“True Beauty”: Hair, Femininity, and Self-Perception

Abstract

This thesis investigates the significance of hair in women’s lives, with a focus on how hair loss and the choice to cover hair shape perceptions of femininity, beauty, and self-identity. While hair is often dismissed as superficial, it operates as a critical site of meaning. Hair is tied to cultural values, spiritual practices, racialized beauty standards, and emotional well-being. This thesis provides reasoning for why an integrated framework, The Hair-Identity Embodiment Framework, is needed to truly understand hair-related experiences. The Hair-Identity Embodiment Framework combines the biomedical, psychological, sociocultural, and economic dimensions, highlighting the complex interplay between individual experience and structural forces of hair and beauty. Beginning with a theological and historical overview, the thesis explores how hair has long symbolized. It then examines how medicalized understandings of hair loss often fail to address the emotional trauma and social stigma experienced by women. Methodologically, the thesis is based on an argumentative review. The analysis of established literature ultimately calls for a more culturally responsive and emotionally attuned approach in healthcare, public health, and media representations.