After living the life of a single mother to four kids for 25 years, Helen English has struggled to find the time, energy or money to look after her own needs. 

Long locks of wild, grey curls tumble down to the middle of her back, contained only by a single hair tie sweeping it into a ponytail.

English has the type of “no comb”, frizzy, coarse hair that means even on a good day, her hair is hard to manage. She has battled with anxiety and depression, and some days, she admits she has just given up.

The 58-year-old doesn’t remember the last time she’s had a haircut, let alone mustered the motivation to go to a hairdresser and not for lack of wanting one. 

She lets out a big sigh as she thinks about how long it takes to care for her hair.

“Dear me,” she says. English calculates how much she has spent on her hair and a small laugh escapes.

“Too much,” she says. 

After a particularly hard period, she recalls her hair had become totally and utterly matted from neglect. But there was a day when she managed to summon the courage and energy to face a hairdresser to finally sort it out. 

When she got to the Perth salon, she apologised to the staff for the state of her hair. Thinking back on it now, she thinks this was a mistake. The boss of the salon said they could do it but would charge an extra $65. 

“Come in, spinner, you’re having me on,” thought Helen as she walked out.  “It was a major putdown for a start. It was rude and uncalled for. How about people just do these things from the goodness of their hearts?” she questions. 

At home, it took Helen an entire container of conditioner and a full day to tame her hair. 

As a child, she was teased about her voluminous locks. 

“You’d have a little bit of someone having a dig at you, making slight fun of you and your big frizzy hair,” she recalls.

Not all experiences at the hairdressers have been bad for the mother of four, but their lack of knowledge about curly hair astounds her.  Many simply want to blow dry and straighten her hair without even asking. 

Amanda Rickman has a passion for all things curly, so much so that she feels out of her comfort zone, the straighter the hair gets.  Through her 14 years of experience as a curly hair stylist, she has discovered an interesting correlation between curls and trust. 

“The curlier a person’s hair is, the less likely they are to trust a hairdresser,” Rickman says. 

The Brisbane-based hair artist and educator at Purely Curls says years of not knowing how to control curly hair, not understanding it or loving the way it looks and being bullied take an emotional toll on people.

“We hear some truly devastating stories from clients,” she says. 

“There are people who tie their hair up, put it in a bun or cut it short, then there are others who have chemically straightened, hot ironed or had keratin treatments for years, some since they were children. All of these treatments cause damage to the hair and some are extremely toxic as well.”

The shunning of curly hair is something we see in everyday life.

“Because only Paolo can take this, and this, and give you… A princess.”

This oft-quoted line is from the 2001 classic The Princess Diaries, and it involves the dramatic transformation of Mia Thermopolis from an awkward high school student with big, untamed curls, to a straight-haired, ‘proper looking’ princess. 

From that moment on, it was clear. Straight hair is pretty. Curly hair not so much. 

The anti-curly hair narrative is continued in advertisements showing dry, frizzy and unruly manes converting into shining, pin-straight tresses after some magic hair product and a lack of representation or outright ridiculing in the media. 

It has also cost people their jobs. 

Kaytee Gillis is a rare find in the curly girl community having never straightened her hair. 

Ever since she was little, she knew that she was considered ‘different’. Gillis received attention from adults and children alike. The adults were mainly obsessed with her hair; the kids were not. 

She would see her friends rocking adorable hairstyles like ponytails and braids, but she was never able to do the same. 

When her classmates played with each other’s hair, she was left out – her hair too ‘wild’ for them to touch. 

“I hated it,” she says. 

“I couldn’t do things that my peers could do, such as swim or play sports, without taking extra time to think about and plan for my hair. My friends could take a quick swim or shower after gym class, and I couldn’t do that.”

“It made me feel overly high maintenance at an age when people don’t want to be high maintenance.”

The psychotherapist grew up in New England where most had never seen anything like her highly textured brunette ringlets.

Gillis’s hair genetics did not only cause trouble as a child. As an adult, she was told straightening her hair would look “more professional”. 

This isn’t just an isolated sentiment but a view echoed around the world. 

Black people, especially, are the victims of this discrimination with 94.9% having curly hair. 

In North America, a study found Black women with natural curly hairstyles were seen as “less professional and less likely to be interviewed for a job” than those with straightened hair. This has only recently begun to change.

In 2017, the US Army lifted the ban against natural hairstyles and in 2019, three states became the first to ban discrimination based on hairstyle.

This year, France has been considering following in the States’ footsteps to ban discrimination over the texture, length, colour or style of someone’s hair.

In many schools, although children are taught to be authentically themselves, this is not the case with curly hair. 

