Highschool rules, hair gel and hair loss
When I was back in highschool, there was one simple rule every male student understood and followed with great zeal. “Touch not my hair, or else suffer great despair.”
Okay, okay it’s not really a law written in the school handbook and promulgated by the student body but in every school across the province, a social norm, a social contract of this sense and practice is observed.
Hair gel, hair polish, hair cream, or any other product or substance known to make one’s hair in line (shape, form and cut to be precise) with the latest trend as espoused in MTV or by the popular teen idols of our times, was the cause of drawing up this rule and is one of the most valued commodities of that time and even up to now.
It did work, for it controlled, styled, and maintained nearly all hair types to achieve the desired effects; look ‘hip and cool’, attract the most number of girls in campus, declare a sense of being a rebel, and finally aid in the winning over the significant other’s affection and love.
A hair sytled with hair gel can be likened to one’s crown, or more so, one’s ego. So if it gets disturbed, ruined, wet or out of shape - even by single strand, either by mere accident hell is most certainly to break out. Most school brawls during my time were actually set-off by this little hair-related mess ups.
However, there is another rule, this time one that is truly written in the school handbook, zealously enforced by the school administration and deeply scourned by almost every hair-gel wearing student in school. It reads, “Hair gel is strictly prohibited from being used on campus.”
Of course, it was highschool, raging teenage hormones and the sense of being a rebel only fired up the tensions between us the students and the school administrators. Cases and parent-teacher meetings were all testaments to this struggle for staying free, free to style our hair our own way. Part of the administrators’ propaganda against the use of hair gel was the still disputed fact that hair gel, and any other hair styling product were one of the causes of baldness asides from old age. This propaganda were not only spread by the non-teaching staff, it was also integrated into the science courses to give it more weight. Some fell for it and started to cut back on their gel usage, some were not fazed and remained true to the cause. Yours truly being one of them.
Tags: advertising, hair-loss, hair-style, Health, highschool
grabe naman yan. buti nalng di ako nag enroll sa skul na yan. dati di talaga ako lumalabas ng bahay na walang gel kahit sa tindahan lang rhhrhrrhehehehhee
Great blog! Would love to do a link exchange!
http://nostalgiamanila.blogspot.com
Thank you!
–NM
mah gawd! highschool is soooo highschool talaga! i mean, immaturity is there but still most of us misses our hs days.
It’s the hair gel power.. ‘was once part of my highschool get-ups.
This also held true during my high school days.
Also, blogtoprofit also contacted me. Whaddaya think?
The rule apparently is still in effect in my old highschool, or so my younger cousin says.
About blogtoprofit? I’ll let you know ade.
Still sounds spammy to me though. I wonder what JAngelo thinks.
My high school administrators are more reasonable—they permit the use of hair gel, just not in a way that you’d look like a punk. Most of my classmates hate it when people touch their “helmets”, good thing I prefer having my long (but not girly long) straight hair where gel wouldn’t serve good use—most of my classmates even admire me for keeping it straight and smooth. I am not even concerned if they try to ruin/play with it—as my hair would easily come back to what it was—and they are happy about it.
By the way:
I could relate to this—very well said.
You’re lucky your administrators doesn’t live in the middle ages. Mine does, and they were nuns! So gel was strictly banned. The guards and CAT officers would even be posted at the gates to check - manually - everyone’s hair before they let them inside the campus. Still, human innovation saved the day as various techniques were used to go around this.
Most would come to school not wearing hair gel, once they get passed the guards, they would apply it in the shower rooms. Others switched to hair creams or polishes, it still does the job of keeping one’s hair in style but could easily pass inspection at the gates.
Others simply braved the guards, coming up with elaborate and funny excuses, bribing the CAT officers whom they are closely acquainted with. High school….those were the days.
Our admin and prefect of discipline are priests—I guess nuns are more conservative and strict when administering schools. I get to hear the same/similar complaints from students of other nun-run institutions.
BTW, I was a CAT Officer, too. Though I get a haircut every month, it still wasn’t short enough. But, of course, I could easily get away with it. *shhh* LOL
I remember how my younger brother would spend a chunk of his time fixing his hair and putting gel before going to school. The hardest thing he had to go through was to have his hair cut for CAT purpose.
Hair loss is a normal and natural occurance. Stop worrying about it