Sometimes you see Buddha with snails on his head that look like curls. I believe these are because there is a legend where the Buddha was lost in the desert and all these snails came to him and covered his head to shield him from the sun. I think this is correct, but I could be wrong.
Here is a link to the column the OP is commenting on.
My gut feeling is that the snail story was a mistaken interpretation of curly-haired portraits.