True Life: I Hate My Hair

[LoveAngelBeauty]

Has anyone seen this episode of true life http://www.mtv.com/videos/true-life-...32&channelId=1 (http://www.mtv.com/videos/true-life-i-hate-my-hair/1695196/playlist.jhtml#series=2211&seriesId=5232&channelId=1)


It was frustrating watching the woman with the damaged hair because her problem is sooo easily fixable.

[rtree721]

That poor girl with damaged hair. It would be best if she just shaved it but I am sure that would be too difficult for her.

[melusine963]

Her hair really looked fine to me. LoveAngelBeauty is right, her problems are easily fixable.

[minxe]

Her hair liked it could be fixed "easily," but I don't think she was willing to spend a lot of time actively trying to fix her hair. I just felt bad for her.

[melusine963]

I thought the teacher was absolutely horrible for loudly asking about her wig in the middle of class. What if she'd had chemotherapy, or even just permanent hairloss? What a way to publicly humiliate your student.

[vanillabones]

I've been through that but it seems like she's taking the right steps to growing out her hair.

[Natalia]

I havent seen it but this thread gives me the mental image of a theater full of lhcers shouting advice at the screen :p

[ebba]

i cant watch it in canada but it sounds awful!

[HintOfMint]

I saw part of it at the gym (TVs in front of the ellipticals... can't look away) and it is so uncomfortable to watch straight up mental illness.

[PixxieStix]

I've never watched a show like that before, but wow, how sad. And yes, the girl with the damaged hair could easily fix it. Sadly, the second girls problems run much, much deeper.

[Kyla]

I haven't, but now I'm planning to. :D I love shows like this, I have kind of a voyeuristic taste in television.

[KAggs]

As it's been previously said, the first girl's hair problems can be fixable! I only seen the ending when she gets a weave put in. The second girl on the other hand needs more help. :( I don't think I could watch the episode completely.

[duchesswannabe]

I watched this via your link, and I think that the actual problem with the girl and the damaged hair is societal pressure that it be long. She is still self conscious of her hair enough to have the weave even after some of the damage is cut out, but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that her hair is short. Most of the others around her have longer hair, except for her teacher, who is older.

I am older, so it stands to reason that I have seen different attitudes regarding hair during my teenagehood. I had hair that was as short as that woman's when I was around 15 because of stupid over-the-top repair haircuts after my mom and myself effed my hair up by trying to do it at home, not because of damage. High school girls went around with short, choppy hair until we grew it out enough to get a different hairstyle. So you didn't feel obligated to hide hair that short then: lots of girls were cutting their hair ultra short in the mid or late 70's, and the very curly, short perms were coming into vogue then. I also tried too hard to make my short hair look better by overstyling it with curling irons and rollers. It just appeared stupid because I didn't know how to deal with it and tried to cut it myself at times.

I feel for the pressure that these ladies have to over process and have to adapt to the current style that so many women have to have "long" hair, even though I advocate that anyone should want to have long hair.

[lapushka]

The MTV site redirects to the local Belgian/Dutch site and the video is not available for us. :(

[LoveAngelBeauty]

I watched this via your link, and I think that the actual problem with the girl and the damaged hair is societal pressure that it be long. She is still self conscious of her hair enough to have the weave even after some of the damage is cut out, but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that her hair is short. Most of the others around her have longer hair, except for her teacher, who is older.

I am older, so it stands to reason that I have seen different attitudes regarding hair during my teenagehood. I had hair that was as short as that woman's when I was around 15 because of stupid over-the-top repair haircuts after my mom and myself effed my hair up by trying to do it at home, not because of damage. High school girls went around with short, choppy hair until we grew it out enough to get a different hairstyle. So you didn't feel obligated to hide hair that short then: lots of girls were cutting their hair ultra short in the mid or late 70's, and the very curly, short perms were coming into vogue then. I also tried too hard to make my short hair look better by overstyling it with curling irons and rollers. It just appeared stupid because I didn't know how to deal with it and tried to cut it myself at times.

I feel for the pressure that these ladies have to over process and have to adapt to the current style that so many women have to have "long" hair, even though I advocate that anyone should want to have long hair.


