The first time I became aware of what my hair looked like was when I was ten years old in a suburban Applebees. The waitress turned to me and asked “What would you like to drink young man?” I was shocked. No one had ever in my ten years of life ever mistaken me for a boy, including that one time I was covered head to toe in mud. Then again I should have realized shearing off two feet of hair in a fit of my own brilliance would have altered my appearance just a little bit. I thought it was nothing when I still held the scissors. And I basically just did not want to deal with the extra length sticking to my face and neck anymore during the hottest summer of my life. But how embarrassing was it for little ten year old me to just sit there looking at this waitress who had no idea that she had just mistaken my gender and not say a word. Thankfully my mom swooped in and …show more content…
I took one piece of the front of my hair and dyed it purple. I thought it would look cool and it did… for the two days that I had it. Unbeknownst to me, my school vice principal did not approve of crazy hair colors. Within the first hour after I had walked into school with my head held high and a purple streak in my hair, I landed myself in her office. She began scolding me on how “distracting” and “offensive” my hair was to the others around me but mostly to her. And once again I found myself in the exact same situation as in that Applebees from years ago. My identity was being questioned and insulted because of how my hair looked. I was forced to get rid of the purple or risk having detention every day until it faded. I never tried another crazy color again. This experience basically confirmed what I always suspected. My hair was what people first saw me as. My hair was my first impression to those around me. I believed if I took good care of my hair and put in the effort, others would have good opinions of
The students always picked on my hair because it was nappy or because it was too greasy. So I always felt that if I started wearing weaves that individuals would stop making fun of my hair. I’ve always thought to myself why hair, skin, or clothes has to define who we are as a
The search for one’s identity can be a constant process and battle, especially for teenagers and young adults. Many people have a natural tendency to want to fit in and be accepted by others, whether it be with family, friends or even strangers. They may try to change who they are, how they act, or how they dress in order to fit in. As one gets older, society can influence one’s view on what they should look like, how they should act, or how they should think. If society tells us that a certain body type or hair color is beautiful, that is what some people strive for and want to become in order to be more liked. This was especially true with Avery as she longed for the proper clothes to fit into a social group and began to change the way she spoke to match those around her. As a young and impressionable sixth grader, she allowed herself to become somewhat whitewashed in an attempt to fit in with the other girls. However, Avery did not really become friends with any of those girls; her only real friend was
In my personal experience I grew up in small town, Tolono, where most of the people are Caucasian and speak English. In third grade we received a new girl to our school and whenever a new student joined our class I was always very welcoming. The new young lady spoke English but was from a different culture. One day in the library I was reading a book with the new girl and some other friends; it was a book on the body and health. The book had all sorts of interactive fold out pages with actual examples. I picked up one of the hair piece examples to show everyone in the group. The hair piece that I picked up that I thought was from the book turned out to be a removeable dread lock from the new girls’ hair that had fallen out. At that time for me I had no clue what a dread lock was or how it could have possibly come from her hair. I am sure my body language and facial expression was an expression of shock and puzzlement,
inundated with this idea of what “good hair” is, to the point that it seemed natural to force that same ideal upon me.
Throughout the years we see different trends, styles, and taste's that apply to what society accepts as attractive at their moment. Some people choose more conservative looks whereas other generations were far more liberal in their way of dressing and styling their hair. In order to understand why people would choose certain hairstyles in the 1980's it is important to know more about that year for example,who were the top celebrities or other famous people that had a major influence on society during that time. We know that most fashion and hair trends come from artists in the music industry because they play a major role in everyone's life. People will listen to their music and watch their music videos which will serve as
At a young age, I already internalized so much self-hatred because of the color of my skin and hair. I struggle with this immensely since I’d watch Disney movies, that only popularize one racial demographic, and the only person that I could semi look up to was Princess Jasmine from Aladdin. But there was no real representation of minorities when I was growing up, so I strived like any other person would to be a Disney princess. I always asked my mom to put weave in my hair or do something with it, so I could have long flown hair like Princess Ariel, from The Little Mermaid movie, or strive to look as beautiful as Princess Aurora when she was sleeping. And I continued to struggle with these ideas that what is beautiful was to be white. And I just couldn 't comprehend at the time, that I was already beautiful just the way I am. It wasn’t until I got to high school, where I somewhat shed these ideas on what was beautiful. I just realized that the media and the movies are essentially fake and photoshopped. And the models for the tv and magazines were too boney and hungry. I got used to my curves and by the body by that time. But I didn’t really show forth pride for my melanin nor color. I just accepted the fact that I was black and born that way. I didn’t realize how rich and important my color is as well as my culture. It was until I started school, here in the University of Boston,
“Listen as your day unfolds. Challenge what the future holds. Try and keep your head up to the sky. Lovers may cause you tears. Go ahead, release your fears. Stand up and be counted. Don't be ashamed to try.”
