Hair Textiles and Gaga

By Tove Hermanson
We all know Gaga loves her wigs, but she also dabbles with clothes
that resemble wigs, as with this LaVer dress she recently wore to a
taping of The View:
Gaga on the View, May 2011
LaVer couture hair dress, 2010 collection
Since medieval times, locks of hair have been given to lovers as
amulets, and the Victorians wove hair of the deceased into jewelry
(more on fashion and mourning! "hese customs reveal the
sentimental properties we imbue hair with (in a way we do not imbue,
say, #ngernail clippings or dead skin, as a representation of a greater
spiritual, emotional, and sensual body!
Victorian hair jewelry
$air is one of those components of the body that has a split
personality: one the one hand, it%s a sensual symbol of youth, fertility
and se&uality' on the other hand, when it is removed from its proper
(that is, e&pected source, it becomes something horrible and icky (in
a tub drain, on your clothes, etc!! Alexander McQueen tapped into
both the marvelous and the macabre associations of hair (speci#cally
that Victorian prostitutes would sell theirs for kits of hair locks, which
were bought by people to give to their lovers(i)) by sewing clear packets of
neatly coiled tufts of hair into the linings of his garents as his signature label! in early
collections, it was his own hair"
#le$ander Mc%ueen hair label
While hair from a loved one may conjure desire, longing, or
melancholy (relatively benign emotions, a clump of unfamiliar hair is
typically met with repulsion! Kate Kretz e&plored the comfort,
familiarity, sentimentality, and seemingly contradicting uneasiness
displaced hair elicits from us by embroidering human hair directly
onto a pillowcase' the hair could just as easily be a blood stain, so
wrong does it seem, severed from the body that produced it (imagine
laying your face onto that*:
My Young Lover, +,,- by .ate .ret/
$umans are obsessed with caring for the hair on our heads (the hair
product isles in any drug store is testament to that, and e0ually
obsessed with removing hair from 1undesirable2 places (legs,
underarms, bikini areas, backs, chests! 3ody hair on women has
been considered undesirable in many cultures for millenia! Since the
great 4ncient 5gyptian and 6iddle 5astern cultures, women having
been mi&ing their own version of 7ads (a sugary depilatory, if you
haven8t seen the hilarious infomercials and home9brewed bleaches to
remove and conceal unwanted facial and body hair: golden ra/ors
were even found in the tomb of 5gyptian :ueen $etepheres(ii) (so
she could shave in the afterlife;!
Simply moving hair from a 1desirable2 location (head, eyelashes, to
an 1undesirable2 one (anywhere else grosses most of us out! <ady
Gaga loves to push the boundaries of psychological comfort, and she
revels in the sartorial social statement! "o wit, in performances of her
new song 1Hair,2 she has been appearing in a series of dresses made
entirely of hair e&tensions (fre0uently matched to her wigs! =n her
recent performance of 1 Hair on the >aul ? 8Grady Show, she wore a
bald cap over her natural mane while serenading her wig (which
matched her hair dress, and put it on halfway through, to
complement the chorus 1= am my hair2:
Gaga on >aul ?8Grady Show with dyed hair dress by Charlie Le
Mindu, @une +,AA
"he piano itself is covered with a te&tile of darker, curlier fake hair
that looks not unlike Alexander McQueens synthetic hair coat from
a decade ago:
#le$ander Mc%ueen &'shu( collection, )all*+inter 2000,01
Words like 1freak2 and 1free2 appear in Gaga8s 1$air2 and also the
song 1$air 2 from the BC, s musical Hair, as well as an ambiguous
social agenda that is nonetheless important to the singers, embedded
within their respective Bdos (long and natural as in Hair, or long and
fake for Gaga! 5ach song8s lyrics refer to parental disapproval,
judgement from the public, and an overwhelming urge to #ght this
prejudice against nonconformist appearance, with hair as the symbol
of individuality!
4t a Good 6orning 4merica Summer Doncert , Gaga shared with the
audience, 1>eople used to make fun of me for my wigs, and =8m just
telling you without my wigs = feel like = can only be one person and =
want to be so many!2 She then proceeded to don not one, but several
wigs over the course of the song!
Dompare Gaga8s blonde hair dress and blonde wig to Maison Martin
Margielas hair dress from a couple years ago:
Gaga in blonde hair dress, -ctober 2010
Maison Martin Margiela, ..0/
<ike Gaga, 6argiela also paired the wig jacket with a wig of identical
false hair that tumbles into the garment, burring the boundary
between desirable (i!e! head hair, and undesirable (i!e! body hair!
