CULTURE CLASH (Be a Better Human)
heAD sTrOng By Bobby Dean
HAIR HAS POWER THAT FEW THINGS COMPETE WITH. Clothes are subjective, and within the last few years, every fashion rule is long thrown to the wolves. Go ahead, playboy, wear that animal print top with a cape and red patent leather kicks. No one will care. You get a lousy pompadour, and it’s curtains for your Saturday night “flex.”
We’ve all had to talk someone off the ledge over cutting their bangs. Sometimes, the bangs work out, and other times, Kelly is rocking that ball cap. We’ve even got a term when our hair sucks, a “bad hair day,” and it’s widely accepted because we’ve all been there. All of the three major western religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism have rules on women’s hair, and if you’ve read the Old Testament, one of the parts they conveniently skip over is about men keeping long hair too. (Weird how they let that one and the shellfish thing skate, but the flimsy case against the gay’s sticks?) Hair can change someone’s sex appeal from kinda cute to stop, drop, and roll fine. Ladies, while somehow the mullet is making a comeback (gross), when’s the last time you saw a dude with spikes and wanted to taste that man’s bubblegum? You didn’t. We’ve set a standard with hair that’s an extension of what we feel is our personal “brand” or representative look. Style dictates appearance, but some well-worn work clothes inform that you work hard, that you earned those stains or holes. Americans appreciate hustle, but not bothering to run a comb through the rat’s nest on your head and let it be all messy before you left the house? People assume your crib looks straight out of Hoarders and you don’t wash. 16
C U LTU R EC L A S H G A LV E STO N . C O M • J U LY/A U G 2 0 2 1
