Western Connecticut State University 35 The Sociology of Hair: Hair Symbolism Among College Students

Popular culture in the United States has played one of the most influential roles in establishing one’s identity. Society’s norms and rules often determine what is considered taboo or acceptable, and these norms and rules influence multiple facets of people’s lives. The clothes we wear, the foods we eat, and the activities we enjoy all have common social meanings assigned to them that are dictated by popular culture of the time. Fashion is one example of this. Historically, clothing served as a means of displaying or revealing one’s gender identity, religious views, and socio-economic class. Little has changed in our current society, as the society’s elite determine much of what is considered popular fashion. American history has developed a focus on the individual, emphasizing the modification of one’s outer appearance as a public display of one’s own ideals, values, and beliefs. It is common to find that people assign labels to refer to the physical appearance of others, and popular terms such as “prep, ” “Goth, ” “urban, ” and “hipster ” have been created to categorize people with common styles of dress and physical representations into groups from which other traits are assumed. For example, per-sons who choose to dress themselves according to the “Gothic ” style of dress may be automatically assigned other personality traits. They are often seen as dark, introverted, brooding, cynical, and even self-pitying. All these labels may be assigned based solely on outer appearance without regard for one’s actual personality. One commonly overlooked facet of society is the length