These trends can take the form of clothes, music, movies or hairstyles. Many of the young people flooding the streets of Kathmandu flaunt hairstyles inspired from Korean movies or wear clothes inspired by the eccentric fashion scene in Japan and one of these trends that has hit these young people hard, is the tend to flaunt long hair. [break]
Initially, started by musicians and music lovers inspired by the rough image that many members of metal or rock bands flaunted in USA, long-hair is now seen in people who don’t like metal or rock music as well.
The long hair trend has spiraled out of its orbit, inspiring many youths of Nepal to express themselves in long lanky locks of hair.
But the question that still lingers in the minds all of these long haired youngsters is whether people treat them differently because of their choice to grow their hair long.
Nepal, although developing at a rapid pace, is home to a lot of traditional people inspired by the old-ways.
There are old ladies, sighing at the young men with long hair and the state the world has come to; there are younger women, grabbing their young children and dragging them out of the way of rugged looking youngsters and the question still remains, through all this westernization and urban-development, are people judged by the way they look and not by the way they act?
“I was a subject to a lot of harassment when I had long hair,” says 25 year-old Bibhor Kharel, a MBA student at Tribhuvan University. “There was this one time when I got into a minor bike-accident where I collided with a cab but when the traffic police came, they looked at me and asked me if I dressed up so rough, how rough could my riding be? The society still looks at people with long hair in a negative way, and thinks those who flaunt long hair are associated with degrading acts like stealing or drug-dealing,” he adds.
Bibhor informs us that he cut his hair six months after he completed his Bachelors and he did so because he wanted to, not because he was being discriminated against in the society.
“We are educated enough to not care what other people think about us, as long we don’t do drugs or get roped into degrading acts, I think it’s fine for everyone to express themselves in any way that they like,” he informs.
Discrimination is not only limited to the streets, schools and colleges also force students into cutting their hair. Art students seem to find freedom in their appearance whereas students following a more managerial or business stream seem to be subject to forced hair-cuts.
The discrimination also lies in the level these students are studying in, school-levels students are groomed to have short hair, daring +2 students, in most colleges, are not allowed inside the college and BBA or MBA students are pressured into cutting their hair.
“We are grooming future managers and executives, people who work in these positions are expected to have short hair and look smart and decent. There are people like Vijay Mallya, chairman of the United Breweries Group and Kingfisher Airlines, who flaunt long hair but these people are very successful and famous people. However, in the context of our students, we want them to look smart and decent so that they can interact and form good relationships with various people and not get judged by their rugged appearance,” says Bishnu Prasad Adhikari, Principal of Kathmandu College of Management (KCM).
Apart from the pressure at college or the streets, theses long haired youngsters seem to get harassed at home too.
Usually older generations tend to take offence to their long hair, comparing them to girls or commenting on their parents’ parenting abilities.
Most parents, knowing their children intimately tend not to fuss over long hair, as long as their children are doing fine at school and are staying away from bad habits.
Convincing parents seem to be easier and as long as their parents’ are fine with their long hair, these youngsters tend not to pay any heed to anything their other family members have to say.
“There are a lot of judgmental people in this world, people who don’t know you yet venture far enough to pass rude comments about the way you look,” says 26 year-old Min Bham, a filmmaking student from Oscar International College of Filmmaking.
“People should be judged on the good things that they do and not on the way they look. In a society such as ours, the best thing to do is worry about what people close to you think, like your parents or your closest friends, and these people usually accept you for what you accomplish in life. Everyone else can say anything they want because at the end of the day, what they say is not going to change anything I do or feel in life,” he adds.
There seem to be people still repulsed by the idea of men with long hair. People tend to stay away from youngsters with long hair because they associate them with various types of mental and spiritual unhealthiness.
People still seem to associate long hair with young people who have strayed away from their path and are frustrated in the ways of life and education.
“People say that growing long hair is a phase that every youngster goes through but I have never had long hair in my life and never plan to,” says 25 year-old Shekar KC, currently a student of management at Kathmandu University (KU).
“I think people who flaunt long hair are usually young people out of drive. These people are usually under the influence of drugs or people who have strayed out of their career-path. Sure many philosophers or great artists have long hair and these people are highly intellectual, but young people with long hair usually only do it to show off. When you have short hair, you’re fresh and confident and I think that is what lacks in these youngsters, they are reserved and are subject to various forms of psychological frustration,” he adds.
Society is changing and along with it is education too, but the way people perceive youth forms of expression, still remain the same.
Discrimination still flourishes in modern society today and unless we learn to put trivial things such as long hairs or piercings behind more important factors like work and behavior, Nepali society is bound to lag behind.
Forms of expression can come in many different ways and society needs to grow enough to embrace and respect individual expression.
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