I am beginning to think that hair is highly overated, and a sexist tool to keep women 'in their place'.
Today is my second day of being completely bald - what a feeling! My scalp is cool all the time. When I had hair, I would have to go through the routine of wash and condition every day, hair mask once a week, blow drying and rubbing serum through every day. I was obsessed by shampoos and had a whole range of different shampoos and conditioners in the bathroom - the theory being that if you use a different shampoo every day, your hair does not accumulate deposits from any single shampoo and therefore looks thicker, shinier etc.
Now, though, it is 'wash and go'. Being bald cuts 40 minutes from my daily routine. In fact, I would prefer to be able to go bald permanently. But I fear it would be too much for most men to take. The women seem supportive when I mention this - but the men! God forbid that they have to deal with a bald woman. (Bald men are ok, though).
Why should this be? Someone told me that without hair, we would too much like men and they wouldn't be able to pigeon-hole us - this would make the poor dears run scared because we would become more like men than women and therefore their world would come crashing down around their ears.
This is one more choice women will have to fight for. We are brought up with the idea that our hair is our crowning glory. Romantic bodice rippers tell us that the heroines have gorgeous tresses, long flowing hair all the way down their waists. Shampoo ads perpeatuate this by showing women with impossibly long, computer-doctored hair - and a man casting admiring glances in her general direction. And we women, myself in my pre-cancer days included, are suckered into rushing out and buying every single one of these shampoos!
But we should be able to choose NOT to have hair if we want - and be accepted in spite of it. Not discriminated against.
The movement to use real women with real curves in advertising has paved the way - but baldness really is the final hurdle towards true female emancipation and equality of the sexes. I wonder how far away we are from this? Can we actually imagine a futureworld, where men and women are so equal (I might have seen this in a sci-fi flick) where we are ALL bald?
The battle begins - as it always does - within the female psyche. Are we ready to let go of our hair?
As for me, I am having lunch with a hapless male, so I guess I will have to put on my wig!!!
Today is my second day of being completely bald - what a feeling! My scalp is cool all the time. When I had hair, I would have to go through the routine of wash and condition every day, hair mask once a week, blow drying and rubbing serum through every day. I was obsessed by shampoos and had a whole range of different shampoos and conditioners in the bathroom - the theory being that if you use a different shampoo every day, your hair does not accumulate deposits from any single shampoo and therefore looks thicker, shinier etc.
Now, though, it is 'wash and go'. Being bald cuts 40 minutes from my daily routine. In fact, I would prefer to be able to go bald permanently. But I fear it would be too much for most men to take. The women seem supportive when I mention this - but the men! God forbid that they have to deal with a bald woman. (Bald men are ok, though).
Why should this be? Someone told me that without hair, we would too much like men and they wouldn't be able to pigeon-hole us - this would make the poor dears run scared because we would become more like men than women and therefore their world would come crashing down around their ears.
This is one more choice women will have to fight for. We are brought up with the idea that our hair is our crowning glory. Romantic bodice rippers tell us that the heroines have gorgeous tresses, long flowing hair all the way down their waists. Shampoo ads perpeatuate this by showing women with impossibly long, computer-doctored hair - and a man casting admiring glances in her general direction. And we women, myself in my pre-cancer days included, are suckered into rushing out and buying every single one of these shampoos!
But we should be able to choose NOT to have hair if we want - and be accepted in spite of it. Not discriminated against.
The movement to use real women with real curves in advertising has paved the way - but baldness really is the final hurdle towards true female emancipation and equality of the sexes. I wonder how far away we are from this? Can we actually imagine a futureworld, where men and women are so equal (I might have seen this in a sci-fi flick) where we are ALL bald?
The battle begins - as it always does - within the female psyche. Are we ready to let go of our hair?
As for me, I am having lunch with a hapless male, so I guess I will have to put on my wig!!!
posted by Simone @ 10:19 AM
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