Posted: Jun 29, 2000 at 9:29am
That's a tough one, Diane, I'll try to do it justice. Primarily, I think we are drawn physically. The way hair complements the face, the way it falls, and feels, it's a very sensual thing, indeed the first thing we notice. But psychologically it is interesting, I think, because it enables us to make value judgments about other people, which is something we humans like to do. We see a girl with a short crop and imagine her as feisty, elfin, power-crazy or butch. A guy with long hair may be pigeonholed as effeminate or an old hippy, one with his hair side-parted a repressed bore. All probably wrong, but human nature all the same. We like to think hair reveals a person in a way they never would, e.g. a woman in her 40s with some gray showing may be seen as lazy or self-confident depending on your point of view. More than anything we are constantly weighing up the message we think the other person is trying to convey by their hairstyle, whilst simultaneously doing the same to them, which is what makes hair, and life, so interesting!