Entil the last few decades with the emergence of the so9called
1metrose&ual,2 men8s body hair has gone largely unnoticed and
unregulated, while women8s body hair has been increasingly vili#ed:
women8s shrinking underwear and swimsuit styles have corresponded
to shrinking styli/ed pubic hair surface area! Dompare this illustration
from the original The Joy of Sex (published in AFG+, a singular
decade when body hair of men and women was encouraged to grow
undisturbed, to this more recent photo of isele Bundchen in a
bikini99 Gisele8s pubic hair must be depilatoried to the si/e of a
0uarter for none to show:
Left" fro The Joy of Sex, 1/02! 1ight" Gisele 2undcen
"he delightfully vulgar electroclash9y singer !eaches pushed the
limits of 1acceptable2 female hair in her music video Set it Of! ?ver
the course of the video, her hair grows H head hair and eyelashes, but
also underarm hair, her treasure trail advances on her belly, and her
pubic hair creeps down her legs! Gaga wore a similar merkin,
underarm hair, and head wig in teal for a performance of &3orn "his
Way2 at the 6uch6usic 4wards:
>eaches in Set it Of video (e&cuse the terrible 0uality of
the video still
Gaga at MuchMusic #wards, 2011
3eyond the pure gross factor (which in and of itself is satisfying, =
think, by e&perimenting with hair dresses and body hair wigs, Gaga
contributes to this commentary on controlled female se&uality via
(head hair care and (body hair removalIcensorship!
"hough her underarm and pubic hair is not usually depicted, Mary
Magdalene o" the olden Legend is fre0uently portrayed with her
(natural hair so long that a she can wash @esus8 feet with it, and b
she can wear it as a Jimsy dress of sorts! #ohn the Ba$tist is also
said to have worn a shirt of hair, though it is not his own (the itching
was a perpetual, self9inJicted punishment:
Penitent Mary Magdalene by "itian, c!
A-KA H K-
Maesta St! "ohn the #a$tist by Simone 6artini,
A-th century
Loland previously wrote:
=n the collapsing of 3iblical stories there are three 6arys that are
merged into a single #gure: 6ary of 3ethany, 6ary the 6agdalene,
and 6ary the >rostitute! =n Western Dhristianity (i!e! Datholicism,
6ary is the redeemed prostitute who meets Dhrist, abandons her
ways, and goes on to preach the Gospel to the idol9worshippers in
6arseilles! 5ventually, following the %olden Legend, she becomes a
hermit! She resides in the desert, and every day is lifted by angels to
receive nourishment from God! While she originally wears a hair shirt
(or simply covers herself with her long Jowing hair, in artistic
representations her hair shirt is sometimes depicted as actual body
hair!
6ary8s hair is a symbol of her se&8s sensuality, an instrument of
charity and redemption, and it also hints at her profession8s presumed
immodesty! <ike 6adonna, Gaga returns again and again to themes of
religion and se& in her performances' as a prostitute9turned9Dhristian,
6ary 6agdalene literally embodies both! =n the & "udas video, Gaga
places herself in 6ary8s role (albeit not in hair dresses!
6ary 6agdalene is a likely reference point in the phenomenal 1hair
sculptures2 of stylist duo regory %ean (the #rst of which resembles
Gaga8s <aVer dress, yes;! 7ote how the model8s ponytail merges
seamlessly into her dresses, eradicating the boundaries between
head and body tresses, 1acceptable2 and 1unacceptable2 hair,
simultaneously rebellious, political, and irreverently religious:
= don8t know about you, but = kinda want one!
(i)4le&ander 6c:ueen 0uotation from 14le&ander 6c:ueen: Savage
3eauty2 by 4ndrew 3olton, Male Eniversity >ress, 7ew $aven: +,AA! p!
K-!
(ii)Virginia Sarah Smith, 'lean a history of $ersonal hygiene and
$urity, ?&ford World%s Dlassics, ?&ford Eniversity >ress, +,,G, pp!CCf
Author Bio&
"ove $ermanson is a freelance writer and lecturer on fashion history
and culture with a background in 5nglish, Nilm "heory, 4rt $istory, and
Dostume Oesign! She e&plores everyday culture through a fashion9
historical lens to gain insight into politics, social and class struggles,
gender and se&ual identity themes, race issues, and more! She
currently publishes articles in the $uPngton >ost, the academic
fashion blogs Worn "hrough and her own "hread for "hought, in
addition to ad ho( lectures! 4dditionally, she is the 5ditor of the
Dostume Society of 4merica%s monthly 597ewsletter!
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