Women are beautiful, complex people- physically and emotionally. As a woman, I know firsthand that making decisions about outward appearance can be internally draining. To be honest, since my younger years in elementary school, I noticed I was different from the girls around me in how I perceived beauty. Before puberty, it was the difference in how I didn’t act very “ladylike” compared to my peers. During puberty, it was the difference in how I dressed. On any given day during middle and high school, I could be seen wearing either a dress and heels or a men’s sweatshirt and jeans. It’s normal for people during this time of life to experiment in appearance. Except, I haven’t changed after any of these phases. I’ve recently noticed what the third phase of feeling different looks like for me. In college, a lot of women spend time doing makeup, grooming hair, and maintaining eyebrows, among other areas. Hair, nails, and makeup never struck me as important, but I still enjoy them when I feel like going that avenue.
This dichotomy of simultaneously loving Timberlands and tiaras is confusing to me. I don’t know how people perceive me, and if I should be worried that I look like a mess. Womens beauty and fashion always champion specific looks and never leave room for those of us who feel more traditionally androgynous in our personalities and appearance.
Spending money on a good haircut concerns so many women, and I value that some take a lot of pride in who and where their hair gets cut. Just last night, I let my roommate cut about 6 inches of my curly, red hair. A year prior, I cut 6 inches on my own and had my friend clean up the back pieces. This instills a lot of anxiety and shock in people who hear about it. They’ll write me off as impulsive and weird if they care about where their hair gets done, but I love having people I know cut my hair who aren’t necessarily trained stylists, or even just my own two hands. Beauty is being vulnerable, authentic and unapologetic. Hair grows back and it will continue to grow. When we leave college, we will no longer get laughs with friends and memories about when we used kitchen scissors to cut my hair while dressed in bathing suits.
I love when people have stories similar to mine and I find them beautiful. The memories I make, such as cutting my own hair with my roommates, are beauty at its core. It represents women who support one another. Every woman has a story and reason for their style choices. It’s no one’s job to coin what women’s beauty should look like, and it’s okay to feel preppy one day and grunge another. We’re all just trying to be happy and comfortable in our own skin. Also, can women’s clothing have more pockets? Thank you.