Give me a head with hair

Tomorrow I’m going to get my hair cut. And as usual, I go in with an idea of what I want. 

 

Daryl Dixon and Michelle Williams: my two biggest hair inspirations

I found people have a strange obsession with women and their hair. About 4 or so years ago I decided to go pixie. I had done it before back in high school when my mother told me she didn’t want me accepting my diploma with hot pink hair and it should be my natural colour for that day.

My hair at the time was shoulder length and a faded pink. My roots were about an inch long and so I had the local hairdresser take it down to my roots. My mother’s response: “I meant dye it back to your natural hair colour!” 

I’ve always loved and wanted short hair. As a child, I’d stuff my butt length hair into a baseball cap so it wouldn’t get caught in branches when I’d play in the woods. I wasn’t allowed to cut my hair past shoulder-length because of my Dad. As my hair reminded him of his mother, I had to keep it long. I put up with it but would whine like the biggest spoiled brat when my mother would have to braid it for pow-wow. That braid was so tight it would pull the skin of my face taunt.

When I cut it pixie again, my hair was just above bra line. The hairdresser tried to talk me out of cutting my hair as “my round face would look terrible” with that short a cut. After mentally noting not to tip her, I told her just to do it as it was what I wanted. I had to keep telling her to go shorter until finally, my hair was less than an inch long and I felt fabulous. The hairdresser even admitted it suited me and ever since I’ve been a pixie. 

It drives me to fits of hysterical laugher when people act like cutting off that amount of hair is some brave feat. When people see my hair, some girls will say, “Oh, I could never go that short! It’s so scary!” A car crash is scary, cutting your hair isn’t.

I didn’t slay Smaug, I just cut off my hair.

But I guess it can be scary as I’ve noticed that people don't censor their opinions of a lady with short hair. I’ve had older women at work inform me that I’d look so much prettier with longer hair. Dude-bros have told me I look like a dyke. Magazines rarely have a model with short hair (unless Michelle Williams has something to promote). It also drives me nuts when folk will insult Carol of The Walking Dead by saying, “Well look at her, she’s ugly: HER HAIR IS SHORT".

 I’d love to know how she keeps her hair that short in an apocalypse when the guys can’t even shave but I digress

I’ll admit I have moments where I wonder if I should grow my hair out. I think about growing it out so I can rock a Betty Page look or braid it like Katniss in The Hunger Games but then I remember I hated looking after my hair and it never looked good on me. Whereas my sister's hair is a manageable cape of Rapunzel-ish beauty, my hair, when it’s long, has a life of its own. It crimps in weird places, it grows awkwardly, and it doesn’t hold a style (my friend took 6 hours to curl it once and the curls started to unravel within half an hour).  And I always used my hair as a curtain I could hide behind. It was an excuse to be shy. And lastly, my hair was usually long because someone else wanted it that way. When I find myself asking why I want to grow my hair out, it’s usually because “Oh, that dude will find me prettier”, “I’ll look more like a girl”, etc. 

Well, fuck that. The reason I don’t grow it out is I love it the way it is. I feel prettier. I like the lightness of it. I like its sharpness. Sure I hate that it still finds a way to grow awkwardly (The back of my head and I hate each other for just that reason) but I'm not planning to grow it out past 2 inches anytime soon. 

My hair being short doesn’t make me any less of a woman despite what some old biddy may say. My boyish short hair is a girl’s haircut because a girl is wearing it (and rocking it).

And if a boy I date ever tells me “I want long hair”, I’ll tell him to grow it himself. 

Soranik Natu, Green Lantern of Sector 1417: doesn't need long hair.

It's Gotham

There is no quicker way to start an argument amongst nerds than by asking then which they prefer: DC or Marvel comics.

Back in my more militant nerd days, I was a hardcore DC. While working at McNally’s I used to get into arguments with a hardcore Marvel over the strengths of each of our companies. It ultimately always came down to one thing: realism. Hardcore Marvel preferred the realistic nature of his heroes and disliked the godhood of mine.

Homeboy obviously did not read Gotham Central.



Imagine Homicide: Life on the Street. Now imagine Homicide: Life on the Street with Batman as a supporting character. That’s Gotham Central. The series is a gritty look into a realistic Gotham City as it would appear if it was just another American city. Corruption and crime are rampant and the Major Crimes Unit of Gotham tries its best to cope with a situation that pulls no punches. It presents detective work as it truly is: repetitive, draining, and glory-free. It can also be psychologically damaging as seen throughout the series when despair drives many characters to the point of suicide.

There’s nothing cartoony in this series. Each panel is drawn with realistic colours and events unfold the way they would in real life: heroics are finite, perpetrators evade justice and the few good people in the city either leave or die in the cross fire. And it’s somehow made worse by the presence of the DC Trinity. Though Batman is the only one seen, there are several references to heroes such as Superman and Wonder Woman existing within this universe. As a child watching cartoons, you know that, somehow, these three are going to save the day. It just doesn’t happen here. One of the biggest tearjerkers within this series happens near the end of its run. Without giving anything away, there’s a point in the story where you feel it drawing towards a horrible event and you find yourself hoping Batman will make it this time and things will be all right. The event happens and nothing can be done to right the wrong.

I’ve never cried that hard over a comic before or since.

Whenever the inevitable trade happens between a Marvel and a DC, Gotham Central is always what I suggest. It’s about realistic heroes in unrealistic circumstances (the first of the Batman Rogues Gallery that the detectives encounter is Mr. Freeze) where bad things happen often. Where the heroes are flawed and deal with their situations in positive and negative ways. And where hope and being a good person isn’t enough.



Despite how dark the series is, I find solace in how many of the major characters never compromise their personal integrity. In a world where apathy has run amok and people accept their situations because "Hey, It’s Gotham" it’s good to see people so angry at the injustice they face that they’ll never stop fighting to change it. No matter how many friends they lose, they keep going.

For a girl who grew up angry at her situation for the same reason, it really resonated with me. I think the story is more powerful because it’s the non-superpowered heroes that are pushing through to change their world. It’s easy for Superman to fly on or for Wonder Woman to go forward with the Gods’ favour but for the detectives that at times only have themselves to urge them forward, that takes strength. That’s ultimate bad-assery.

It may not have a happy ending but knowing that there are people like the detectives in this story within the DC universe (and in real life) makes me happy enough.