Hair-O-Mania

I was browsing the TV channels on a lazy afternoon and just out of curiosity , started counting the number of hair oil advertisements .To my surprise, I counted 12 different types of hair oil /capsules within an hour of TV watching.  Of late, the number of advertisements which claim to give you long hair and treat all your hair related problems has increased. 

Very interesting! ....Is it suddenly that people started having hair –related problems? Or is it because they suddenly became so conscious about their hair?  To  be frank, some of these ads are hopeless. I saw one, in which the female model claims that ,it’s the “birth right” of women to have long hair and no man can question her or harm her based on that. The worst part, the oil claims to make you assertive of your female rights!My god! I never knew , having  long hair would actually help you become “stronger” ! 

Those who have seen me some years back will remember that I had real long hair and now , got it cut short , after I started losing considerable hair due to hormonal imbalance in post-delivery phase. I think , these are just natural processes and nobody can stop these with some “magical” oil which will change your hair growth in 10 days or six weeks! And yes, I don’t think having long hair or short hair has any impact on one’s  mental strength.

Any physician would agree to the fact that hair is a tissue made out of dead cells of the body  and  the external texture and growth of the hair is dependant greatly to the internal condition of your body. But why then this howl over  all these hair oils?? 

To be more scientific, I had read more about coconut oil (thanks to a radio pgm of Coconut development board, a show which I hosted!) and you know something? Pure coconut oil is the best conditioner and it’s the only oil which actually penetrates easily deep into the hair roots. This is the truth and fact, whatever the different hairs  oils claim is just a marketing gimmick. 

Well, I know that you must be already aware of the above facts. But do you know what exactly makes one buy these hair oils and what harm it can create to the next generation?

People buy these products when they suddenly feel that they “don’t possess” something which they ought to, in order to survive in this society.   It is just their underlying lower self esteem and inferiority complex, which is in turn a by-product of deliberate advertising by these companies. To be precise, these companies survive just by bringing out the inferiority complex and encashing them. Just rewind some ten years back whether these types of hair oils were existent? Were people bothered about their hair? (may be they were bothered, but they chose coconut oil or some natural oils..)  In a research  study by one of my most respectable faculty in Cochin university (He is now a professor in IIM) , it was found that the personality factors like self esteem had a significant relationship to the time and money spent on make-up items. 

Infact, its not just hair oil, a whole range of “self esteem” products are actually creating a generation of human beings  who may become very poor in their self esteem. Hence , in future, our sons and daughters will have to wear heavy  make-up ,have their hair straightened or coloured  , use fairness cream, use the costliest deodorant and atleast ten such items before they even step out of their house. If any one item is missing, the guy/girl feels so uncomfortable that in the long run, they may lose their self-confidence  and start feeling that they can work properly only when they have the support of these items!

 Now, you might be wondering whether I don’t use any of these products.  Of course I do use some products, but definitely no hair oil which claims large results and no fairness creams (my husband says , it would  be a great challenge for a fairness cream if I am using it!).  But I make sure that even if these are not there, I don’t lose my self- confidence! 

 Adieu ..for now