Short Hair?... I Don't Care!
by Sidra Lackey
Issue date: 5/4/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment
This July will mark three years since I cut my hair short. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made. It's extremely low maintenance: I can wash it every day and it air dries in minutes. I get it cut once every two months usually and it cost only $20, and if I want to dye or rinse it, it's super easy. I don't have to worry about hat hair in the winter or poof and frizz in the summer. I love my cut! I've never felt as natural and beautiful as I do now.
An article in the Daily News entitled, "Short Changed" announced that pixie hair is back. However, following the trend sends a specific message to men, according to Matt Titus a dating expert and author of the book Why Hasn't He Called? Titus says there are three things that men find attractive on a woman: a great body, lips and beautiful long hair. Cutting off your hair, he says, is "like sending a non verbal message you're not interested in sex." He warns that if a woman cuts off one third of her tresses she runs the risk of keeping Mr. Right at bay. Wow… I felt insulted. Who is he to speak for all men and proclaim that short hair makes a woman less attractive and undesirable to men?
Ironically, I find that since cutting my hair men do approach me differently, they actually approach me more often. Their pick-up lines usually tend to be a reference to my hair--- how it's different and how they like it. I was in a tattoo shop recently and before I left one of the artists told me that I was the prettiest girl to enter the shop all day (and all the other girls I remember had medium to long hair). Take that Matt Titus! Titus' sexist remark was countered however by a hairstylist saying that on some women, a short haircut can be "the sexiest thing of all."
As a black woman with cropped hair in the era of straightening and extensions, I stand out in my community. Black women probably compliment my hair cut the most and a lot confess that they wish they had the guts to cut theirs. Other black women often come up to me and ask for tips or referrals to my hairstylist. Black men approach me slightly differently now--- more cautiously--- than when I had straight hair or extensions.
An article in the Daily News entitled, "Short Changed" announced that pixie hair is back. However, following the trend sends a specific message to men, according to Matt Titus a dating expert and author of the book Why Hasn't He Called? Titus says there are three things that men find attractive on a woman: a great body, lips and beautiful long hair. Cutting off your hair, he says, is "like sending a non verbal message you're not interested in sex." He warns that if a woman cuts off one third of her tresses she runs the risk of keeping Mr. Right at bay. Wow… I felt insulted. Who is he to speak for all men and proclaim that short hair makes a woman less attractive and undesirable to men?
Ironically, I find that since cutting my hair men do approach me differently, they actually approach me more often. Their pick-up lines usually tend to be a reference to my hair--- how it's different and how they like it. I was in a tattoo shop recently and before I left one of the artists told me that I was the prettiest girl to enter the shop all day (and all the other girls I remember had medium to long hair). Take that Matt Titus! Titus' sexist remark was countered however by a hairstylist saying that on some women, a short haircut can be "the sexiest thing of all."
As a black woman with cropped hair in the era of straightening and extensions, I stand out in my community. Black women probably compliment my hair cut the most and a lot confess that they wish they had the guts to cut theirs. Other black women often come up to me and ask for tips or referrals to my hairstylist. Black men approach me slightly differently now--- more cautiously--- than when I had straight hair or extensions.
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