Hairstyle as event

Hairstyle as event

The editor of the New York Times Magazine describes his pages as reflecting "a place where change is not a threat, where doubt and complexity are more TRUE than certainty, and where most everything non-criminal is tolerated — except a bad haircut."^[4]

For Shoichi Yokoi, the first haircut in 28 years became his first ordinary contact with another person after living alone for many years. Yokoi hid in the forested mountains of Guam after the Imperial Japanese Army surrendered in 1944; and he managed to elude capture until 1972. The mere opportunity to sit in a barber's chair became a documented step in Yokoi's transformation from a reclusive, solitary combatant in a war which lasted for nearly three decades longer than for the rest of the world.^[5]

Yokoi's haircut was literally and figuratively life-changing. After 1972, the story of Yokoi's life became a narrative about the process of adapting to worldwide attention and the radically different role of a celebrity.^[6]

In Sikh culture, the hair of men is never cut ("Kesh"); but some modern Sikhs are abandoning this tradition. The act of cutting hair itself takes on a significance unrelated to the corollary changes in appearance.^[7]

Hairstyle as event

The editor of the New York Times Magazine describes his pages as reflecting "a place where change is not a threat, where doubt and complexity are more TRUE than certainty, and where most everything non-criminal is tolerated — except a bad haircut."^[4]

For Shoichi Yokoi, the first haircut in 28 years became his first ordinary contact with another person after living alone for many years. Yokoi hid in the forested mountains of Guam after the Imperial Japanese Army surrendered in 1944; and he managed to elude capture until 1972. The mere opportunity to sit in a barber's chair became a documented step in Yokoi's transformation from a reclusive, solitary combatant in a war which lasted for nearly three decades longer than for the rest of the world.^[5]

Yokoi's haircut was literally and figuratively life-changing. After 1972, the story of Yokoi's life became a narrative about the process of adapting to worldwide attention and the radically different role of a celebrity.^[6]

In Sikh culture, the hair of men is never cut ("Kesh"); but some modern Sikhs are abandoning this tradition. The act of cutting hair itself takes on a significance unrelated to the corollary changes in appearance.^[7]