Hair. It’s on our head. It’s our signature look. It’s what we spend a few extra minutes on in the morning. It’s what we touch-up when we come across our reflection on someone’s car window. A mane that helps us attract mates or intimidate predators. For some of us, it’s just there. For others, its’s not there at all. Whatever your relationship with hair is, you’ve probably had a ‘Bad Hair Day’. But so what?
Hair and Me
Well, I learned on January 1st, 2014 that hair has so much to do with how satisfied I am with my appearance. On that day I had no idea that asking my auntie to cut off my medium-length, heat damaged, and bleach-abused ombre, would be the best decision I made that year. After she blow dried it to perfection I could not stop swishing it around in front of the mirror, admiring how effortlessly it moved, how perfectly it framed my face, how it felt both heavy and weightless at the same time. It was angled perfectly, as though my aunt had crunched out some geometric calculations on a piece of paper before lifting her scissors. I had found my signature look, reached my final form, and It. Felt. Amazing.
Hair and Confidence
Well ever since that magical moment, I’ve been searching hopelessly for that same feeling of blissful harmony. My hair grew out. Lost it’s edge. Literally. The angles were miscalculated, the edges unflattering, I was off balance. My hair is still short because that one haircut convinced me that I’m okay with never having beautiful mermaid hair as long as I can feel the way I did on January 1st, 2014. But somehow no other haircut has matched that one. I know now that having a good haircut has so much underestimated power. I found that while I had a good haircut I felt unstoppable. And when you feel unstoppable about how you look, you feel unstoppable in what you do.
Hair is like armor. And not in the way that you can hide behind it. But in the way that it can make you feel equipped to do anything. I’m not sure what it is about my bangs falling just the right way that makes me feel ready to conquer. Everything else about my look could be on point but if my hair isn’t right, then nothing is. That’s what’s so great and frustrating about hair.
Hair and Happiness
A line from a book I read a few months ago seemed to touch on this hair phenomenon as well. In the young adult novel The Difference Between You and Me by Madeleine George, narrator Esther shares, “My mom always said that you can make someone a better person by giving them the right hairdo. She thought that a lot of people were depressed just because they didn’t know how to do their hair right.” So there you have it, literary proof.
I know it sounds silly. That hair could ever have anything to do with your level of happiness. But there’s something about hair that has of way of making everything right or everything wrong. So hair?? More like AIR, amiright?? Jk. Too far.
Hair and Change
From the media I have seen a pattern within people and their relationship with hair. Usually people change their hair after a major alteration in their lives or while facing a crisis. Whether you choose to shave your head like Britney Spears did while facing a difficult time in her life,
OR you dye your hair blond like Ryan (The Office) after going through a major identity crisis,
OR you get a little bit of highlights like Ann Perkins (Parks and Recreation) after a breakup,
altering your hair may be your own form of acknowledging the complicated moments of life.
OR you dye your hair blond like Ryan (The Office) after going through a major identity crisis,
OR you get a little bit of highlights like Ann Perkins (Parks and Recreation) after a breakup,
altering your hair may be your own form of acknowledging the complicated moments of life.
That’s not to say that if you’ve ever dyed your hair blond, it was probably a way to cope with the panic that time is fleeting and the world will one day inevitably END. Sure, you may have been using your hair to mark the end or the beginning of an era, but sometimes we’re just feeling experimental. I mean just because I have purple highlights doesn’t mean I’m going through a crisis….does it? Well, maybe…But for me change is not only good, it’s necessary. Life is full of routines and routine can dull out our senses. One of the things I can constantly change is the way I look. A new haircut can put a new spring in your step. Parting your hair a different way can make you feel like a brand new person.
I’m not saying hair is everything that defines you. Or that looks define us, because they don’t. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t change our aesthetic, or play with our looks (or should I say locks) to find what makes us feel awesome.
If you’re not 100% happy with your hair at the moment, GET IT CUT or try something new. It will change your life. I guarantee it. And if for some reason your new haircut turns out to be a hot mess, just listen to Regina Spektor’s words in ‘Ghost of Corporate Future’, “It always grows back, hair grows even after you’re dead”
Wishing everyone a good hair week,
Kristal
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