Humidity Ruined Taylor Swift’s Blowout, But It Let Her Natural Curls Take Center Stage

Which brave fan is going to step up and start a petition to get hair straighteners banned at from every stadium dressing room in the world? Taylor Swift’s pin-straight bangs and waist-length ends are stunning and everything, but there’s something about a surprise appearance by the singer’s natural curls that just can’t be beat. When the Brazilian humidity transformed her sleek on-stage blowout into a tangle of voluminous ringlets at her second show of the weekend in Rio De Janeiro, she took the concept of her individual eras to the next level — Swift’s curly hair makes her looks exactly like the precocious teen that ascended to superstardom with the release of Fearless in 2009.

When Swift first hit the scene in the music mid-’00s, her buttery blonde corkscrew curls were both an aesthetic calling card and an important part of her image — the natural pattern conferred a visual confirmation of authenticity. She wore the spirals all the way up until 2012, when her Red album pulled her into a sleeker look. She’s worn her hair straight for most major occasions since, but seems to have re-embraced her curls in recent years. On-stage at The Eras Tour, rain, heat, and humidity are always lurking, ready to transform her meticulously-smoothed hair back into teenage mode.

The shift happened almost immediately at night 2 of her first stop in Brazil, where a summertime storm showered the whole stadium in rain before Swift even took the stage. Her curls were already forming by the time she got through the Lover set, reaching their full zenith by the time she was seated at the piano for the Evermore portion of the evening.

Swift fans love the spiral sightings, gushing about the look in assorted comment sections and social media platforms, usually remarking about how much she looks like “the Old Taylor.” Just compare her weather-induced curls with her ubiquitous country-cute ringlets in 2009:

Interestingly enough, though, Swift has said that one of the reasons she doesn’t wear her hair air-dried that often anymore is how her curls have changed with age. “From birth, I had the curliest hair and now it is straight,” she told Elle back in 2019. “It’s the straight hair I wished for every day in junior high.”

Now, with her high-profile glam team and Mother Nature all working on her side, it looks like she can have both styles any time she wants.