I got my hair cut today. I try to have that happen about five times a year: During the summer, and then at the end of terms. Term doesn't end for another month, but my hair was getting unmanageable and uncouth (that's right, I called my hair uncouth), so I shelled out $17 and had a professional cut my hair.
Haircuts are a strange thing. Unlike almost any other human excretion, hair is visible to everyone.* This is fascinating to me, in part because calling hair "excrement" is what Gertrude says of Hamlet's locks in act 3 scene 4. This makes sense, because it is something that is pushed out of the body as a waste product, though we normally think about it exclusively as fecal.
And we have a problem with, like, everything that humans emit. We don't like to think of urine, sweat, tears, blood, saliva, mucus, reproductive fluids, or even human odors. Fingernails can be pretty gross, too, particularly when they're removed from the body and left behind. While there's a spectrum of revulsion for the different remains of a human's body, on the whole, hair is one thing that people are okay with. If hair falls to the floor, it's not seen as a particularly disgusting experience. Of course, pulling out a clogged drain is a different matter, though I'd argue that it's less to do with the hair and more the nasties that come out with the hair.
That makes haircuts strange. While there are certain professions that expect to deal with bodily excretions (a coach expects sweat; a doctor, blood; a parent, just about everything), I don't think it's normal to assume that a hair dresser is in the same category. But their job is to fiddle with the excretions off the top of people's heads. And part of the stress--I would guess--of the job is the fact that people care a lot about their hair. If you goof it up, it can be a bad thing.
I was once getting my hair cut when a former customer came in, furious at my hair dresser for the poor job he did in cutting the previous client's hair. "It's our wedding tomorrow! And he looks like this!"
"I'm sorry," said the barber. "I can refund you the money."
"I don't want the money, I want him to look good on our wedding day!"
They took the money after all, though I doubt $12 plus tip was likely to make a difference on her big day.
So there's obviously a lot of strain to make sure that the fiddling with a constantly growing part of another human's body is treated properly. The fact that there's so much pressure on women specifically to take care of their hair is multicultural. I recently finished reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and in it, one of Okonkwo's wives gets in trouble because she's at a friend's hut, having her hair braided.** There are other examples that likely direct us to a realization that humans don't care one dusty fart about most of their excretions, but they do about their hair.
And this goes back to what is private and what isn't. We can swallow our saliva; we can discretely blow our noses. And while blood may make some people woozy, it's usually considered a sign to render help rather than recoil. Hair, however, is entirely different. We don't hide it--and those who do are eyed with suspicion by the Western world.
Now that I say that, it reminds me of Sikhism, which forbids the practitioners from ever removing their bodily hair. And how well known or accepted is Sikhism? Islam, of course, asks that women keep their hair covered--and sometimes more, depending on the country in which the worshiper lives--but there are other religious groups that have prohibitions on the way outward excretions are handled. Is it because it's visible that it has to be, in some way, regulated?
Haircuts are a nuisance. I pay money to a stranger to fondle my head for a little while, then I'm itchy the rest of the day. Still, I am glad that there's someone out there. Cthullu knows what I'd look like if I had to cut my hair myself.***
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* Okay, so not all of hair is visible. But aside from taking this in awkward directions, there's a systemic problem with the ways that women are asked to consider their hair than men. Having visible hair for a man is okay on all socially acceptable parts that a man can show, with perhaps a slight stigma against back hair. Women are expected to shave basically everything except their heads and arms, which is almost entirely due to commercial pressures. Not only is it now the social expectation of shaving armpits and legs, it's more costly, and not just because women, because of this pressure, have more surface area they "must" shave.
Yeah, so even if you're not a feminist, your bank account would be less strained if you didn't have to pay for ridiculous gender-biased marketing.
** In the same book, near the end, the male elders of the tribe get their heads shaved against their wills, which causes them immense disrespect and shame.