In the short story ‘growing my hair again’, the author explains how women in the African traditions are held captive by the traditional culture and their struggles to trying to break away them using the main character Nneka. In Nigeria as well as in the other parts of Africa, culture was and still is given a lot of emphasizes especially when it comes to the traditional practices and beliefs. The culture however vary from one community to the other and ranges from the rights of passage, religious beliefs to other religious practices such as offering sacrifices and the role of women in the community .Nneka was married to a rich man in traditional Nigerian community and as in other areas, women had a role of being submissive to their husbands
In my 8th grade year I have been verbally bullied because of my certain appearance and background. This exactly how people distinguished me mushroom style haircut, my skin color is yellow with a tint of brown resemblances to stereotypical Asians, short looking guy, and a bit chubby. I am being mistreated and gradually stereotyped just because of my looks and facial structure that I have inherited from both of my parents, but mostly my father. Certainly, it only took time when I’m being called Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Godzilla, those name calling merely affected me, but the way they had said and expressed it as if they have hatred for the Asian immigrants. I had just about enough I conformed cut off my hair and I spiked it up, tanned so my skin would appear darker, and I started to practice my English speaking so people would not identify me with
Each sex is treated differently for a naturally occurring body process. As discussed, body hair is viewed as masculine, leading to the assumption that women should be hairless and men should wear their body hair with pride. It is clear that society uses hair to label individuals as either male or female (Toerien and Wilkinson, 2003). In addition, male hair is associated with strength and power (Toerien and Wilkinson, 2003). So how come when women display body hair they are shamed, but men are encouraged to grow it? Hope (1982) elaborates that the term, “feminine, when applied to lack of body hair, implies a child-like status, as opposed to the adult status afforded men” (as cited in Toerien and Wilkinson, 2003). That being said, body hair is another way in which society ranks men as the superior gender by making women conform to the hairless normative. A study conducted by Tiggemann and Hodgson (2008), asked women why they practice hair removal. After completing a questionnaire with different statements to evaluate different factors such as normativity, sexual attractiveness, femininity and self-enhancement, they found significant support in all four types of factors for hair removal of the underarm, leg and pubic area. Additionally, they can found that one item pertaining to males preferring a hairless body, was the only one linked to two factors: normativity and sexual attractiveness. It is evident with their findings that women tend to follow the socially constructed normative for many reason, including to please men. The idea is that women have to change their bodies not only to be accepted by society, but they also do so to be accepted by men. Nonetheless, the must make is seem natural and effortless to uphold the beauty allure. In recent years, depletion of male body hair has become popular. In a study performed by Boroughs, et al. (2005), they found that men removed
I was one of those women. My hair has an energy, personality, and life of her own. I refer to my hair as "she" because, although by technical definition my hair is not a separate living being, and although I have no proof of her life to show others, I know that she not only grows and reproduces (two characteristics by which many measure life), but she responds to stimuli, shows emotions, and can reason.
I feel that as a child there are many signs that clearly tell you that you are either a boy or a girl. When I was younger and I started primary school we were told to stand in the boys line if you were a boy and to stand in the girls line if you were a girl , then we were told to stretch our arms to keep some space between each other and then shortly after we were told that ladies were the first to enter , which a
Megan Oakes Ms. Wolters English 10 H 9/16/14 Hair: A School or Personal Choice? The issue of whether hairstyles are a choice to be made by the school or by students is an issue that has been a fierce topic of debate lately. More and more people are stating that they are not opposed to hair dye, long hair, or other unique hair styles.
Anybody that knows me knows that my passion and goals in life have to deal with fashion. If I could be anything in this world I would love to be a designer of some sort or at least be in the industry. When it comes to clothing and style it just comes easy one of the easiest things I’m good at. Fashion is an art form it allows you to express your view on style anyway you choose. And to me I feel like nobody has the right to judge that. Style hasn’t always come easy to be though just like everything else it takes time and practice it’s still a work in progress. When I look back to my middle school and early high school years I wonder deeply about my choices, middle school had to have been the worst. I was going through a colored jeans faze, I would wear bright yellow, honey mustard yellow, sky blue, purple, and pink. If somebody were to name a color I probably had jeans that color. It gets worse though because I would have the worst possible combination choice of shoes to go along with a matching bead necklace and bracelet set, followed by a grey or navy blue uniform shirt. It’s clear I had no idea what I was doing the best part is I was being myself and that’s all that matters. No matter how much I think my style has grown I’m only human and will look back and probably wonder why I wore the outfit I’m wearing sitting here writing this essay.
Under Washington County School District policy, hair "should be within the spectrum of color that grows naturally," and administrators can decide whether a color is too distracting.