DistantNews
Support us
🇲🇽 Mexico /Culture & Society

The debate over curls: How trends shape ideas about beauty and elegance

From El Universal · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Curly hair has gained prominence in media and fashion, with figures including Danna, Kenia OS and Princess Leonor appearing with naturally textured styles.
  • Actress Andrea Chaparro criticized the contradiction of celebrating curls as a trend after fashion spaces historically treated similar features as insufficiently elegant.
  • She questioned who decides when traits once stigmatized become beautiful and commercially acceptable.

Curly hair is enjoying a high-profile moment in fashion and entertainment. Natural textures now appear in magazine covers, editorial campaigns and international runways, worn by celebrities such as Danna and Kenia OS and by members of royal families such as Princess Leonor.

But actress Andrea Chaparro says the new enthusiasm for curls raises an uncomfortable question: why are features once rejected suddenly considered fashionable? The discussion intensified after The Walk published an Instagram post titled “Why does everyone want to be Chinese now?” Chaparro commented, “Remember when they weren’t classy enough? I guess trends do change.”

Remember when they weren’t classy enough? I guess trends do change.

· Andrea ChaparroShe commented on The Walk’s Instagram post questioning the sudden popularity of curly hair.

She later explained that her point was not to challenge anyone’s right to wear curly hair. Curly textures exist among many populations, she acknowledged. Her criticism focused on the editorial spaces that once rejected those features and now celebrate them when commercial trends give them value.

When you’re a brown woman, conventionally beautiful, but you work in fashion and entertainment, you receive these things, and you start asking yourself what ‘classy’ means.

· Andrea ChaparroShe reflected on being told during a fashion shoot that her natural hair was not elegant enough.

Chaparro recalled a revealing experience during a fashion magazine photo shoot. While other models received wigs with large curls to create an editorial look, members of the production team tried to alter her natural hair. They told her it was “not elegant enough” and lacked the “class” required by the client’s concept.

“When you’re a brown woman, conventionally beautiful, but you work in fashion and entertainment, you receive these things, and you start asking yourself what ‘classy’ means,” she said. Academic studies from Mexico’s National Autonomous University have linked Western beauty standards to the idea that straight hair signals professionalism and social distinction, while tightly curled or curly textures appear “unpolished” or “outside the norm.” Specialists at CONAPRED say markets can absorb historically stigmatized traits as temporary trends, stripping them of their cultural and social context. Chaparro’s central question was, “Who decided that it would be beautiful now?”

Who decided that it would be beautiful now?

· Andrea ChaparroShe questioned the fashion industry’s power to determine when historically stigmatized features become desirable.
About this summary

Originally published by El Universal in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog