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HAIR BY RYAN VERSAW
HAIR
Ryan Versaw
Hair is our life, our pride, our Child. We are aware of how we feel when we look at our heads. People think of their hair, touch and pull entire locks of hair from their heads while happy or even in pain. As we grow, our hair gets long with our knowledge and coherence if all that hurts us. What exists with all that we feel within us comes with our thoughts as we examine our hair. Our hair is given to us by our kin; in this, some find pain while others find appreciation.
While our hair is more than a meter for detection, people show a propensity for cutting these moments of our lives with a pair of scissors at the whim of a moment. From the foods you eat, the air you breathe and the water you drink, and the emotions you feel, everything grows into the hair. All that is young within us shines from our hair. In the small mountain town of Pagosa Springs, Colorado, the people show that hair is close to both heart and touch.
Shana resides at the base of Reservoir Hill, near the east of Pagosa and in sight of the Rocky Mountain ranges, Square Top Mountain. When I asked Shana how she felt about her hair image, she said, "My hair is mine ." When I asked her what she liked about the appearance of her hair, she stated to me, "My hair is good ."Upon inquiring what Shana's emotions or memories of her hair were, she referred to her mother. Shana's tone shifted to one of perturbed emotional conflict with her mother, who had told her for years what to do with her hair. "I think of her every day, and I see my hair, and I get so angry," Shana said.
Hair can bring all that can be felt out for all people to see. People see and feel their hair while experiencing and living their lives. Hair often tangles to show moments of turmoil or turbulence with very weave and curl. Locks of hair form with your attempt and effort to hold the world together with people near you. Your hair radiates with all that you have been through. Our hair shows who we are with every strand, style or not.
Daniel Weaver walks into the bar, a small venue isolated roughly 20 miles from the nearest town or gas station. Weaver's hair enters with long dark brown hair, and is draped in snow. Daniel's vehicle had run off the road ah-midst the storm, a school bus rigged for living. The bus sits outside, anchored in a berm of snow after sliding off the icy road.
Daniel describes the way his hair extends from the Child of his soul to show that what is within himself grows into his hair. Daniel thinks of hair as an extension of the nervous system. The presence of his hair, he described, was both positive and negative. While speaking of his hair, Daniel stares at his hands as he talks.
"Hair has a significant presence in the same way nails do," says Daniel.
For Daniel, hair is an emotional receptor, an antenna for extending Daniel's senses and giving him an awareness of distant frequencies. However, hair is the first thing he does while at work; Daniel styles his strands in a single ponytail and does not wash his scalp.
"I feel like that is an excuse to get physical," says Daniel while referring to the act of washing hair.
As the fire flickers near us, I ask how Daniel feels about his hair. The answer resounded with the love of his life.
"Hair does not really die," says Daniel speaking as though he was trying to preserve something.
While Daniel speaks of his hair and labor, a lightly scathing and abrasive tone arises; there is a little description of his work history. Daniel had no good words in lieu of laboring or its relationship to his antenna. The sight was set on the spiritual and bare physical self when talking of the hair upon Daniel's head. Listening, Daniel told me his hair was thick and heavy with life experience.
Blake Scott, my cousin, speaks of his hair while living in a camper mounted in a pickup truck and freelancing custom film footage. Blake described the hair as low maintenance and did not even think of owning a comb. The sense of minimalist awareness centers around Blakes sandy colored hair kept short.
"My hair always makes me look young," says Blake. Blake sees consistency in how he maintains his hair; Blakes's hair has been short and consistently cut for some years. "Looking at my hair is the one thing that has never changed," says Blake.
Currently, Blake films footage by air drone and lives with his girlfriend anywhere there is a place to camp and a story to film. Blake's disposition is happy as it seems the minimalist hair and lifestyle have led to a sense of satisfaction with life.
Rain March teaches art at a local school in Pagosa Springs with dreaded blonde hair. Rain told me that she styled her hair mostly out of "vanity." Rain says much of it is a self-idealized view of desiring to fit the image of an artist. The dreadlocks are, in a way, a presentation of Rain's art, a range of colors and beads. The dreadlocks, as Rain explains, hold all that comes to her. Artists often create exceptional hair, a living sculpture adorning the unalterable physical reality of the flesh.