In Tokyo, 44.6% of Tokyo’s 177 full-time high schools even require “real hair certificates” to provide evidence that a student’s hair is not naturally straight and black. 

An Australian study found texturism to be a common form of discrimination felt by students with coily, Afro-centric hair. Many students have been asked to take out their braids or cut their afros despite no length restrictions on straight haired students. 

Aside from emotional stress, Gillis feels curly hair has most definitely cost more than having straight hair. 

“I have to pay for products such as special shampoos and different types of conditioners, as well as curl creams and leave-in products to keep the curls hydrated and styled. It’s difficult to estimate, but I can easily spend a few hundred dollars on a haircut and products a couple [of] times a year,” she says.

Gillis thinks there is an issue with hair stylists overestimating their abilities when working with curly hair.

The author says she has never been turned away from a salon.

“I probably should have been,” she says, reminiscing on the numerous bad haircuts she’s had because of this.

Gillis feels the cost of curly haircuts and the lack of curly hair specialists can be deterring for many people who simply can’t afford it and pushes them to go to hairdressers who have not been trained in the art of the curl.

In Perth, the cost of a straight haircut seems to range from $70 to $200. However, for curly hair people, finding a cut anywhere under $100 is extremely lucky and prices can skyrocket past $400. 

Rickman says curly cuts cost more because of the time and training it demands. She explains the advanced training involved in working with curly hair is not cheap.

“I estimate I have probably spent close to $100,000 on curly hair training but it’s my passion,” she says. 

“It’s not just a cut.”

A curly haircut to Rickman involves more than just a simple trim.

For first-time clients, she provides consultation and haircare education to the client, including hair washing and styling techniques. 

“It is quite a niche area still; I’ve been doing curly only for 14 years now and have seen a lot more hairdressers come into the area in that time, but there are still not enough to be able to service all the curly-haired people,” she says. 

Rickman reveals curly hair only needs to be cut once or twice a year rather than every 6-8 weekly for straight hair, meaning the costs could even out. 

“I think the time and financial cost may be similar over the year but having a curly cut is likely to be more expensive at each appointment,” she says.

Iza Clarke, owner and senior stylist at a Perth hair salon, feels ashamed of the salons offering curly cuts for a minimum of $200.

As a curly girl herself, she has struggled to manage her hair due to her duties as a wife, mother, owner and full-time worker. 

In Clarke’s salon, straight haircuts cost $85 while curly cuts are $110. She says she has taken into account that many of her clients are students and may not have permanent visas and tries to make the cuts more affordable. For the curly haircut, the salon includes a 1 to 1.5-hour dry cut, wash and style, including the finger coiling technique and diffusing. 

She says curly cuts end up being more expensive than straight cuts because of a lack of product ranges for curly hair. Iza Clarke Hair and Beauty import all their products from Brazil – Clarke’s home country and one that seems to have a better grip on the curly hair market. 

In this country, hairdressers are obligated to learn the bare minimum about curly hair. 

According to Rickman, the curly hair pro, some salons do not offer curly haircuts for various reasons. 

“I have heard a couple of stylists say [curly hair] makes them feel intimidated, especially when there is not much, if any, education offered to us during hair school/TAFE or even in the salon,” she says. 

Clarke wholeheartedly agrees.

“For me, [this] is really wrong,” she says. 

“I think the fault is in the education, [we] should have more out there and the basics should be included in the hairdressing courses.”

Currently, Rickman says curly hair is not a part of the Australian curriculum despite data showing more people having some sort of kink through to coils than straight hair.

But Rickman thinks there is a long way to go with moving curly hair into mainstream education. 

“Until such time [as] this happens, curly hair training will continue to be advanced education that stylists pursue out of their own interest,” she says.

Despite her love of curls, Rickman still feels curly and straight cuts shouldn’t cost the same unless the same amount of time and effort has gone into the service. 

“Cutting curly hair is completely different and can be more complex than cutting straight hair,” she says.

English has two sons with such tight ringlets she calls the style “the Irish fro”. When asked if she thinks curly haircuts and straight haircuts should cost the same, she responds with, “Too right.”

“I don’t think you should be charged extra just for having curly hair.”

She feels hairdressers should be able to cover a range of techniques to service Australia’s diverse hair needs. 

She would like to see no one, no matter their race, gender, curl type or whatever it may be, turned away from a salon. She sees a haircut as a basic right and it alarms her that curly hair education is not a part of Australia’s hairdressing curriculum. 

She feels hairdressers should be compassionate, especially when dealing with what people might going through, because hair care can be a strong reflection of their emotional state. Curl types also vary, and she wishes more hairdressers were understanding of that.

In another life, she wonders if she would have been a hairdresser.