Last week I picked on the men, this week I pick on the women. Because styles on women are common and preferred, it doesn't tell as much as extremes in this category. Also, culture plays a big factor. I love my hair short, especially here in Mexico where it's hot. However, most women here wear their hair long. In fact, when I go to the hair stylist, they never cut it as short as I want it the first time. Not even when I bring them a photo. They're afraid I'll freak out when I see how short it is. No really, I want it like that.
So, when I see short hair on a Mexican woman, it means a lot more to me than on an American or Canadian woman. Young women with short hair often don't feel the necessity to conform.
Let's take an example, I love Victoria Beckham's hair. Now, just because it's short does not mean it's easy or a lazy cut. In fact, and I know this from experience, short hair takes more styling and to keep it from becoming unmanagable, you need constant clipping. That means money. Watch the clothing. If the clothing shows money and vanity, then you can probably assume the cut assumes the same. If the clothing is practical in nature, they probably cut their hair for practicality reason.
Long hair is the same. I think age is a factor too. I think long hair symbolizes youth. If you see long hair on older people, they may be wearing it to appear young. Look at the clothes too - does the person wearing the long hair care how it looks or is it kept unkempt. Many leave the hair long and unbrushed because it's easy and if the clothing matches the statement their hair is making, you can be sure they are probably the personality their looks betray.
What does that mean for your characters? Assume that readers judge our characters by their outward appearances just like they do in real life. As soon as the reader reads "short hair" or "long hair" they immediately form an impression.
Now, we can go two ways with that:
1) our characters can appear exactly how we want them to be
2) or our characters can appear one way and defy the norms.
That's up to us. But, until we understand what impression we give by our hairstyles, we can't begin to know how to portray our characters. Also, we wouldn't want our readers to judge our characters by their covers so make sure you remember to show them in action rather than solely rely on description for reference.
Have any character's with wild and wacky hair stood out to you? How? Has the first impressions turned out to be incorrect?
I'm a non-conformist! I have short very blonde hair. :)
ReplyDeleteI used hair in The Hating Game - the lead character has a make-over before she goes on the show. It also reflects a change in personality later on down the line.
My characters were all military, so basic haircuts.
ReplyDeleteI used to have really short hair too, but as you mentioned, it's hard keeping up with it so now my hair goes halfway down my back.
ReplyDeleteAs for my characters, I do keep in mind their hairstyles and what it may say about them. My main character has shoulder length hair and it suits her personality.
I agree, hair is very important - as an indicator both of how someone wants to be seen, and whether they take care of themselves. In the novel I'm writing both protagonists undergo drastic changes in physical appearance. One goes from a bit scraggy to groomed, and the other from fairly neat to pretty scraggy! Unkempt hair can be a good indicator of too much other stuff going on in a character's life X:-/
ReplyDeleteI have very long, dark (this week!) hair, and I have a wave in it because I'm trying to be beautiful and romantic. But there are days when it won't behave...and then I just go with the 'dragged backwards through a hedge' look...
I used to have long red hair. Now I have shortish white hair. In between I had hair of only one colour but I always swung from long to shaved to permed to blunt to pixie to bob to etc... I don't talk about hair much in my books - I don't notice the length or style or colour of anyone's hair so I guess I don't write about it. It would be more of a gesture - my protagonist in my mystery series twirls her hair around her fingers when she is stressed. One fairly important character in that series is described but mostly because she is a twenty something year old who dresses like a young girl in the fifties - hair in barrettes, knee highs etc... In my current wip I don't know a thing about my protagonist's hair. Nothing. And I'm way into my revision process. hmm....
ReplyDeleteTalli, yes you are! And we love it! I don't think we would love you any other way.
ReplyDeleteAlex, then your characters are written perfectly.
Amanda, I'm glad you have no problems with it. I love it when the color of their hair fits perfectly.
AlphaChick, that's funny. Over the last year, my hair has become super curly. Perhaps due to the humidity and it falls in ringlets. So, when I decided to cut my hair short I was worried because I wasn't sure how it would look. Well, if I don't constantly style it, it's a frizzball on my head. That'll teach me.
Jan, yes! That's exactly right. I'm not much on description alone. It has to be with action. That's a sign to me of a good writer.
