Hair Control: A Key Element of Appearance Control, a Reading from The Culting of America

[00:00:00]Today for Devotions with Daniella, we are reading about hair control in the second book of Daniella, The Cult of America.

[00:00:07]This is on the chapter about self-sacrifice.

[00:00:11]Cults enforce hair rules to promote conformity and erase individuality.

[00:00:17]We've I found four means of appearance control that cults use: hair, body size, body coverage, and underwear.

[00:00:27]And we'll get to all four, but today is hair.

[00:00:29]Whether it's forcing women to wear their hair long, mandating shaved heads, banning dye and styling products, or requiring head coverings or veils, these controls go beyond your appearance. They reshape how you see yourself to fit the group's agenda.

[00:00:47]As Silvia Carrasue notes in a Psychology Today article titled The Weaponization of Hair and how it can be used to oppress, punish, seduce, and rebel, hair has been a metaphor for social control and has been used to dehumanize, humiliate, punish, exact conformity, and rebel.

[00:01:09]On the very first day of US Army basic training, male recruits are given a mandatory buzz cut, a clear ritual designed to strip away their civilian identity, immerse them in the collective, and convey authority for those in command. And it's really cute to me that some people still believe what they're told, that it's for lice control, because babes, no such thing as women immune lice, and yet they don't shave our heads.

[00:01:35]But here's the twist.

[00:01:37]The women recruits don't go through this. Right from the start, hair rules create a divide in a system still dominated by men.

[00:01:45]For years, the Army required women to wear their hair in tight buns, even though buns were uncomfortable and caused literal headaches and a variety of real medical problems.

[00:01:56]That bun became a symbol of gender inequality in a place where uniformity was the rule.

[00:02:02]Thankfully, women can now wear ponytails and braids. Though some, like Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, have complained that these new hairstyles, along with maternity flight suits, are making a mockery of the US military. And somehow, somehow, China has still not invaded.

[00:02:20]Hair control has a long history as a tool of oppression, weaponized to exert control over marginalized groups.

[00:02:28]During the Holocaust, Nazis shaved the heads of concentration camp prisoners to degrade and humiliate them.

[00:02:35]Similarly, French French women accused of collaborating with Nazis, but most of whom were actually being raped by Nazis during World War II, had their heads forcibly shaved and were paraded through the streets as public reprimand.

[00:02:50]Enslaved people in the US were forced to shave their heads as punishment. And Native American children in residential schools had their hair cut to erase their cultural identity and sever ties to their heritage.

[00:03:02]Even now, many workplaces and schools continue to enforce rigid hair rules, disproportionately affecting people of color under the guise of professionalism and discipline.

[00:03:15]These policies reflect a legacy of black hair being deemed to need taming to conform to white beauty standards. And in 2014, the US Army had to repeal their new hair regulations for being so, so anti-black.

[00:03:31]Yet hair has also been a powerful site of rebellion and empowerment. The afro became a symbol of protest during the black liberation movement, while styles like locs, braids, and cornrows continue to represent racial pride, self-expression, and defiance against oppressive norms.

[00:03:49]Hair is far from frivolous. It's a marker of identity, a tool of social control, and when reclaimed, a powerful symbol of resistance.

[00:04:02]Attempts to regulate it underscore its importance in shaping how people see themselves, how they're perceived, and ultimately, how they're allowed to exist in the world.

[00:04:13]If hair was frivolous, then we wouldn't see the attempt to control it in so many situations of coercive control. And let me tell you, y'all, MAGA can't even hear you when you have blue hair or rainbow hair or anything. And it's so fun because all the cult members show up to say the same thing to me, "Oh, the hair tells me everything I needed to know."

[00:04:33]Yeah, and you're paying me to insult me right now. So, the hair tells me everything I need to know, too. I make about $10,000 a year from MAGA hate comments on my hair, which pays for the hair.

[00:04:45]You can get signed copies of The Culting of America attached here, or listen to me read it to you anywhere you get your audiobooks.