Famous Fears Fear Not

Dear Big Hair: I don't need advice, but I have a question you might be able to answer: Do famous actresses have straight hair because they're famous, or do they get famous because they have straight hair? Put another way, do you have to straighten your hair to become famous (as an actress), or, once you're famous, is it just understood that you'll straighten your hair? A related question is, Can you think of any actresses whose "before" hair is straight while her "after" hair is curly? I can't. --Not Wanting to Become Famous; Just Wondering

Dear Not Wanting to Become Famous; Just Wondering: That you do want to become famous is evident from the question. Your uncertainty about your abilities to do so is evident in your name, which straddles two identities, not wanting to commit to anything too wholehearted. Fear not, you curly-haired woman. There is plenty of room for you in Hollywood. You are forgetting the many curly-haired women who have come to our screen. Most recently would be Kate Hudson, of Almost Famous fame and of that other movie about her being an aunt to two kids she inherits and doesn't want (yeah, I know, you didn't see it, like I didn't and like so many others). In the seventies, there was Shirley Henderson or whatever her name was, the woman who played the owner of the diner on What's Happening? Now those were some curls. More impressive than her, though, is the greatest actress of ALL TIME, Shirley Temple, who was absolutely famous for her curls. What would she have been without them? (I will admit that curls tend to go better on the kid actresses, but if you're relatively young--say under twenty-five--you should have no problem squeezing into roles down to age ten.) As for whether I can think of any actresses who curled their hair in fame when they had straight hair before fame, the answer is I haven't know any actresses before they became famous. Do you think I'm a stalker or something?

And let's not forget the many fine actors with curly hair as well, like Carrot Top.