Importance of Hair

After further considering the interview with Neal Lester, he raised some very good points about hair that I had never really considered. He mentioned how a hair cut or hair style could be the defining factor in a situation like a job interview or even when you already have a job. Why does someones hair have to be a certain way for them to conduct their job? It is preposterous that someone could not perform their job because their hair was a different color or braided a different way. I can understand a situation where someone may have been working with machinery and long hair could be a concerning factor but that is not what Lester was talking about. He was talking about how one's hairstyle says more about who they are then the words that they say. He also talked about the concept of beauty being racialized in specific cases with the hair. He was saying how straightened hair in particular is seen as a white woman's hair style and that in using chemicals and artificial sources to straighten hair, girls are becoming less and less who they were meant to be. Lester mentioned how there were so many stereotypes and associations made based simply on one's hair that our society has become so consumed with different hair styles. With personal examples using his own daughter, Lester illustrated how society forces people, especially the youth, to change the way their hair is simply to look like an ideal that is not real or necessary.