Confused.

[julliams]

Sounds to me like you have already learnt the lesson the teacher is trying to teach the class. Perhaps she could ask you to write a paper about what you have discovered from your new hair routine. I would make an appointment with her, tell her about LHC and give her this option. It shows that you have initiative and willing to do the work.

Sounds like an interesting lesson, but one you may have already benefitted from.

Juliette

[Fiferstone]

I too am troubled by the gender-specific instructions and assumptions. And I'm also very troubled that she thinks its OK to discuss your mental health (or supposed lack thereof) with her peers, very unprofessional. One of these days these behaviors will get her into serious trouble.

[Toadstool]

It all sounds incredibly bizarre, and I just want to wish you luck with the assignment. I think giving up your favourite conditioner, bandanna and comb sound good.
I shall respect your wishes and not mention your teacher, but I am incredibly apalled at these societal values of feminine beauty

[JewelsSparkles]

Originally Posted by RancheroTheBee

Ask her point-blank what you would have to do to succeed in this assignment. If she can't come up with a reasonable comprimise, then she's just a terrible teacher.

I second this. Write down your current hair/beauty/etc routines (in point form), take the list to her & ask her straight up what she wants you to do to pass the assignment. If you have your current routines down on paper in front of her, it might get the message across a bit better.

[Redheaded Raven]

Originally Posted by Fractalsofhair

Hmmm, I could try to do the boy's assignment. The issue there is, I don't shave, and I don't wear deodorant every day, but she doesn't know about the latter one. The downside is, she might mark points off.

Originally Posted by Fiferstone

I too am troubled by the gender-specific instructions and assumptions.

This is what bothers me, in these days and times is it okay to give gender specific instructions? I didn't think so, but I was homeschooled as well and didn't have to deal with teachers like this for the most part. Although I have met people that want to direct your life like this...

I cover alot, so I like the idea of adding the coverings, I use the Jerusalem style quite often and I like it.

Good luck in whatever you figure out and I would still talk to someone about this. It just doesn't seem right. And then if you do get a lower grade you have it down somewhere that you did have issues about the assignment and it might help you to protest a grade if need be. Just my two cents.

[Dyan]

I wonder what she'd do with a student who was WO. Or someone using herbs. If not using styling products and flat irons is seen as a potential red flag, I can't imagine the reaction to 'oh, I don't use shampoo or conditioner.......... ever'. LOL

For what it's worth, I'm okay with the different gender-based rules. I think it's probably a fair assumption that boys and girls have different grooming routines and different views of what "beauty" is, so an assignment reflecting that is okay. What troubles me is how the teacher reacted to a student who fell outside of the assumptions. Indivituality is something teachers should encourage rather than immediately sending the student off for counseling.

[TiaKitty]

Originally Posted by Fractalsofhair

Hmmm! That could be creative. I'm not sure how she'd react to it, but... It could be interesting. She tends to react poorly to creative ideas, but... Since she already told me that my ideas of simplying won't work, and I don't want to get sent to the office again and miss more of my classes(and I have chem after! Which is not a class I enjoy missing!), mentioning that I put oil in my hair might not go over well if it was something I gave up. Sadly, our principal probably wouldn't get it, and my guidance advisor has no power with the classes. My robotics coach is a dean, but even he has no power. I asked him if he could talk to her about it,and well, there's nothing he can do since she probably wouldn't listen to a "robotics nerd"(since well, robotics is not the club where the people that care about their looks go. It's the club where the nerdy programers go to play with legos.)

Any random ideas as for beauty things that wouldn't totally destroy my hair if I did them daily? Heat destroys my hair(Litereally, 1 month of blowdrying made my hair break off 1 inch from the tops with one mild bleaching), but I suppose spiking it with a tested on animals hair gel or something could count. I could sacrifice a small streak of hair to hair dye as well...

This is a rough one! I was like you when I was in high school... I'm pleased to know in this increasingly vain society that there are still girls with enough brain to stand their ground and not just give in and "comply." My teenage cousins all flat-iron their hair, even straight hair! The only thing I've been able to persuade them to do is let me damp braid it the night before, so they'll have curls, instead of using a curling iron/crimper! One small step for the hairy of the world!!!

Braiding your hair damp before bed or pin-curls wouldn't be damaging but would take time and energy... but it looks like you're curly/wurly anyway... The aloe gel sounds good, though I don't think it would be very effective for a spike'do. Though I'm thinking of Liberty spikes.

Since you seem to be intellectually *above* this assignment on trancendentalism, could there be some way you could prove yorself otherwise? Writing a report/research sounds excessive, but as intelligent as you are, I don't think you'd have much trouble whipping it out! From one 'fast typer' to another, how long could it really take?

I don't see where she is coming from telling you that not shaving is disgusting, though. That makes me sad that a teacher can't understand that it's a personal choice, not a hygeine issue... It's the use of the word disgusting that is my issue. Would she call you revolting or nauseating or any of the other thesaurasly-linked words?

(Potential overshare issue!!!) I do shave under my arms. I have a particularly pungent strain of bacteria residing there that love, love, love anything that isn't squeaky clean skin. So, to avoid oderifous-ness, I do shave and do deoderant, or I smell like a goat. And not in that good goat-y way, either.

Could you give up your axillary hair and shave for the week?

I don't think lying or omitting the truth in this situation is the answer. You owe more to yourself and your ideals than that.

[TiaKitty]

Originally Posted by Fractalsofhair

Hmmm! That could be creative. I'm not sure how she'd react to it, but... It could be interesting. She tends to react poorly to creative ideas, but... Since she already told me that my ideas of simplying won't work, and I don't want to get sent to the office again and miss more of my classes(and I have chem after! Which is not a class I enjoy missing!), mentioning that I put oil in my hair might not go over well if it was something I gave up. Sadly, our principal probably wouldn't get it, and my guidance advisor has no power with the classes. My robotics coach is a dean, but even he has no power. I asked him if he could talk to her about it,and well, there's nothing he can do since she probably wouldn't listen to a "robotics nerd"(since well, robotics is not the club where the people that care about their looks go. It's the club where the nerdy programers go to play with legos.)

Any random ideas as for beauty things that wouldn't totally destroy my hair if I did them daily? Heat destroys my hair(Litereally, 1 month of blowdrying made my hair break off 1 inch from the tops with one mild bleaching), but I suppose spiking it with a tested on animals hair gel or something could count. I could sacrifice a small streak of hair to hair dye as well...

This is a rough one! I was like you when I was in high school... I'm pleased to know in this increasingly vain society that there are still girls with enough brain to stand their ground and not just give in and "comply." My teenage cousins all flat-iron their hair, even straight hair! The only thing I've been able to persuade them to do is let me damp braid it the night before, so they'll have curls, instead of using a curling iron/crimper! One small step for the hairy of the world!!!

Braiding your hair damp before bed or pin-curls wouldn't be damaging but would take time and energy... but it looks like you're curly/wurly anyway... The aloe gel sounds good, though I don't think it would be very effective for a spike'do. Though I'm thinking of Liberty spikes.

Since you seem to be intellectually *above* this assignment on trancendentalism, could there be some way you could prove yorself otherwise? Writing a report/research sounds excessive, but as intelligent as you are, I don't think you'd have much trouble whipping it out! From one 'fast typer' to another, how long could it really take?

I don't see where she is coming from telling you that not shaving is disgusting, though. That makes me sad that a teacher can't understand that it's a personal choice, not a hygeine issue... It's the use of the word disgusting that is my issue. Would she call you revolting or nauseating or any of the other thesaurasly-linked words?

(Potential overshare issue!!!) I do shave under my arms. I have a particularly pungent strain of bacteria residing there that love, love, love anything that isn't squeaky clean skin. So, to avoid oderifous-ness, I do shave and do deoderant, or I smell like a goat. And not in that good goat-y way, either.

Could you give up your axillary hair and shave for the week?

I don't think lying or omitting the truth in this situation is the answer. You owe more to yourself and your ideals than that.

[teela1978]

Originally Posted by JewelsSparkles

I second this. Write down your current hair/beauty/etc routines (in point form), take the list to her & ask her straight up what she wants you to do to pass the assignment. If you have your current routines down on paper in front of her, it might get the message across a bit better.

This. Arrange to meet with her outside of class and discuss it with her.

To be honest, I'm surprised that you're the only student having a problem eliminating 3 things from their haircare routine. Most of my peers in high school pretty much did shampoo, condition, throw into a ponytail. Not a lot you can cut back from that routine

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by julliams

Sounds to me like you have already learnt the lesson the teacher is trying to teach the class. Perhaps she could ask you to write a paper about what you have discovered from your new hair routine. I would make an appointment with her, tell her about LHC and give her this option. It shows that you have initiative and willing to do the work.

I think that's a very good idea.

I also think this is a very strange assignment for an English class. I'm taking an English class, and so far we've had to write one of several types of letters, instructions (I explained how to set up a surveying instrument and take a measurement), a website, and a report with recommendations. We have not had to change our grooming.

I'd have a very hard time with this assignment: I don't use shampoo, some days I do nothing to my hair except put it in a Buff at night and wear it in the same updo I had the previous day, I don't shave, and it's quibblable whether the mixture of EOs in jojoba which I use on both my underarms and my hair is a deodorant.