I think I've just experienced a hintervention.
You know the deal: two or more people you love and respect pull you aside, and with varying degrees of politesse tell you that you need to do something about your hair. STAT.
I have suspected for some time now that my days with rocked-out hair are coming to an end. In fact, the hintervention caught me in the middle of a hair identity crisis. Hair is emotional; it's part of the way we express ourselves. But what is it, exactly, that I'm trying to tell people? While I like to think of myself as something other than a corporate drone (so edgy! so creative!), I need to face some cold hard facts: I wear a suit to work. My job is in Midtown, home of Ann Taylor and navy pumps. Sometimes I say "partnering" and "value-add" (but then I feel a terrible sense of self-loathing, so does that make it better?) I wear almost no make-up, product, or punky accoutrements. I am not edgy. I am a nice girl with an open, smiling face and an easy-going demeanor. I have dimples, for heaven's sake.
This has not stopped me from copping a Joan Jett 'do, riding a Pat Benatar wave, or leaving the salon looking like a Kentucky coal miner's wife from the Seventies. I am not - and never will be - Feist. I dyed my hair almost black. I streaked it. None of it really worked, but it was fun to be someone else for a while. More than fun, it was necessary. It was my way to telling people at work, I am not this. Everything I do here - it's not really me.
Now I'm feeling confused. Does the hair make the woman or does the woman make the hair? If I wear my hair the way I want to see myself, will I become that person? I've begun to accept that this thing that I do every day, ten hours a day is merely a means to an end - though the end seems very unclear at the moment. In doing so, the need to differentiate seems less pressing. But I'm wondering - if I change my hair, does it mean that in some small, unconscious way, that I've given up on my aspirations?
Your opinions on this burning issue of universal importance are requested.
Images from We Heart It.
