Utah curls
Plural noun
long, loose curls with straight and relaxed ends
What does Utah curls mean?
Utah curls refers to long, loose curls—usually created with a curling iron with a clamp—with straight and relaxed ends.
Examples of Utah curls
But there’s a uniformity to their appearance that goes beyond the matching blue coats they wear in the show's [The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives] title sequence. Their hair is often waist-length and styled into gentle “Utah curls”; their lashes are long and fluttery; their outfits hit a high-low balance even a fashion editor like me can’t ignore.
—Halie LeSavage, Marie Claire, 1 May 2025
Overall, I liked my Utah curls, but they weren’t my favorite hairstyle. I’m much more into a sleek, bouncy blowout achieved with my Dyson Airwrap, but this worked for me — especially for a second-day look. I think this hairstyle looks best on medium-length to super-long hair. I’ve seen it done on short hair, but in my opinion, it doesn’t quite have the same effect, especially if the hair is layered.
—“Utah curls” are traditional curls finished off by a straightener so that the ends of the curls are pin-straight.
—Alyssa Grenfell first encountered “Utah curls” in the early 2010s when she started at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, the higher-education flagship for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Grenfell had grown up outside Utah and straightened her hair with a flat iron all through high school. “Going to college at BYU was the beginning of curling my hair in that specific way,” says Grenfell.
—
Where does Utah curls come from?
Utah curls are so named due to their prevalence in the state as well as the popularization of the hairstyle by cast members of such reality television shows as The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
How is Utah curls used?
As a plural noun, although sometimes the hairstyle itself is referred to as Utah curl (as in “the Utah curl”) or simply Utah hair.
McKenzie Anderson, an Ogden hairstylist based who has been working in the industry for five years but has had a love for the profession since high school, talked to The Salt Lake Tribune about what she knows about the Utah curl.
—They’re called beach curls. I think it’s stupid that they’re acting like they invented this and I will never refer to that look as Utah hair.
—
More Slang Words
See All
