Read on Twitter
CelHAIRbration. A hate / love story spanning 5 decades of style, fashion, music and everything else in between...
I was bald and had little hair for ages. I tell every mum fretting over their kids lack of locks. Look at my hair. Don't worry. It will come!!
I was bald and had little hair for ages. I tell every mum fretting over their kids lack of locks. Look at my hair. Don't worry. It will come!!
1976 like any little girl I loved dolls. THEY were perfect, white skin, long blonde hair. My dolls didn't look like me, nor any girl on tv, movies, in magazines or books. But. I had my mum. The MOST beautiful woman in my eyes. Her style and fashion ahead of her time.
1977 I claimed Hawaiian connections. The only beautiful brown girls on tv were in the Elvis Presley movies, like Blue Hawaii. Flower in hair brushed down flat AS POSSIBLE. It now touched my shoulders. EEK! But it was stiff and frizzy and didn't blow in the wind like the movies.
1978 was when I really hated my hair. The other girls at school had easy to brush & braid hair. I had a mop. It was brushed out, half fro, half bob. I never looked in the mirror because i hated seeing it. The kids teased me saying my hair attracted nits.
1983. Hair getting THICKER. CURLIER. Agh. I'd never look like Olivia Newton John In Xanadu. Damn. But I figured I could skate like her. The hair was defying gravity. Higher, rounder. Gah. as round as my chubby face. Mirror avoidance at its peak here.
1985 Despite a LARGE Indigenous population NO ONE in Cairns could style curly hair. I was at the famous stalagmite (um yep) Caravella Salon. My hair was styled into THE MOST massive fro. I ran to the toilet crying. I WAS SCARRED. NEVER to return to a hairdresser for 17 years
1986-87 Whitney Houston! Her curly wig in I wanna Dance with Someone CHANGED. MY. LIFE. So did 80s fashion. Bold. Experimental. helped cover my hair. Plus Babakiueria and The Fringe Dwellers. I actually saw Aboriginal people on tv and on the big screen. I didn't feel so different
1989 I loved the thought of long hair. But hot fnq summers & unruly knotts worked against me. I liked the short tom boy look. Think Yazz: the only way is up. The fashion if possible got even more bold. I designed that dress myself 
Own hair(of course) & makeup. IT WAS THE 80s!
Own hair(of course) & makeup. IT WAS THE 80s!
1990-1993 I didn't think about my hair I was too busy partying at Uni. But I felt good about it. So many hair idols, Janet Jackson, Salt n Peppa, Soul II Soul. my sis has tight curly hair. she grew it long. Respect to the hours of work that meant 
1994-1999 just when I thought I had learnt to like my hair. I worked as a journalist on tv. Couldn't have curly hair while reporting. Nooo. Couldn't look too ethnic. Gasp. So slicked back, Sade style.
On weekends i'd let my poor hair out for a well earned break from the thick gel goop that kept every strand in place. All because a curly haired brown woman on tv might IDK send TVs & viewers into meltdown. Anyway It was free. Touching the shoulders even! Scary Spice inspired
Scary Spice inspired
2000 I started to love my curly hair! A radio job meant no appearance pressures + great hair products for curly hair finally arrived from its 2 decade long journey by ship from America. WTF. Oz was so backward. still not touching foot in a salon I bleached my own hair, orange 
2002 hubby gave me a gift voucher to a hair salon as an anniversary present! He didn't know my traumatic hair journey. I hadn't step foot in a salon since that fateful day in 1985. I cried the night before my appointment. Bless my poor confused Hubby.
I went to the appointment. I decided to tackle my salon demons. She straightened it. After all these years, I got what I would lie in bed crying hours for as a little girl. Straight hair. And. I hated it. So did hubby. It wasn't me. I've never been back to a salon again
My niece did a major Uni essay. A montage of photos & women loving their curly hair. It's an affirmation of our culture, identity, uniqueness, beauty. IT IS EVERYTHING. And so we owe it to little brown girls with curly hair to see themselves MORE on tv, movies, mags & books.
Crazy. Unruly. Mind of its own. Can't comb it. Often don't brush it. Thick. Knotty. Don't care. I LOVE my curly hair.
