When I first heard what today’s lecture would be about, I was left kinda astounded. I didn’t understand how it connected but thinking about it again and going through the presentation again has helped me understand that it was actually pretty clever.

I understood how hair is more than just a protein filament on my head. It is something so insignificant yet it makes a significant impact. We talked about the semiotics of hair - its signs, symbolism and contexts. Hair has cultural and social impacts and also communicates in different ways. 

“The grooming, cutting and styling of hair is an important cultural practice and symbolic activity for all young people. Hair has long been-a medium of significant statements about self and society in which symbolic meanings are invested. Hairstyle has also been a central component in a variety of subcultural expressions: from the DA quiff of the teds to the long hair of the hippies to the crop of the skinheads. “ (Willis, 1990, p92)

SIGNS

• Language of hair - For this, we were shown a page from Charles Darwin’s book. It has a figure of a woman with unruly, unkempt hair titled “From a photograph of an insane woman, to show the condition of her hair”. And the text says “I always notice that our patients get better whenever their hair ceases to be rough and unmanageable.”  I guess this does show that hair communicates in certain ways. For example, if someone came into class with their hair messily put into a bun and not much effort put to it, one would assume that they just got out of bed and showed up in class.
• Hygiene and moral issues - how does hair connect to hygiene? I guess in today's time you could say that if you see someone with nicely washed and kept hair you’d assume they take good care of their hair and in some way practice good hygiene. It is also known that if you know that someone has lice they’re automatically assumed to be “dirty” or unhygienic. 
• Virility- Here, we talked about hair as a sign of masculinity and strength through the story of Samson. Briefly, Samson is a Biblical figure who appears in the Book of Judges, 13-16. He was an Israelite who followed the proscriptions of Nazirite life, which included not drinking nor trimming his locks. A man of tremendous strength, his power was sapped after his lover Delilah cut his hair. While generally believed to be a legend, some have thought Samson’s story has elements of historical truth. (Biography.com, 2014)
• Class and Status - Hair has played a major role in history especially in terms of class and status. During the lecture we saw how Law Clerks had to powder their hair in France in a certain way that denoted their ranks. 
• Blonde and Platinum Blonde - while being blonde connoted the notion of purity and being the ideal “good housewife”, Platinum blonde was a connotation for being cheap and fake. Even now you can see how people are stereotyped by their hair colours. We often hear the term ”dumb blondes” which makes no sense because how can a person’s intelligence be judged by hair colour? In Harry Potter as well, Draco says “Think my name’s funny, do you? I don’t need to ask yours. Red hair and a hand me down robe. You must be a Weasley.” Here the hair is being used to as a medium to recognise (or stereotype?) a family.  
• Consumer choice - This choice was greatly affected by the different inventions and styles that came about through the years. The adverts for these greatly affected the consumers. The video that Karoline shared with us is a good example of how every decade had a distinctive hairstyle. 
• Gender - hair is also very closely related to gender in terms of how society thinks it should be - longer hair for women, and short hair for men. Long hair for men “is inconvenient and a temptation to vanity, while its arrangement would demand an amount of time attention which is unworthy of a man” 
• Transformation - here, we talked about how hair is used for transformation. We were shown Cindy Sherman’s roles in three different films and how her hair in each of them helped in making a huge difference in terms of how the character was potrayed. 

SYBOLISM

For this, we mostly focused on how hair is symbolic of horror and ghost traditions in the Japanese culture. One of the main ways to identify a ‘Japanese ghost’ would be through their long hair covering their face. 

Reference 1

Like shown in the clip from the movie “Ringu” we can see how the hair is such a distinctive part and you can see the horror and fear in the man’s face - he knows what he’s being faced with.

Reference 2

As seen from the woodblock prints, the one where the hair was tied up depicted desirability whereas the other where the lady’s hair was open and almost falling down depicted ‘her wild Otherness.’

Reference 3

Uzumaki by Junji Ito Is a comic that also uses hair to symbolise horror and death. The character's hair chokes her when she tries to cut it. 

CONTEXT 

The meaning of hair changes depending upon the context. The example we discussed in class was how most complaints in hotel reviews were the hair in the shower drains. When we go to a hotel, its a known fact that someone was there before you yet we want to believe the complete opposite. This closely related to what we talked about in the first part of the lecture about myths. We want the fact that there was someone staying there before us to be a myth. 

Here as well. The image is of a young boy who looks ‘American’ and is shaving. Its an advert for Prudential insurance. Here shaving of the hair relates to the young boy becoming a man.

The activity we did in class was really interesting. We got back Barthes second order of signification. This was the example given to us. We were to do the same, just with a hair ad.

This was my outcome. 

Like mentioned before, I was a little weary about how this connected to semiotics, but going through it again helped me make the connections to the lecture given by Andrew that formed the foundations of this lecture. I think it’ll be interesting to make similar connections of other things to semiology like Dene did with hair and its semiology, and have my essay be about that.