To Wear Hair or Not to Wear Hair….

You can leave your hair off…

Shifting through my inventory, I realize that I have sooooooo much hair! So much! Hair is so highly coveted in SL that I KNOW I am not the only one with a ton of hair. I have hair that fits my modern SL life and hair that fits my Fantasy SL life. I spend my time living on two sims, one that is themed and one that is not. The one that is themed is Winterfell (not to get confused with the Winterfell Game of Thrones RP sim), which is a fantasy theme that is part of the Steamlands (Caledon, New Toulouse, New Babbage, Seraph City, Steeltopia, etc etc. Click here to see the best list I could find on the web that lists all the Steamland sims). To live in the Steamlands and participate in Steamland activities, you must look the part. Well, the part looks like this in Winterfell (I’m at 3:34 and at 9:17, but you won’t recognize me). So, I have outfits and hairstyles that fit this sim. The other sim I live on is modern and that is where most of you know me from. I have pretty much stopped participating in Steamlands events because my partner in crime left SL and it got boring. I decided to focus completely on modern day living in SL, shop ’til I drop, buy tons of hair, and make new friends, which I have! Yay!!

Now, why the Sinead O’Connor look? My lovely skin from Lelutka comes with an optional hair base, which is what I am rocking here. In RL, I have had my hair this short before. I shaved my head 3 years back because after only 3 years of putting chemicals into it, I damaged it beyond repair. It’s all grown back now, chemical free, but I was super self-conscious about it. I thought my face looked like a moon pie, but everyone kept telling me that I look beautiful and regal. I thought they all were crazy, and for the record, I still do, but the liberation of having no hair was enjoyable…. despite the fact that I would not leave my house with either wearing a hat or wrapping my head in a head wrap. Hair is just as expressive as make-up or clothing. When I lost my hair, I lost a way to express myself, a way that I enjoyed, so I became self-conscious. I only shaved my head because I wanted to start from a clean slate. Now I spend a great deal of money on my hair so it looks good, in SL and RL, which is ridiculous. For some odd reason, I have a hard time running around SL with no hair though in RL, if I looked like my avatar, I would rock this look so hard. Maybe because of the knowledge that this hair is a base, and not actual hair, or maybe because of my own self-consciousness of how I feel about my own hair. When I shot this picture of myself, I thought “Stunning”, but still would not walk outside my house only wearing my hair base. I threw hair on my head and left. Isn’t it funny how we can transcribe our phobias, or whatever you want to call them…..self-consciousness, from RL on to our SL selves, as if they are the same? But they kind of are the same. I am not role playing in SL, nor do I use SL to fulfill my wildest fantasies. I only look different from Dido, but nothing more. So, why the hang up over hair? Do I feel less feminine without it?

Once upon a time I had dreadlocks….for 10 years actually. I cut them out and when I did, people were so shocked and upset! They said that I looked like an anchor woman (this was the beginning of me putting chemicals into my hair to remove my natural curly hair. Bad mistake). I cut them out because I thought they were not feminine enough and I wanted to change my look, which I did big time. At that time, India Arie had that song “I am not my hair”. I use to have to tell people that all the time, that I am not my hair, until they got use to my new pixie cut (this is 3 years before the head shaving event). However, I realize that I kind of am my hair. Not the texture, not the color, not even the condition of it, but the self-consciousness of just having hair itself, as if it is essential to my beauty (whatever amount that may be) and my femininity. Is it wrong to feel that way? I think so. Something else for me to talk to a therapist about.