Yeah, I know. I thought she would look totally fine with a fresh cut. Her teacher didn't help by reinforcing her insecurities. I thought the weave at the end was terrible but I can really relate to her insecurity with her hair, at least when I was younger. I've done some of the same things because I thought my hair was too short or ugly, haha

[kallarina]

Ooh, I sure can relate with her. I dyed my hair obsessively starting when I was 9 because my mom always told me that it was ugly. That fear of people seeing what you actually look like and all that prevented me from stopping the dye for a long time, even though I knew how damaging it was. Only within the last 6 months have I been able to stop and finally start growing virgin hair. It's terrifying, and I want to just hug this poor girl because she has zero support. Everyone around her is just making it worse, especially the teacher. It's a difficult step to take, to stop hiding something that you've hidden for so long, but I just wish that she had some support for it. This community is what gave me the courage to do it. :)

[AMD]

Fascinating. I think the first girl put a bit too much emphasis on how bad her hair was. It didn't look too bad, just very dry and in need of micro-trims. I am glad that she sought help, even if it was a bit questionable ("braids put your hair in the growing phase, because its tugging on it"... huh??). I am also happy that getting a weave instead of wigs helped her to feel better about herself.

[Ligeia_13]

The MTV site redirects to the local Belgian/Dutch site and the video is not available for us. :(

Nor here :(

[blaketob]

i wonder what she is doing to actually try and grow her hair out. I didn't watch the whole thing because I don't have time to right now, but her hair reminds me of how mine used to be. When i was 13 I used to have about BSL hair, and then I chopped it to my chin, but from there my hair got worse. After that I started to wear extensions, and I wore them for about 3 years straight. I wouldn't let people see my real hair, when I dated people I wouldn't let them even know that I wore extensions. If someone ever asked if I wore them, I sometimes lied because I was embarrassed. I don't think my hair was as dry as hers, but my hair was pretty bad. It was uneven, thin, and completely damaged. I felt hideous with my hair short and like her, I felt like I looked more masculine with short hair. Long hair gave me confidence. And it is really upsetting that these are extremes to what people do to make themselves feel pretty. I am so happy for LHC or else I wouldn't have been able to grow my hair out healthily. My hair hasn't grown in about 5 years. Once I started to take care of it, it has grown so much already in a year and a half.

[beautifulending]

I feel bad for the girl with badly damaged hair. She can easily fix it but I don't understand why she would go on tv for millions of people to see but not show her boyfriend,friends and family....all of whom love her. :confused:

[Ravenwind]

I just want to reach out and give that girl a jar of coconut oil!

[AnqeIicDemise]

We should kidnap the first girl and give her a crash course in LHCisms to make her hair, at least, not so dry. Poor thing needs to learn how to do things the right way. -le sigh- I feel horrible for her. I USED to have hair like that myself from so many perms and relaxers. My nick name, on top of being Shamu and Monkey (yea, loving folks!) was "Thatched Roof."

In fact, I think my hair was worse. It looked like a bad, bad, synthetic cleopatra wig that'd been tossed in the dryer on high.

[RileyJane]

Its just sad b/c i feel their pain and i understand exactly how they felt even when they werent saying it...i feel bad that they have done that to their hair and that it got THAT bad. the other girl...sounds more like she has appearance issues

[akilina]

I feel bad for these girls because their problems run much much much deeper than just the surface.
:/

[ScarlettAdelle]

This reminded me I need to wax my legs and arms! hahaha

I can identify with both of them, more with the girl who hates her short hair. Mine was / is severely damaged, but I just slapped it in a bun and toughed it out. I'm now to about BSL+, almost waist with my virgin hair, almost classic with the moderate damage (most of the major is gone, and my ends are finally starting to fill out) and it's taken a couple years to get here, but I just keep it up and out of my way and don't think about it. I do consider myself to have BSL+ hair, though, and I hold on to the rest as a security blanket.

The first girl, the one with damaged hair... I can't believe her teacher! I shouldn't be surprised, I went through cosmetology school to get my license. I know what some cos teachers are like. It's going to take a lot of time for her hair to get in order, but it's possible so long as she just leaves it alone and sings to herself "Just keep trimming... just keep trimming... just keep trimming, trimming, trimming..."

The second one, I think her friend hit the nail on the head when she called it an addiction. The amount of time and energy she spends obsessing over hair removal appears to be almost on the level of someone suffering from an anxiety disorder. The thought of giving up her hair removal is frightening to her and gives her anxiety. She even said that she enjoys the pain of the laser because it helps with her anxiety. In my opinion, she doesn't need hair removal treatments, she needs therapy for that anxiety that probably started when she dealt with the teasing from her classmates by becoming obsessed with removing the hair and only even kind of feeling ok when she's had a treatment. When the hair is gone, I would be interested in seeing if her anxiety and obsession disappear or transfer to something else. I'd be willing to put money on it not going away.