To no small extent, our hair can come to represent all we hold; that which we hold is what we live through our pain, our views, and our dreams. Rain March views hair as that which contains all of the experience of life "Dreadlocks hold everything. Everything that comes threw you is held in your hair."
Culturally all hair has clearly come to represent more than just a forced image of classical social constructs(gender, class, race). I asked Rain what compelled her to allow her hair to lock up, and I was met with an emotional history of what her hair meant.
"All of the emotions that come out of your head are held in your hair," Rain states with great passion.
Before dreading her hair, Rain both hated her hair and considered her hair to be part of her identity. While she describes her hair as unique and voluptuous, she is less than pleased about how some other people define her hair. In contrast, thinking of her former marriage, Rain recalls her hair falling out from stress. Rain was sure to be understood by stating, "When looking at my hair, I would think about things that were wrong with my life.".
During the hard times and stressful times, Rains hair was described in her own words as "a window of tolerance." While that window was open, Rain was pulling, breathing, and being alive with her hair. She referred to her hair as a locking expression and not giving in to the regular culture.
"It's definitely a form of expression," says Rain while looking upward toward one of her locks.
For her, tone of voice casts satisfaction. There is scrutiny from others, and Rain speaks of a former job at Higher Grounds.
"At the coffee shop, My boss asked a customer if she felt comfortable buying coffee from someone with dreadlocks," says Rain.
Next, Rain describes a series of times when her hair would shed and change whilst coinciding with life events.
Rain's hair showed who she was for so long, she says, and how she presents herself to the world. During a meditation experience, she examined how long she had cut her dreads. In Boulder, Colorado, there is a school for Yoga and meditation(Ashram) in which Rain had an experience that led her to cut her hair. During a period of time during which she lived at the Ashram, Rain began to feel overwhelmed. Her description felt heavy with smells and energy, thinking outside her body and breathing back into her body once more. During the experience, Rain felt more compelled to remember when she cut half a dozen locks from her hair.
During the day, to give peace in the Ashram, what came from the heart often reached the hair. The experience that Rain had in Boulder confirms this.
For People in their families homes, hair was used to get a reaction from society. For Keagan Yocum, hair was used as a form of revolt against his parents. Keagan moved out of his house, grew his hair out, and stated that he wanted to be a hippie.
"I want this nice big flow of hair," Says Keagan.
The only pain which Keagan reported feeling around his hair was slight anxiety while fixing the hair on his head. When asked what Keagan anticipated while looking at his hair, he spoke of his job at Walmart in Pennsylvania. Other than actions and words of dissatisfaction from customers, his hat while at work, and all things yet to be, there appeared to be no qualms over hair, for Keagan confidently said, "I think my hair looks pretty good."
Veronica Heart began by saying that hair was simply boring. From her words, Veronica seemed to want more for her hair. Veronica stated that she wished her hair looked nicer. In fact, she used the word mess while relating her hair to her life. I asked how she felt about her hair, and her response was straight.
"Makes me feel like my life was a mess," Veronica says. Veronica kept her hair short as a child, and the decision to cut her hair came from her mother. I then asked if she loved her hair when she was a child.
"I guess so. I never had long hair when I was younger," says Veronica.
In her life, there was a lot of worry about things to come, according to Veronica, which accompanied the touching of her hair. Veronica would show worry about life by touching her hair more, and Veronica worried it seemed of the future because of a shaky past. As she messed with the things in her life a lot, she messed with her hair. While thinking of what she loved most about her messy hair, she replied with a single word-"color."
What is at our center is at our heart. All that is with our Child is in our hair. Our touch and concurrent feeling of all that exists of us comes out, imbuing strands from follicles of our skin. Everything that comes through you can be found in your hair. Even life yet to be is felt in our hair. Looking at our hair can give us the feeling of pain or emotion that shows us who we are and where we have been. Every strand carries what we have brought to us and shows what stays with us. We learn, and our hair grows long.