Her Story in Her Hair
상태바
Her Story in Her Hair
  • Ahn Park Dabom / Reporter
  • 승인 2011.05.07 03:34
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Once, it became the big issue that Jun Jihyun, the famous actress in Korea would cut her long hair, and her hair was splashed in headlines across all the newspaper.  She had kept her long hair for a long time as a byword for innocence and purity.  However her hair didn’t become an issue only because she was a celebrity.  In Korea, if you meet your friend who cut her hair suddenly, you would say, “What’s the matter?” to your friend.  Whoever the women is, women’s hair has had serious stories and people have paid attention to them.

 

First Cutting and Story

When did women’s hair start to be important?  In other words, when did the women’s hair develop its own meaning?  Since women became the *New Women, women’s hair had gotten the stories as well as the meaning.  In 1920, The New Woman Declaration was put in The New Woman published by Kim Wonju, at first, the word, New Women came into use.  Taking this opportunity, the women who had modern education were brought out as one of the society groups.¹  New Women were the women who had interest in society problems such as liberation of women or the bourgeois women who insisted on the rights of women, such as gender equality, free love, or marriage.  They choose bobbed hair as the expression of women’s volition, the changing consciousness from an old era and accepting a new civilization.  Thus, bobbed hair wasn’t a temporal trend just as style, and it was used as the sign of the New Women’s identity, which suggested that women should resist the old women’s status and follow the new attitude of women.  Moreover, women’s bobbed hair was meaningful because of the difference between men’s short hair and women’s.  Contrary to men’s short hair, which was started by government with the bureaucrats and citizens as the central figure, women’s short hair progress from individuals.  In other words, the starting point of women’s short hair was different from men’s.  Progressing with the word ‘voluntary,’ women’s bobbed hair has had special meaning.  It meant the women who were rich because The New Woman Declaration was progressing with bourgeois as the center.  The meaning has consolidated as the chic women and the women who developed their life on their own.  On the contrary, women’s long hair has come to represent kind, pure and innocent women.

 

What Stories Does Your Hair Have?

In TV programs and advertisements, the meanings of women’s hair is still used.  

Does it have power

Does it have power over people who live in present-day society?  SMT asked specifically 20 students with long hair and another 20 with short hair.  According to the SMU students, curiously enough, 28 students (70%) said that they choose their hair just because the styles were easy to manage or they grow their hair thoughtlessly.  Youn Seoyoung, School of English ’10, said, “I just have grown it.  It didn’t have any intent.”  Another curious thing is that they choose short hair because they want to look cute.  Hwang Hein, Department of Public Relations & Advertising ’10 said, “I had stuck to long hair but one day, I wanted to be a new me.  Unexpectedly, I heard I looked so cute.  I think short hair means cute, not chic.”  Like her, 6 students (30%) of the students who had short hair choose the answer “I want to look cute.”  Short hair has started to have another meaning.  Men also have changed their thoughts about short hair.  Kim Yeonjun, Seoul National University ’09, said, “The pure image of long hair still exists, but I think it is changing now.  There are friends who like short hair more and think short hair is more innocent than long hair.”  Kim Hanbyel (21), said, “The celebrities who have short hair such as Son Ka-in show the image of sweetness, so people change the attitude to short hair.”  As long as the time flows, the images of the hair have changed. 

 

 

Korea regards hair as a precious thing because it is given by parents.  Therefore it is a matter of course that Korean women’s hair becomes an important point.  Naturally, people give the meaning to women’s hair.  After 80 years from The New Woman Declaration, the hair has added other meanings.  Maybe, the pure image of long hair, the expectation and love from men would disappear.  What meaning will be added to women’s hair next?

                                                                                                                                   

* Woman in the article represents women who took the lead to wear western-styled clothes and hairstyles.

1. Jun Dae Wung, 『The New Woman and the problem』, 1976


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