I was on the elliptical at the gym – the place where I can justify watching the worst in reality TV – and one of the TVs was tuned to “Millionaire Matchmaker." For those of you who don’t know my history with this show, I hate it. I seriously hate it. I think Patti Stanger is the anti-Christ. She is a horrible human being who plays upon every insecurity women have about themselves. And one of her biggest targets? Curly hair. When she’s interviewing women with curls, coils and waves, she demands that they straighten their hair. She is convinced that men hate curly hair.
Stanger was interviewed in a 2010 New York Times, and it led off with her telling a woman to straighten her hair.
“ 'Today’s going to be tough love with her. She needs to straighten her hair, for one. She can’t get arrested with her rat’s nest.'
"When the client arrived, she perched on one of the...chairs to wait while Ms. Stanger gave a phone interview. Dressed in flared jeans and brown wedge shoes, the client projected a ’70s vibe, enhanced by her hair, a mass of wild dirty-blond curls, and undermined by her French-manicured toenails. After a testy exchange about her hair — 'Is it working for you, the curly hair?' Ms. Stanger queried."
That sent me over the edge, and I wrote Stanger an open letter, challenging her to a debate about the topic. While my request generated a lot of press, the debate never happened. We did receive words of encouragement from men in support of their girlfriends/wives/friends with curls.
Stanger’s attitude goes against everything NaturallyCurly stands for. We encourage people to be confident in who you are and not let others dictate what is beautiful. Even looking at Stanger on TV brought my blood pressure up a few notches!
After 15 minutes, I’d had enough. I switched my attention over to a more high quality show: “Love it or List it” on HGTV.
