Are you having a good -or bad- hair day? If we still have it, the state of our hair can affect our self esteem and how we think others see us. These perceptions depend on how much we buy into what we see and hear across the media along with cultural factors. And it’s not just a female thing. On Sundays when I was a kid, my dad would be in front of the mirror styling and spraying while my mom, sister and I waited knowing we’d be late for church again.
So maybe it’s in my genes, but I know even into my 70s I care about my hair - especially recently when I decided to cut it short, losing any leftover color, high and lowlights. I was curious to see if I had some interesting natural highlights, some silver linings you might say. And yes, a few have popped out, but what also surfaced was the ambivalence I felt about having short hair.
I’d look around at my female peers and see I was the oddball, and though I hate to admit it, I felt a loss of what I had associated with femininity. But then I’d vacillate to feeling empowered by it, defiant even - the opposite of what happened to Samson in the Bible story.
Who knows what I’ll do in the future? I’ve gone from pixie cuts when I was a Girl Scout to pig tails in the hippie era, but my Rapunzel days are definitely behind me.
I’m Paula Garrett and that’s my perspective.
