Taapsee Pannu: ‘For the longest time every director wanted me to straighten my hair’ | Interview

In an interview with Hindustan Times, Taapsee Pannu admitted that she had a tough time initially in her film career because of her curly hair.

Actor Taapsee Pannu, who has never shied away from speaking her mind, has now come forward to open up about facing a difficult phase at the start of her film career due to her curly hair, revealing it often led to stereotyping. She revealed that she was frequently asked to straighten her hair, as filmmakers believed glamour and sex appeal were synonymous with straight hair.

Directors' request to Taapsee

In an interview with Hindustan Times, Taapsee admitted that she had a tough time initially in her film career because of her curly hair, with directors stereotyping her as rebellious or asking her to straighten it.

“For the longest time every director wanted me to straighten my hair because they believed the idea of glam sexy hair is only straight hair,” Taapsee tells us.

The Baby actor continues, “Curly hair was only for rebellious characters and not the good girl roles. I obviously didn’t know any better that time so I agreed to whatever the vision of the director is. Slowly when I learnt how to handle and manage my hair… My hair started showing me love in return and the way I carried them slowly made a lot of directors realise how it’s a unique blessing and now every one who I work with wants to retain my curls in any look or character.”

On being told to straighten her hair

It wasn’t just film directors who urged her to straighten her hair; brand companies, too, asked her to do away with her curls, a request that left her baffled.

“For years, I’ve been on a lookout for a brand who would want to partner with me and my hair. I’ve only been disappointed because all hair brands who showed interest in partnering with me wanted me but not my curly hair,” says the actor, who recently teamed up with Dove for its new campaign, Reclaim Your Curls.

“They wanted to straighten my hair and then shoot. For them the idea of beautiful hair in India was not curly hair and it left me disheartened for a very long time. There were only a few start ups who were doing things for curly hair but at a very small scale because the Indian market apparently never encouraged curly hair under the pretense of being not so healthy or glamourous.”

Here, she clarified that it was she who had approached the brand for an association, and not the other way around.

On embracing her curls

Taapsee admits that embracing her natural curls didn’t come easily to her. There was a phase in her life when she disliked that part of her personality and struggled to accept it.

“It’s been a long journey of hits and misses, trial and error. For most of my growing up years, I disliked my hair because I didn’t see many people around me who had curly hair,” says Taapsee, who was last seen in Mudassar Aziz's Khel Khel Mein. The film also starred Akshay Kumar, Vaani Kapoor, Ammy Virk, Aditya Seal, Pragya Jaiswal and Fardeen Khan.

“So, I always thought having curly hair was abnormal. Moreover, no one knew how to take care of curly hair so the process of hair care was very painful and never gave me good results. So, I kept hating my hair and tried straightening it multiple times until I realised I will never be able to get rid of them so I should rather try and understand them. That made me dive deep into understanding how curly hair is probably a blessing only if you understand how to take care of them and what kind of products to use. It took me years of self learning and research but what I see today makes me feel it was totally worth it,” she shares.