*** My wife has bravely and frequently cut my hair, which has saved us a lot of money. And though she does a good job, she isn't a professional. She is, however, orders of magnitude better at cutting my hair than I am. I mean no disrespect.
Haircuts are a strange thing. Unlike almost any other human excretion, hair is visible to everyone.* This is fascinating to me, in part because calling hair "excrement" is what Gertrude says of Hamlet's locks in act 3 scene 4. This makes sense, because it is something that is pushed out of the body as a waste product, though we normally think about it exclusively as fecal.
And we have a problem with, like, everything that humans emit. We don't like to think of urine, sweat, tears, blood, saliva, mucus, reproductive fluids, or even human odors. Fingernails can be pretty gross, too, particularly when they're removed from the body and left behind. While there's a spectrum of revulsion for the different remains of a human's body, on the whole, hair is one thing that people are okay with. If hair falls to the floor, it's not seen as a particularly disgusting experience. Of course, pulling out a clogged drain is a different matter, though I'd argue that it's less to do with the hair and more the nasties that come out with the hair.
That makes haircuts strange. While there are certain professions that expect to deal with bodily excretions (a coach expects sweat; a doctor, blood; a parent, just about everything), I don't think it's normal to assume that a hair dresser is in the same category. But their job is to fiddle with the excretions off the top of people's heads. And part of the stress--I would guess--of the job is the fact that people care a lot about their hair. If you goof it up, it can be a bad thing.
I was once getting my hair cut when a former customer came in, furious at my hair dresser for the poor job he did in cutting the previous client's hair. "It's our wedding tomorrow! And he looks like this!"
"I'm sorry," said the barber. "I can refund you the money."
"I don't want the money, I want him to look good on our wedding day!"
They took the money after all, though I doubt $12 plus tip was likely to make a difference on her big day.
So there's obviously a lot of strain to make sure that the fiddling with a constantly growing part of another human's body is treated properly. The fact that there's so much pressure on women specifically to take care of their hair is multicultural. I recently finished reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and in it, one of Okonkwo's wives gets in trouble because she's at a friend's hut, having her hair braided.** There are other examples that likely direct us to a realization that humans don't care one dusty fart about most of their excretions, but they do about their hair.
And this goes back to what is private and what isn't. We can swallow our saliva; we can discretely blow our noses. And while blood may make some people woozy, it's usually considered a sign to render help rather than recoil. Hair, however, is entirely different. We don't hide it--and those who do are eyed with suspicion by the Western world.
Now that I say that, it reminds me of Sikhism, which forbids the practitioners from ever removing their bodily hair. And how well known or accepted is Sikhism? Islam, of course, asks that women keep their hair covered--and sometimes more, depending on the country in which the worshiper lives--but there are other religious groups that have prohibitions on the way outward excretions are handled. Is it because it's visible that it has to be, in some way, regulated?
Haircuts are a nuisance. I pay money to a stranger to fondle my head for a little while, then I'm itchy the rest of the day. Still, I am glad that there's someone out there. Cthullu knows what I'd look like if I had to cut my hair myself.***
---
* Okay, so not all of hair is visible. But aside from taking this in awkward directions, there's a systemic problem with the ways that women are asked to consider their hair than men. Having visible hair for a man is okay on all socially acceptable parts that a man can show, with perhaps a slight stigma against back hair. Women are expected to shave basically everything except their heads and arms, which is almost entirely due to commercial pressures. Not only is it now the social expectation of shaving armpits and legs, it's more costly, and not just because women, because of this pressure, have more surface area they "must" shave.
Yeah, so even if you're not a feminist, your bank account would be less strained if you didn't have to pay for ridiculous gender-biased marketing.
** In the same book, near the end, the male elders of the tribe get their heads shaved against their wills, which causes them immense disrespect and shame.
*** My wife has bravely and frequently cut my hair, which has saved us a lot of money. And though she does a good job, she isn't a professional. She is, however, orders of magnitude better at cutting my hair than I am. I mean no disrespect.