To all those guys saying that women must have long hair, please mind your own business and let women decide on their own unique and individual looks.
I have short hair now. It looks like a boy’s hair cut as people say. Yes if you go to the hair salon, they will say it is a boy’s hair cut. I did not know that hair cuts were gender specific. I can never understand what is the harm in women having short hair.
My hair is slightly shorter and thinner at the sides. My colleague commented on whether I had been to the Tirupathi temple. I said no. He said my hair looks shorter at the sides and he thought I had cut my hair there. I was shocked. I did not know what to say.
Who makes these rules that women have to have long hair? I have thin hair and short hair cut makes my hair look fuller. But that does not make me a man. What about the people who have severe hair loss or are suffering from cancer? If they have short hair, like Sonali Bendre now, people make a big deal out of it.
My friend has this short hair (which people called boy’s cut). She was supposed to get married. Obviously everyone around her wanted her to grow her hair or wear a long hair wig. My friend refused. She could not understand the harm in getting married with short hair. She looked like the most elegant bride on her wedding day and I was so happy for her.
Image is a still from the movie PK
I love to write on women's issues. I strongly believe that every woman is capable of being more than just a homemaker. They are the leaders of our world. They can multi-task more read more...
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This strange love story reminds me of Princess Diana when she gave an interview about Prince Charles - "There were three of us in this marriage!”
This love was flawed and broken the way only we humans know how to break things with our ego, pride, insecurity and complexities!
Where do I even begin to tell the story of how deep a love can be, how it transcends time, place and people. Perhaps this is a story about how women are their own worst enemies. Either way it is a story that tells us how frail, fragile and fraught we are as humans and how much we hurt each other.
This love story began when I was two years old. Growing up in India in a culture that wove love stories like Laila Majnu, Heer Ranjha and the epic symbol of love, the Taj Mahal, into the very fabric of our existence, love was always an integral part of our lives.
One such love story was of a boy and a girl who were neighbours. The boy, an athlete, artist and a poet, found his muse in this shy, thoughtful and in her own way poetic girl, who seemed to worship the very ground he walked on. Her face could be found in all the paintings he created, and her name in every poem he wrote. The girl called him Sagar, which means ocean, symbolizing his all-encompassing love for her.
Everything thing was going well; their wedding date was being finalized, till the boy’s older brother who was a doctor in the same little town, got accepted into Stanford Medical School to do his MS.
Earlier my husband would say, 'Arey! What is there in making dal-roti? It's so simple.' After he had to cook everyday when I was ill, he has stopped saying that to me!
“Arey! What is there to do in making dal roti? Put a handful of lentils in the cooker and let it whistle and make two rotis. After all, how long will it take?” A handful of dal (lentils) and two rotis! This is the story of every woman and no one seems to understand.
Some time ago, after a shopping spree, my husband and I entered the house, exhausted. I had just about kept all the bags aside, when my husband said, “I am very hungry, can you make something.”
I looked at my husband in amazement and thought, ‘He had just had food, how did he get hungry again so soon?’
My husband, as if he had read my face, said, “Arey! You know that my stomach is not filled with outside food. Just make dal roti. What is there to do in making dal roti? Put a handful of lentils in the cooker and let it whistle and make two rotis. After all, how long will it take?”
‘Is this the way dal (lentils) and roti are made?’ The thought came to my mind. ‘After all, I also went along and now I am tired too.’ I was also getting angry at myself that after all, I had spoiled the habit of everyone in the house.
My Crowning Glory…is my attitude to OPO—Other People’s Opinions about my hair loss. Whether it’s thinning, falling or greying hair, it’s just keratin—a dead protein. It doesn’t define me.
Yes, I have hair loss. I’ve lived with it since my teen years. It’s not alopecia, as in clear baldness. But my scalp shines through. My fairness makes it more obvious.
It amuses me how most people cannot handle it. Some people, while speaking to me, are unable to tear their eyes away from my hairline; whereas I am unable to tear my eyes away from the hilarious horror upon their face. When did we become a society that cannot get past the exclusive focus on looks?
While men’s baldness is the butt of jokes, we still accept it. However, women’s hair loss is a taboo topic. Balding women are supposed to not exist. Certainly, we need not enter a beauty salon…we’re better off getting a hair transplant.
4 women tell us what happens when they go bald while living in a society that perceives long hair as the epitome of femininity and beauty.
In a very recent article, we talked about the interwoven nature of women’s hair and India’s culture. What happens when a lady doesn’t just chop her hair but shaves her entire hair off?
It is an indisputable fact that our hair forms a huge part of our personality, our outlook and our self-reflection. Who doesn’t feel great, confident and pretty on a ‘good hair day’? But why let our hair possess such power? Why let our hair define us in terms of beauty?
Let’s hear the stories of some women who decided to shave their head during this lockdown. And who are confidently flaunting their bald head regardless of what the society expects from them.