The woman beneath her hair : exploring the sociology of hair among females

• Main Author: See, Kymberly Wee Ching
• Other Authors: Lim Khek Gee, Francis
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/66140
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This study explores the subject matter regarding head hair, a relatively understudied area in earlier sociological literature. Mainly, it examines about how one’s hair length is not merely a biological attribute but more of a socio-cultural construct which affects an individual’s expression of her femininity. Furthermore, the perceived co-relation between hair length and femininity expression is analyzed as a social phenomenon that is not all bona fide natural but an act of ‘doing gender’. This study inculcates the theoretical framework motivated by the work of West and Zimmerman’s ‘Doing Gender’ (1987) and Butler’s Performativity (1990) in revealing how the notion of hair length, being meaningfully altered to express femininity, is not something natural in itself, but instead being influenced by gender norms. This paper thus sheds light on the influence that numerous socio-cultural interactions, alongside institutional structures, have on how females utilize hair as identity markers in self-expressions of femininity.