Is a Woman's Hair Vanity or Identity?

Guys, just over a week ago, the world witnessed Will Smith lose his cool at the Oscars when he walked on stage and slapped fellow actor and comedian, Chris Rock, because he did not appreciate the comedian's particular brand of humor on the night of his crowning achievement- an Oscar's for his role in the acclaimed biopic, King Richard.

Since then, a lot has been said about the incident, some people speaking up in Will's defence, others standing up on Chris Rock's behalf, pointing out that he was simply performing his job as a comedian and daring to do what many comedians do when on stage- roast his audience.

The joke: Chris Rock compared Will's wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, to GI Jane. And if you don't get the comparison, well, Jada's got close cropped hair as a result of alopecia, and here's a clip from the movie...

Now, guys, I am not here to add to the debate about whether any or both of the gentlemen were wrong, and I am certainly not going to pontificate about how traumatized or triggered I may or may not have felt because of the incident.

Listen, I live inner city, and so, not to take away from anyone else's outrage, of course, but for me, well, to quote Kourtney Kardashian...

Today though, I'd like to focus instead on another general question, using this issue as a launching point, so that we can discuss a broader topic: whether a woman's association with her hair is vanity or if it's part of her identity. Let's discuss.

A Woman's Crown

Traditionally, for females, long hair has been associated with beauty.

In the Roman era, for example, hair was deemed to be erotic, and a woman's attractiveness was tied to the presentation of her hair. Hair was an indication of wealth and status.

In Greek culture, slaves wore short hair while ladies wore their long and in elaborate styles. Women of status only shaved their hair as a sign of sorrow.

In the Bible, 1 Corinthians 11: 15, it stated: "But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering."

Long hair has been a standard of beauty for women for as far back as we can remember.

Culturally, women have been taught that attractive hair is long and straight or wavy, and the curlier and closer cropped it is, the uglier the person. In the New World- North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean, for example, where Blacks and European communities intersected, there arose a good hair/ bad hair dichotomy.

In addition to this paradigm, there was the issue of masculinity and femininity. A woman with long hair was deemed to be feminine whereas if a woman chose to cut her hair, for example she was labelled as too manly.

In the 2019 article, Why are all the men in my life so angry about my short hair, professor of social anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, Dr. Alexander Edmonds notes that hair acts as a marker of gender identity, so that when women choose to subvert this, they are seen as a threat. Author of the article, Parisa Hashempour, also states: "We are socialized to believe that when we cut off our hair, we are mutilating our femininity."

All of this as recent as 2019.

Hair Options in 2022

In 2022, liberated women are making statements about their beauty, some choosing to wear close cropped hair, some opting to cut it all off. Some women are choosing to wear protective braid extensions, others are choosing wigs, weaves. The opportunities are immense.

And so, in 2022, when a woman chooses to wear a bald hairstyle, she makes a statement, and that statement is that her hair does not define her femininity or her beauty and she knows it.

It is important to note though the decision to crop one's hair short may not simply be because of cosmetics, it could be due to some other underlying factor such as illness.

Hair Loss due to Illness

There are many factors that can cause hair loss or alopecia. Cancer and chemotherapy, for example, is one factor. Stress, age, hormones are other factors. One cannot therefore take it for granted that a woman sporting a close cropped hairstyle or choosing to wear wigs or weaves, for example, is doing so willingly, as confident or defiant as she may seem to be.

Is it Vanity or Identity?

My takeaway is that hair is not a costume, and for many women, it's part of who they are. Of course, some women may be more liberated than others, and that's great for them. But everyone is not the same, and even among liberated women, every day, every moment is not the same.

For example, I would hazard a guess that among my female readers, there are some of you who can relate to having moments when you feel like you can't face the world because of a bad hair day. I've certainly had those moments, and I'm not a public figure, I can let my mask slip. I don't have to wear a thousand watt smile all the time.

I think when it comes to public figures, sometimes the world grows so accustomed to scripts and smiles, they forget that beneath all of that packaging is a real human being.

And so, guys, to wrap it up, I will reiterate that I am not here to hold forth on Will and Chris, I will speak only on hair- not from the perspective of the gallant lover running to rescue his fair maiden's honor or from the perspective of the other party who's got a job to do and is on stage like...

I'm not here to speak on those two men.

I'm here for the hair.

Some years ago, I lost my hair following an accident, and that experience was traumatizing, so much so that decades later, even though my hair has grown back, I still have insecurities about it. Little ole me, and I ain't a movie star.

And so, my friends, I'll close with a statement my economics teacher often repeated to us in class: If you could choose to be anything in this world, choose to be kind, all right?

That's it for me, guys. I hope you have a great day.

Source:

https://world4.eu/hairstyles/

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hair-history-why-hair-is-_b_5567365

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_hairstyles

https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/11-15.htm

https://www.cdblondon.com/blogs/ends-tips-tricks/good-hair-vs-bad-hair#:~:text=When%20people%20say%20good%20hair,is%20coarse%20or%20tough%20hair.