Ever wondered why as soon as a new hair style becomes popular, or someone fancies a bit of change in their appearance, they rush to the hair dresses the minute they can? Why they are so keen to change a hairstyle and colour and cut that they have possibly quite happily been sporting for quite a while?
Or while Donald Trump, despite all his riches, is still embarrassed and annoyed when reporters and others publically point out that he wears a wig?
You might think that it is some few individual’s vanities, or a public showing of people’s low self-esteem. And you might be right, but you might also be wrong.
It’s just not that simple.
With the hair industry being a multi-billion pounds industry, encompassing hundreds of brands supplying anything from hair shampoo, conditioner, styling products and tools and everything in between, it’s hard to just put it down to “it’s just vanity”.
Just as we, whether we admit it or not, might label people who are looking a bit different, we in society are trained to associate specific attributes to specific hair styles and looks.
Whatever we associate with specific hair types and styles, whether we want to admit it or not, we pass judgement – at least to some degree.
Would we hire someone who shows up to an interview well prepared, perfect for the role and looking impeccable except for hair? Probably not, despite the fact that we know and probably even say that “looks don’t matter”.
So if we’re judgemental about a lot of people caring about their hair and pass judgement when they don’t, isn’t that double-standards? No wonder we associate the obsession with hair with low self-esteem, because, well if we didn’t look after our hair and people passed judgement, it would indeed affect our self-esteem.
It certainly shouldn’t come as a surprise that many people do indeed spend a lot of time and money looking after their hair. Or that they spend thousands of pounds fixing their hair loss or receding hairline problems with a hair transplant.
Rather than passing judgement on those who don’t care (or cant afford to care) about their hair, and on those who do, we should all just accept that there’s nothing wrong with caring or not caring about your own hair, because, well, as simple as it is – we’re all just different people.
So let’s remember this the next time we’re tempted into laughing/judging someone for doing/not doing their hair. If they like it the way it is, who are we to judge.