I spent decades straightening my 'Jewish hair' – until I realised I was hiding my true self

I spent decades straightening my 'Jewish hair' – until I realised I was hiding my true self | Diana Spechler

For decades I wrangled my frizz in an attempt to fit in. But amid rising antisemitism, I decided to embrace my identitySometime after 7 October 2023, I decided to stop straightening my hair. For decades, I had employed round brushes and flat irons and smoothing oils in service of wrangling the Jew frizz, spending money I barely had on keratin treatments and Brazilian blowouts.But as swastikas splattered public walls, as bomb threats blasted synagogues, as ancient conspiracy theories rose from the dead, as a congresswoman tweeted “Antisemitism is wrong, but ...”, I examined what I’d been doing: trying to look less Jewish; trying, as perhaps my great-grandparents did, to assimilate. For the first time, I felt the violence in that choice.Diana Spechler is an author and essayist. She writes the newsletter Dispatches from the RoadDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

S ometime after 7 October 2023, I decided to stop straightening my hair. For decades, I had employed round brushes and flat irons and smoothing oils in service of wrangling the Jew frizz, spending money I barely had on keratin treatments and Brazilian blowouts. But as swastikas splattered public walls, as bomb threats blasted synagogues, as ancient conspiracy theories rose from the dead, as a congresswoman tweeted “Antisemitism is wrong, but .

..”, I examined what I’d been doing: trying to look less Jewish; trying, as perhaps my great-grandparents did, to assimilate.

For the first time, I felt the violence in that choice. Jewish hair is not a monolith, but it has long been held against us. In response to the Nazi propaganda that all Jews had dark curls, some tried to pass as Aryan by bleaching their hair.

Other Jews survived the Holocaust by not having dark curls in the first place. Perhaps I inherited the urge to straighten: hide what you are or die. I started to hate my hair when I was going through puberty and it sprouted overnight like a plant in a time-lapse video.

For special occasions, I’d roll it wet into curlers the size of soup cans and cover it with something that looked like a giant white plastic mushroom, which attached to a long coil plugged into the wall that would blast my head with hot air. The contraption was my mother’s from her teen years and she still used it, too. After cooking my hair for hours, I’d unwind the curlers, and watch my hair fall .