When looking back at old photos, as has been happening a lot lately because of Facebook, I notice that one of the first things people comment on is hair styles. This isn’t a new observation as people have been laughing at old hairstyles for decades but it got me to thinking about people and their relationship to their hair.
The first relationship is nearly exclusively the domain of the male. There are always a couple of guys in the pack who have had the same exact hair style all their lives. It is a short and conservative haircut that rarely changes. Maybe the part changes from middle to side and maybe the length varies by an inch or two but nothing drastic. Ever. From age ten ’til age forty the hair is a constant. This is usually a sign of having pretty good hair that holds a men’s classic cut well.
Of course there are now those who opt out by shaving their heads. This is mostly a man’s domain and is really just an off shot of the people who always have the same cut. The cut is just been replaced by a shave. Once a person starts shaving their head they usually don’t stop. Except the few who are going through a period as our second group is.
And that second group is almost the same as the first. Except that in this group a man has a period of long hair. It’s usually when he is young. In college or just out and for what ever reason he grows his hair long. But not being a true “long hair guy” he cuts it at some point. Usually when the demands of a career force him to. From then on in it’s the same short hair cut for good or ill.
The next type is the person who changes their hair around a bit. Mostly women fall into this category but I was a man who also fit in here. And it’s almost always young people in this slot. I grew different parts of my hair long, shaved other parts, and had other lengths in between. Most young women go through all sorts of styles and lengths throughout their teens and twenties.
But then haircut fatigue sets in. It has a lot to do with peer pressure and the demands of a career but at some time in a person’s late twenties to early thirties they start getting the same haircut over and over again for the rest of their lives. Unchanging.
A person may have had ten different haircuts over ten years and then the same haircut for the next ten years. When we see picture of the old haircut it will look funny no matter what. We get used to the same boring old haircut. It becomes the way we look and any deviation from it becomes funny looking. We become locked in.
The last relationship with hair is when a woman gets older and then cuts her hair short. This is part of haircut fatigue. “It’s so easy to take care of”, is always the phrase that goes along with the woman’s short hair cut. I don’t think most men care for this stage but by that point they know better than to say anything negative about their woman’s hair. It’s easier to not care but pretend you do.
Not being born with hair that is suited to a classic men’s cut I have always a fan of the goofy haircut. I have had many of them in the past and I am not the least bit embarrassed seeing old pictures of myself. I too have had the same haircut (or lack thereof) for the last ten years and envy my younger self who had the energy and stamina for fun hair. It was a part of life that I enjoyed.
So embrace those old pictures and enjoy yourself when you used to have fun with your hair because it all inevitably comes to an end. And when people who have had boring haircuts all of their lives laugh at other’s old pictures it makes me feel sorry for them. They just don’t get it. Viva the funny haircut!
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