Shirley Temple Curls

Originally written by Virginia Allain on February 10th, 2014, the day Shirley Temple died.

I grew up in the nineteen-fifties, but even then, Shirley Temple’s movies inspired little girls. We wanted to be able to sing and dance and have curls like Shirley. We watched her movies over and over, admiring the talented child with the ever-so-cute dimples.

Shirley Temple and her curly hair. 1930s (public domain photo)

One time, my mom attempted to give me Shirley Temple curls. My hair was a bit long for the curly top look. Shirley had 50 adorable ringlets surrounding her sweet face. Mom managed some big sausage curls for me and in the photo, you see the result.

Ginger Martin and the curls. 1950s

Well, that lasted just one day. Somehow it didn’t work with my t-shirt and blue jeans world. I couldn’t sing and dance either. My sister kept wanting to take tap dancing classes, but that wasn’t in the family budget.

My mother had fairly straight hair as a child, but her younger sister, Carol, had the curly look.