The History of Hair

St. Paul said "that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him..But if a woman have long hair it is a glory to her." At certain historical moment, such as the 1920s, short (or "cropped") hair on women was considered a statement of rebellion against established gender roles.

Under slavery, hairstyling was one of the few areas in which enslaved men and women were free to express themselves as they wish. In Africa grooming and styling hair was an important cultural ritual. Many men shaved their heads, while many women elaborately styled their hair. Intricate hair designs were also common in the New World. Many enslaved women braided their hair, wrapped it, or wove shells and beads into their hair.

Mr. Tension

For my tension project, I was originally going to shoot my sculpture and put it back together with plastic toys. However when I was sculpting my project, I started to think about what I thought tension meant, and for me it was more emotional. So I decided to make my piece a performance piece. I secretly went into class and pretended to present my project when really I planned on dropping it. I wanted everyone's tense emotion to be my tension.

The Mustache Mission

Ladies and gentlemen, as you may know it is March Mustache Madness. For the apparatus, I wanted to honor this event and make a mustache out of my own hair. I made an appointment with a hair stylist, and chopped off my bob. I wanted to use something light to make the mustache structure, so I used Molding Magic by Crayola. It's similar to the texture of marshmallows but it dries hard. I then painted the molding magic brown to match my hair, then glued on the chunks of chopped follicles. The one problem I ran into with this endeavor was that my hair was short to begin with, so the hair I used for the mustache was pretty short. It was difficult to make it look convincing and I felt it would have been easier with long strips of hair. Hope you enjoy!

'Stache Happy Folks!

-Kelsey