Hair Identity.

Since the big cut, I've been thinking a lot about hair and how it defines us (especially in Western culture). Once I had my short hair, I began thinking about how hair can create a persona for us, and make us seem like someone on the outside who we may or may not be inside.

I've had dozens of friends and family-members compliment me on the new hairstyle, so that's helped to reinforce my own happiness with it, but ONE person doesn't like it, and his name rhymes with Shmalex. My own beau of 3.5 years does NOT like short hair, people. He says that my new hairstyle gives me a new persona and a new attitude in a way; somehow it seems to say to him "I'm a strong independent woman and I don't need a man OR hair!" Alex is very pro women's rights and he's not being anti-feminist, but this attitude makes HIM feel un-needed. Somehow having long hair made me seem more girl-friendy. 

I do wish Alex didn't feel this way, but I actually understand what he's saying. Our hairstyles say who we are. I had a friend in one of my classes who started off the semester with brown hair, and mid-way through she went back to her natural blonde. Suddenly she was a whole new person! I realized how much the blonde suited her though--this showed who she really was. I also have a blog-friend who rocks a very short hairstyle (shorter than mine!). I've never met her in person but the first images I saw of her were with her short, pixie-cropped hair. To me, this defined her as edgy, and combined with her yogini status, totally rad clothes and art major, I saw her as very cool, hipster, artsy, and creative. However, when I looked back through her old photos and saw her with elbow-length hair, she appeared to be a totally different person, though she was of course the same inside. 

I went to "work" yesterday to sign some paperwork and submit some documents before my first day, which is on Monday. I waltzed in with a very professional business outfit on and my newly cropped haircut. I think I probably looked a lot more "together" than if I had come in with my long-mermaid curls, which would have still been dripping wet and frizzy from the shower I'd taken 45-minutes before. Instead I came in and was fresh, springy, and certainly youthful, but professional-looking. I think I laid down a different impression. And I would give an even more different impression if I'd come in with pink highlights, or even if I'd come in with red hair or with a pixie-cut. I think we are who we are perceived to be, or we become that. So in that way, our hairstyle (among other things) can inspire us, define us, and maybe in some small ways create us. I guess this fact is part of the underlying reason why I want to donate to PBL. I want all women (regardless of their battles) to be able to define themselves how they want to with their hair.