycle to self-perpetuate.
More people see only one kind of look represented in certain settings and they assume it's the look we should all have.
One woman explained that her manager at Kohl's told her she couldn't come into the store with her natural hair.
Another told me that her career counselor in college said she would not get a job unless she did straightening treatments.
College professors have also told women they need to straighten their hair for the office.
To understand how this whole perception took root, that curly hair is not professional, where did the myth even come from, I interviewed Dr. Midge Wilson.
She studied race, perceived attractiveness, cross-race relationships, and women's issues.
And guess what? She told me that she used to tell her students that they had to straighten their hair to be taken seriously and get jobs.
And she said that she regrets that she had that perspective at one point, and she's so grateful her students didn't listen to her and proved her wrong.
So even someone who has studied these issues and knows the origins was perpetuating this myth inadvertently without thinking about it.
And like I said, she has said that she regrets that and she doesn't spout this myth anymore herself.
Just like how it's not a coincidence that a disproportionate number of CEOs are white men over six feet tall, I found a stat that indicates that about 14.5% of all men in the US are six feet or taller, but among Fortune 500 CEOs, that number is 58% reportedly.
And for so many people, this myth around curly hair and its perceptions sank in so early and that leads the cycle to self-perpetuate.
More people see only one kind of look represented in certain settings and they assume it's the look we should all have.
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