new thread
Hi everyone!
There have been a few instances wherein my aunt (who is also my legal guardian) seems to antagonize my desire to grow my hair long. I am certain that she doesn't want me to grow my hair long, but she does realize that it is my right to do so. BTW, I live in the Philippines, and most of the people here are annoyingly conservative.
OOPS!!! I almost forgot. I'm 17 years old and I have straight hair. My straight hair is the main reason why I want to grow it long.
First, she told me that men with long hair tend to be messy. I told her that I would keep my hair in check. I explained to her that most men who grow their hair long don't know who and where to go to for information.
Second, she told me that if I grew my hair long, I would get bald sooner. According to her, the longer a man's hair becomes, the harder it pulls on his scalp.
I don't hate my aunt, actually, she's the only person I care about in the world! For a Filipino, she is "liberal" (she'd be considered slightly conservative in the USA).
I have used hair gel in the past, and there were some days when I forgot to rinse my hair before going to sleep. As a result (according to a barber), some of my hair fell. A barber told me that I should use aloe vera to help in regrowing the lost hair, which I did. What exactly does aloe vera do?
Those are the least of my problems. My bigger problems involve the conservative attitude of my country. Schools (excluding colleges) require male students to cut their hair short. When we reach college (I'm currently 1st year college), we have another problem...
Military training is compulsory here, and despite the massive protests against it in the past year, it continues to stay, albeit in a "gentler" form. What was once known as ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps, if I'm not wrong) is now known as NSTP (National Service Training Program), which is basically the same thing.
Yes, my government lacks honesty in politics. Our president explicitly told us that she was scrapping the compulsory ROTC. What she did was just rename it (BITCH!!!). What I do LIKE about the "new" program is that it also includes female students (before it was only males).
I wonder, how will the program deal with female students with long hair? Will they let them keep it or not? What about the male students? Judging by my country's conservatism, we males might be required to trim our hair while females would not! Being an advocate of gender equality, this would be outrageous to me!
So how would I deal with this?
A couple of things. Long hair does not lead to baldness. The tension put on hair by even mild combing it far exceeds the pull that gravity alone would exert. There is something called traction baldness, that does lead to hair loss, but this occurs when hair is pulled very tightly into a bun, pony tail, etc.
Aloe vera does not save hair from baldness.
Hair loss is generally the result of the signaling that a particular male hormone gives to scalp follicles. In people who are genetically-predisposed, this signal prompts hair-growing cells in the follicle to commit suicide (apoptosis, from the Greek for 'falling leaves', I believe). The only treatments that have been demonstrated to mitigate this process are minoxidil and propecia.
I don't believe you will be able to convince your people that hair length is gender-neutral, especially as far as the military is concerned!