One of the things that misogyny and patriarchal societies have denied men since time immemorial is the opportunity and platform to express just how much body image and the issues of identity and self-esteem that comes with it.
For far too long, the standard for masculinity was a sense of ruggedness, and the pressure to deliberately ignore personal appearance and pretend physical flaws and limitations are only minor distractions rather than major hindrances to self-actualization; to rescue, enter Man weaves.
Women have always cared about how they look. This is why female fashion, beauty and hygiene is as advanced as it currently is. Women are allowed (and sometimes pressured) to appraise their looks and change the physical parts of themselves that do not give them joy. This kind of grooming was dismissed as feminine, and encouraged in women, but discouraged in men. Especially when it comes to hair.
Societal attitudes towards men’s hair have shifted drastically with every decade since industrialisation, with a base standard of ‘adulthood’ and ‘maturity’ being ascribed to boring, maudlin hairstyles for men. Because of its versatility, men’s hair is often a battlefield for respectability and while many men have fought for the rights to grow out their hair and keep locks in the United States, even that has become heavily policed. But nothing is as damaging to a man’s self-esteem as baldness.
Hair is socially associated with virility, so while men are encouraged and often pressured to keep as little hair as possible, baldness is also a taboo. As more and more men become disillusioned because of early onset baldness, some hairstylists have looked on the other side of the gender divide for some help.
Man weaves (an update on the traditional toupee) is gaining popularity with black men. A variation of the female lace front wig, the man weave is glued onto the man’s bald scalp with heavy adhesive glues that last weeks to months, and then hair is cut to match the man’s natural hair texture and curl pattern.
For many young men with premature balding, man weaves have become a way to regain their self-esteem, self-confidence and virility. Man weaves are allowing bald men socialise more, feel more confident in approaching attractive women and seeing themselves as more desirable. But this new use of the man weave is helping men finally break the gender dichotomy that used to govern hair in black communities.
Weaves are now for everyone, not just women.
