Social_role_of_hair Social_role_of_hair

Social role of hair - Definition and Overview

Related Words: Affair, Civic, Civil, Collective, Collectivistic, Common, Communal, Communistic, Community, Compatible, Cooperative

Hair has great social significance in human beings. It grows on most areas of the human body, except for the palms of the hands and the feet, but hair is most noticeable in most people in a small number of areas that are most commonly trimmed, plucked, or shaved. These include the face, head, eyebrows, eyelashes, legs and armpits, as well as the pubic region.

The highly visible differences between male and female body and facial hair are a notable secondary sex characteristic.

Hair has had social and sexual significance in a number of societies, as a sign of manliness in men, and femininity in women when in the "right" place, and as a sign of effeminacy in men and unfemininity in women when in the "wrong" place. Where the right and wrong places are differs from one culture to another.

Portrait of a Woman, Alessandro Allori (1535 - 1607; ): a plucked hairline gives a fashionably "noble brow"
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Portrait of a Woman, Alessandro Allori (1535 - 1607; Uffizi Gallery): a plucked hairline gives a fashionably "noble brow"
Contents

Hair as indicator

  • healthy hair indicates health and youth
  • hair colour and texture can be a sign of ancestry
  • facial hair as sign of puberty
  • white hair as a sign of age, and hair dye
  • male pattern baldness as sign of age, the toupee, Rogaine
  • hairstyle as indicator of group membership:
    • Beatle "pudding-bowl" haircuts
    • Punk mohawk haircuts
    • Skinhead haircut

Growing and removing

 civilians shave the hair of a young woman as punishment for having personal relations with ,
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French civilians shave the hair of a young woman as punishment for having personal relations with Germans, August 29 1944

Hair, power, punishment and status

Concealing and revealing

See also


Example Usage of Social

KimJCastleberry: RT @jeannash: RT @donenck Social Media And Fitness Can Be Funny | Live Your Best Life http://bit.ly/6FkEyQ
estetas: just realised, that I'm real Social media addict. Oh well...
EnterpriseinFE: RT @SocEntLdn: Wishing @Duncangoose at Global Ethics and Jim Blakemore at Bikeworks all the best in tonight's Social Enterprise Awards. ...
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