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“If you eat the crusts of bread, your hair will curl.”

Context

Dad: When I was growing up, uh, I don’t know if my mom would say this or, somehow we got it in our heads that and it could be folklore that she had, but if you eat the crusts of bread, your hair will curl.

Interviewer: Like just the crust? Like if you eat it off of the bread?

Dad: Um, I think it was like to make sure that you ate your crust. It was sort of like encouragement to eat your crusts of bread. So you were supposed to eat the bread, but also. But particularly don’t don’t forget to eat the crusts of bread ’cause it makes your hair curl.

Interviewer: Did you and your siblings want curly hair?

Dad: Uuuuuh… I was ambivalent about, I wasn’t particularly interested in curly hair. I, in fact at some point in my mind… it warped into, ‘if you eat crusts of bread, your teeth will curl.’ *laughs* And I didn’t know what that meant, but I think routinely would get- if ever I brought that up, it got, you know, someone in the family was around to correct me or remind me, ‘no it’s your har will curl.’ *laughs*

Interviewer: But…So did you avoid eating crusts of bread?

Dad: No, cause I think it must have been introduced to me as my mom te– as like, ‘well… they always say…’ you know, one of those things, and so because I- cause it was framed as, ‘well they always say…’ then I kne — then I didn’t take it as something that actually happens. I took it as… you know

Analysis

As my dad mentioned, it is likely the case that this belief was developed to encourage children to eat the crusts of their bread to get the most nutritional value out of the bread (a belief which is itself folklore) and avoid food waste. This would suggest that the folk group that held this belief valued curly hair, and that my dad was unique in his indifference about the possibility.

My dad’s lack of concern around his hair or teeth being curled is interesting because it suggests a certain type of relationship with folklore. When he refers to the belief as, “it was framed as ‘well they always say…’ him and his mother are both acknowledging the folkloric nature of the belief. My dad’s mother claims deniability by attributing the origin of the belief elsewhere, saving herself from having to take responsibility when neither the children’s hair nor their teeth curl after eating the crusts of bread.