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🌊 Deep Dive: What does our hair have to do with masculinity?

Time for another Deep Dive, everyone! 🌊  

Deep Dives are member-led, one-hour discussions on wide-ranging topics — but always linked in some way to masculinities, gender equity, mental wellness, and/or healthy relationships. 

Bring your coffee and settle in for a great conversation. Or, if you've got a busy day, you're welcome to join from your phone while on the go!

This time, we’re talking about hair! Regardless of gender, hair plays a big role in our identity — how we present to the world, how we express ourselves, and it impacts how confident we feel. We are particularly interested in exploring how hair plays a role in our understanding and performance of masculinity. Whether it’s hair loss, hairstyles, body hair, or facial hair, hair is very tied to gender performance and expression. 

So let’s untangle some of these questions! 

  • What does hair have to do with the performance of gender/masculinity? (Consider facial hair, body hair, and head hair!)

    • What about across cultures, subcultures, ethnicities and religions? What kind of variety have you seen and how do you understand it as being related to gender or not?

  • What are some of the expectations you’ve been subject to about your hair over time?

    • Where did these expectations come from? 

    • Did you internalize them or push back against them? (or both?) and what was the result?

  • Do you think gendered expectations about hair have changed over time? In what ways have they changed and in what ways have they stayed the same? Why do you think that might be?

  • How is hair loss related to patriarchal ideas about masculinity?

    • What are stereotypes about men & hair loss?

    • Why do we struggle with it? (what’s the significance)

    • Who benefits from hair loss insecurity?

  • Have you felt anxious about hair loss? If yes, when did that first happen for you? What do you think influenced that anxiety?

    • How does men’s hair loss impact body image otherwise? For example, do men sometimes feel the need to change something else about their appearance in response to hair loss?

  • How do we talk about men & hair loss? (do we have empathy? yay or nay?)

    • How might we approach hair loss with 1) compassion 2) a critical eye re: what's making us feel so bad about it 3) more creativity/positivity?

And we'll go from there! 

Hope to see you there on Sunday June 9 at 10 am PT / 11 am MT / 1 pm ET 🙌

Access to Deep Dives events and our private online community, Inner Circle, are available to Next Gen Menbers only!

What is Next Gen Menbership? It’s a $5-50 monthly or $50-500 annual contribution that goes directly to our youth programs with the added bonus of exclusive discounts, free events, and more!

Earlier Event: May 30
NGM Calgary Meet Up
Later Event: June 13
👋 NGM Vancouver Meet Up