Growing My Hair

Views: 246

21st August 2017

December last year I had decided that I was not going to cut my hair until a collaborative project was released. The intended release date was April 2017 but was subsequently pushed back further and further. During the course of that time I have stayed true to my word, I haven’t cut it. There’s been times where I’ve cut my beard shorter but that’s about it. I really don’t have an end-goal but I feel as though I’ll never cut it.

My hair doesn’t define me in the slightest but it certainly is the stylistic piece I had been missing. It goes with everything; my choice of attire, my character, my frames, but more importantly it has come to be my deviant act of defiance against societal norms. When diving a little deeper beyond the act, I don’t totally reject nor dispel the norms as I go to the barbers every few weeks to neaten my hair, I style it to look like an organised mess and I actually care about how it looks. The defining factor as to why it is rebellious on a personal level is because I do it on my own terms.

I choose how I look, I don’t take into account the perception of others when getting dressed, styling my hair, or buying things. My style has become one with my identity; free flowing in form and spontaneous, functional and effortless, but look a little closer through the air of disorganisation and you begin to see the order of things.

These days I can’t even remember the last time I went to the barbers, rewind a few years and I was wasting money and time by being in the chair every week. I average £5-£10 a month on £5 neaten ups. The rest of the time I’m roaming with unkept but lightly styled hair, without a thought to what I’m doing further down the line. People often ask what I’m going to do with it and whether I’ll grow locks but I like it the way it is for now. I don’t wish to commit to anything, I just want to keep it free form and lightly twisted.

Apparently hair is an extension of your nervous system, some say it makes you more aware, and according to Aboriginal Americans it makes you a better hunter. I’m not sure about all the elaborate details but I know that since my hair has grown, and continues to grow, I’ve become a better person. My personal, professional, spiritual and creative growth has followed the same trajectory.

Once I stopped caring about society’s rules and preconceived notions of how to align with the norm and fall in line, I began to blossom exponentially.