more about hair...

I have been talking to many young people while doing field work in Seoul. I have a student helping me with data collection and one day when we were talking about hair, she said "look at all the old people, everyone has short hair. Nobody has long hair". I told her I didnt know that but after that I started observing older women in Seoul. Based on my observation, till today, I think after like 3 weeks of observing, I have not see one older Korean woman with long hair. Everyone seem to have short hair. Among the young women some have long hair and some have short hair. Long hair will be slightly longer than their shoulder, I have not see anyone having hair up to their waist. Anyway, this is not based on any systematic or scientific observation but just random, casual observation.

This made me think about another observation I made like two years ago, in my parents' native place. I was going out with my mom and aunt when I noticed that all teenage girls that I have seen in that village have braided hair, in the same style. Whether they are coming back from school, or going to buy things or temple, they always have braided hair...


These two experiences has made me think about many things in my life. When do I follow the norms and when do I break away from the norms? Why is so important to follow or to break away???