We've seen how self-conscious Buddy is about his curly hair, being a comedy factor in the whole story, but what if it's meant to point out something else about him???
As I was thinking about Punko's amazing storytelling and her detailed way of writing history I thought isn't Buddy seen not liking his curly hair WAYYYY too multiple times in the story, but like way too many times, what if it means something else, like what if it's connected to his backstory and more??? And I searched it up, read some articles and TADAAA I present to you, a theory!!! My first theory btw(: I hope it's enjoyable for y'all!!!
(This having in mind the theory that Buddy somehow has an Irish heritage and that he used to be in 1800 England).
In the 1800s, the perception of curly hair depended entirely on wealth, control, and social class.
From the beginning, curly hair was always seen as a bad thing to have. Even in Europe, curly hair was worn by those with wealthy families to cascade over their expensive crowns and hair clips, but if you were not wealthy, curly hair was a bad thing. For any commoner, curly hair was always neatly tied up in a bun because curly hair meant that you were sinful or there was evil within you. Curly was demonized for those not of money and was seen as something to hide or be ashamed of.
During the Regency and Victorian eras, curly hair was highly fashionable, but only when it was artificial and tightly controlled.
A commoner or poor person had naturally curly hair, it was viewed with deep suspicion.
They believed that a person’s physical traits revealed their inner morality and personality, and so having natural curls was believed to be rebellious and disorganized.
+ Without a comb, water, or oil, curly hair naturally locks and mats into dense clumps over time. This would eventually result in severe, painful matting that could only be remedied by roughly shaving the head with sheep shears or dull knives, a deeply humiliating public marker of destitution.
On the 19th-century streets, coiled hair would immediately subject an orphan to intense racial prejudice, separating them further from any hope of charity.
Upon entering a Victorian workhouse, inmates were subjected to a strict hygiene regime. For a child with heavily tangled or matted curly hair, the staff would not waste time trying to untangle it. They would use dull horse or sheep shears to roughly shave the child's head down to the scalp to eliminate lice (pediculosis).
Walking the streets of London with a crudely cropped or shaved head was an instant giveaway that the child had just come from a workhouse or a prison. It was a badge of ultimate shame that made begging or finding odd jobs even harder, as people assumed the child was a criminal.
In the 1800s, the British elite held deep xenophobic prejudices against the Irish and the Romani (often historically referred to as "Gypsies").
Following the Great Famine in the 1840s, hundreds of thousands of starving Irish immigrated to British cities. British media frequently caricatured the Irish as having dark, unruly, coarse, or curly hair, mapping these traits to a "low, simian (ape-like) intelligence." They would assume they were Irish, triggering immediate hostility and a refusal of charity.
Naturally dark, thick, or curly hair was also strongly associated with Romani travelers. The British public viewed them with romantic fascination in literature but extreme hostility in reality, often accusing them of theft and witchcraft.
So they would think that that person is automatically a thief.
Maybe this is why in the backstory he's seen wearing a flat cap. To look more “respectable”.
Like, um... How we've seen before in the Little Mermaid arc???
This, and adding that he owed money to some “dangerous people” like street gangs..
As such, if someone shouted for the police guess who'll be more “memorable” and what kind of person would a police officer chase after? A curly-haired person. And remember, they HAD to blend in with the crowd.
Upon arrest, street boys were stripped, scrubbed with harsh lye soap that burned the skin, and given a "prison crop." For a curly-haired person, prison guards would use heavy hand-clippers to shear the hair down to the bone.
When released back onto the streets, their stubbly, unevenly shaved scalp would brand him to every detective on the beat as a convicted thief. He would have to lay low until his hair grew back enough to cover his prison scars.
So your social life would be over and people would tell terrible things about them.
Eventually, people with dark curls would be used for “high-risk work” like squeezing through narrow cellar windows to unlock doors from the inside for older burglars.
And, ahem, ahem doesn't that kinda sound like when he broke in THAT time???
I don't know if Punko wrote the story having this in mind but if she really did that'd be
⋆✴︎˚｡⋆cramazing✦ ݁˖ (See what I did there muahahahaha)
I searched for this some months ago so I don't really remember alllllll the articles I got this from but I only relied on Google for this and it was a page of a Barber Shop. Yikes I couldn't find any of those articles... Sorry :(
And um maybe the source of information may not seem so.. reliable but I think this makes a lot of sense so I wanted to share it with you all!!
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