CD
When I first started planning/writing the novel I'm editing at the moment, I had shortish, artily 'messy' hair and I decided that my m/c would have the same. I've since grown it long and just know that 'she' would never have done that.
ReplyDeleteHair is extremely important to me when writing. It's one of the first things I 'see' in my characters.
I'm terrible for stereotyping, though. A while back I read a very average novel where the girl was romantic and flirty, and I imagined her to have long, wavy hair...probably red?
It was a good half way through the book when we were told she had short, choppy black hair.
I couldn't see her in the same way as I had been. I'm sure if we'd been told that up front, I could have mentally got myself into the 'yes, short, choppy black hair can be romantic and flirty too' frame of mind, but it was all a bit of a shock!
I posted my comment on the previous post. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteI have always had short hair, personal preference. Besides anything that required me to style it ended up in an emergency medical situation, yeah short hair. :)
ReplyDeleteTrying To Get Over The Rainbow
I have shoulder length hair. I've always had my hair long. I love long hair. But what I want to do is to stop coloring the gray and let it be natural. I think "over my dead body" was said by my daughter and my young hair stylist.
ReplyDeleteOh for the days when women could age gracefully with no expectations from others.
Count me in with Journaling Woman. I too have always worn my hair long (except for an unfortunate 4th grade Dorothy Hammel haircut my mother insisted I get. I hated it.), and even when I'm old and gray I'll wear it stylish and long. I think all women look better with long hair, plus it's more versatile.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I too am starting to HAVE to color away some grays. Hate it.
As for my characters, yeah, it gets mentioned, especially if it is important to the character and story. But only briefly.
Happy Thursday!
Love,
Lola
I prefer books that allow me to imagine the characters so that's the way I write.
ReplyDeleteMy own hair looks best short, was gray in my twenties and all white since about 50. I'm always asked for the 'color formula' and some get angry when I say "nature." Every color doesn't come from a bottle. :)
Kit, it's interesting that hair is so important to you. You probably notice it on people right away. Having stereotypical readers can work for writers in two ways (a) it requires less description for a reader to form an impression and (b) you can write to break them. Thanks for the wonderful comment.
ReplyDeleteAubrie, no problem.
Jules, I prefer short hair too. However, I've noticed that living in the Mexican culture, I'm more aware of people's looks with short hair.
JW, I don't have grey yet but I know it's only a matter of time. I hope I'll be able to let it come in naturally.
Lola, it's interesting because when my hair is long, I tend to do more with it. I put it up and in ponytails and put little jewelery type items in it. When it's short, I only style it.
Mary, loved your comment. Nature is like the crayon that comes in skin color. Whose skin color was that?
CD
You bring up an interesting point about hair. When describing my characters' hair, I don't really go into detail. I may say "short, cropped hair" or "long lustrious locks," but never anything really detailed. Not sure if this is a plus or minus.
ReplyDeleteYou made me laugh when I read about your hair woes with hairdressers. I have the same problems too. I like my hair short. It's so much easier to look after! ;)
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I use the description of hair as a great means of reinforcing what my characters are like
Chary, that's probably enough. Most people probably skip over hair unless it means a lot to them or unless the hair is unusual.
ReplyDeleteLynda, it's kinda a boring detail so reinforcement is better.
CD
Great post. I don't usually go into much detail about hair unless there's something unusual about it. Maybe it's time I thought about it a bit more.
ReplyDeleteGreat tip at the end: "...make sure you remember to show them in action rather than solely rely on description for reference." Thanks for the reminder, Clarissa!
ReplyDeleteCarol, nah, I wouldn't. Unless it's unusual, readers don't remember much about it anyway.
ReplyDeleteLaura, yeah, for me it's important to show rather than tell and much more interesting especially when it regards description.
CD
I wonder how many women who have long hair, have it to suit their husbands. My own husband is a "hair man."
ReplyDeleteHair is an important element in a person's self-image. It can be an important element in a character's self-image. Too bad there are not a lot of words to describe hair. But we keep looking for ways to do so.
ReplyDeleteNice post. I also saw more info about beautiful hairs
ReplyDeleteHair Cut in Long Hair