In the age of COVID-19, is anyone else wondering how long it will be before their next haircut?
In this episode of A Book and A Dream, Megan O'Russell discusses the importance of hair changes, not only in everyday life, but also as a dramatic element within fiction and fantasy.
In the age of COVID-19, is anyone else wondering how long it will be before their next haircut?
In this episode of A Book and A Dream, Megan O'Russell discusses the importance of hair changes, not only in everyday life, but also as a dramatic element within fiction and fantasy.
You're a breakup haircuts. There are grief haircuts, there are job loss haircuts, there is, you know, pandemic blue hair. All of those things are real. Come to a book in a dream with Megan O. Russell, an author's adventure and writing, reading and to being an Epic sand girl. Hello and welcome to episode 19 of a book and a dream. My name is Megan O. Russell and today I want to talk to you about hair. Yup, that's right. Hair and all the craziness and the world. I have in fact dyed my hair blue. Why? Because I can and it seems like a good time not to have normal pre-bill hair because nothing in the world is normal. So it's sort of my way of embracing it. For those of you who are listening to the audio, only of this, I will post lots of pictures of my blue hair on Instagram. It's at a Russell. Megan, you'll find my blue hair there. Now, the reason I'm talking to you about hair changes is not just because you know, I had a minor nervous breakdown and decided that I was either going to shave my head or dye my hair blue and the blue hair seemed less permanent. I wanted to talk to you about hair because it does actually play a part in so many important stories. I know weird, right? You wouldn't think that hair is actually that important in fantasy or even in literature. You can look at things like lay Moonves, little women, girls shopping their hair off, huge plot points. You find it in princess diaries and Harry Potter. You can even look for it in dystopian books like diversion. The hair changes are everywhere. And I get it to a point and I mean I'd be kind of hypocritical to say I didn't get it since I did just dye my hair blue. But there is something therapeutic about changing your hair. There is also something a little bit traumatic about a bad hair change. So why do we look at it so much in books? Well, it comes in a few different forms now. The first and my least favorite is the Cinderella way that we look at this and that's in Harry Potter with her mining. When she comes down to the try wizard ball and her hair's all straight and people are all of a sudden like, Oh wow, you're a human being. That's really sexist. Actually. Like Ron never realized she's a girl until her hair is an unruly anymore. Now I'm not blaming J K Rowling for this at all because it's the honest truth. A little boy who's known a girl for a long time and hasn't quite figured out that she's actually a girl because he's been changing with puberty and her hair still looks the same. He needed a Swan moment for her in order to be like, Oh wow, I'm really dumb here, but we don't just it with, you know, boys hitting puberty and not figuring their lives out in princess diaries. They're like, Oh, you're a princess. Also, the way you look is completely inappropriate. Let me just straighten your hair. There's also a lot of movies that go into it. This is a huge trope. The whole, Oh, you don't style yourself well, so I'm going to change our hair and all of a sudden everyone will love and respect you and the hero will fall in love with you cause you're pretty, that's awful. That is an awful message. So I don't really like the Cinderella hair change. If you're going to go through a huge metamorphosis, there should be like a lot of pushups, a few books read and yeah, you can change your hair in there too. But if your metamorphosis is two hours in a salon, I'm not really okay with that. Like let's do better. Girls are more than their looks now moving away from the one I hate. There's also this sort of tragic wig making decision and that's the little mic, a little women Les MIS aspect of I'm going to chop off my hair and sell it to save my family, um, to, you know, send money to save poor cassette. And that is less a part of what I'm talking about because that is a historical accuracy. In fact, it still happens in some parts of the world today where people will pay good money for healthy non-colored hair. So if you're really that broke and you have really pretty hair, you could sadly make money out of it. I guess there are worse ways to make money, but you do find that in literature that women cut it off because you know they don't really have ownership of anything else. So also kind of sad and a little sexist though. I'm sure if a man had long, lovely hair, he could sell it for money as well. You also have like the tragic breakup hair change and that is the one, I actually went on one of my author groups on Facebook and I posted and I asked like, you know, what are some instances that you've seen this in in books? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Have you ever used it in a book? And a lot of them, even if they hadn't specifically read it or it didn't really click in their head that that's what they were seeing. The reaction was, that's so true. I have never really cut my hair short except after two bad breakups or all my worst, just hair decisions have been made while grieving, things like that. So there is sort of an emotional freedom or disconnect or whatever it is. There's a very emotional reaction to changing your hair and so that sort of makes sense with the divergent theme of like everything's awful chopped up shop. And that happens in other books too where like traumatic things happen. We go into the kitchen, we chop off all our hair. I honestly almost did that once. Thankfully I have a very loving husband who when I was like, I'm going to chop my hair off, was like, give me 20 minutes and I'll find you a salon. Please, please don't take the scissors to your head yourself. I'll take you to a salon. And you know, it worked out for the best and probably way better than I would've if I tried it myself at home. But there is a lot of truth to that and I don't think that that's something that we should necessarily refuse to write into books because it is so real. Now the whole, I'm going to chop my hair and now I'm this awesome warrior with no other training but just cause my hair shorter. A little weird, but we do need to acknowledge that there are breakup haircuts, there are grief haircuts, there are job loss haircuts, there is, you know, pandemic blue hair. All of those things are real. Now in looking at my own experience as an author, the only time I can think of that I've ever done the real intentional hair change thing is in the ENA is[inaudible] series and that's almost more like a incognito disguise moment of too many people might recognize you. We're going to change up your hair. There's a little bit of important Brian Adams, but it's like totally temporary. So when I was writing that, I wanted to make sure that I acknowledged how much it changed and as perception of herself, the perception of people around her, not because she was ever considered, not pretty. She's, it's almost a problem for her, but because of the way that they alter her, she's never been a makeup person. She's always had her normal hair and they give her the different hair color and makeup as a form of armor and I do definitely identify with that and this may be because I am a performer so there is a certain truth to once you paint your show face on, you have your lashes, you have your glitter, you have your shimmer, you have your contour, you have your lips, you have whatever. There is an outside layer that is between you and the audience. They're not looking at the real you. They probably wouldn't recognize you on the street if you don't have your fake lashes on. It is an armor that is your personal appearance that is going out to them. That is not you. You get to save something of yourself behind the fake eyelashes and that's what I wanted to give Anna with those exterior changes and I think that that's another aspect to chopping off your hair, dyeing your hair. It is a form of armor. It is. You know your way of presenting what you want to be seen as in the world and if that is strong, if that is powerful. If that is outrageous, then you know it's like a birds feathers. It is on top of your head. It is displayed for all the world to see. So hair can be a super tool in real life and in fiction in that way as well. So it's weird. There's like weird strands on your head and sometimes they fall out and you can cut them and you can color them. And it is such an important identifying feature that is so easily overlooked until we write it or believe it to be important. So what are some of your favorite or least favorite instances of drastic hair changes in fiction and fantasy in books and movies? I want to know it all because it's fascinating to me how much changing our feathers changes. What kind of bird we are. So comment below the video, if you're watching the video or send me a tweet, a post, a picture of the pages where it is in the book on Instagram and make sure you include my handles so I can find it. And don't forget to like subscribe all that good stuff and take care of yourselves. And I will do the same with my blue hair and I will see you all next time.