[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape's oily hair

[porphyria at mindspring.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 37144

I'm always a little puzzled at the 'why is Snape's hair oily' question and how people either worry about it *very* literally (and argue, indeed quite reasonably, that some people just have oily hair) or they take it as a clue to something we don't already know (a side-effect from an anti-vampire potion, a dementor's hydrophobia, etc.). Maybe I'm being really boring here, but I've always felt that it lay squarely in the realm of iconographic characterization and hence a) misdirection leading us (and Harry) to see him as villainous (i.e. sleazy people have greasy hair); and then b) exactly the way you'd depict someone who is, well I hate to say it but, clinically depressed, or if that's too strong, beset with grief and self-hatred. 

I think my question here is why do people wonder about his hair and no one ever seems to wonder why he wears black all the time (something more obviously his own personal choice). Snape strikes me as someone who is *in mourning* and his irritability, bouts of rage and disdain for keeping a tidy appearance all express the same mental state. I think that idea ties in perfectly well with what we know of the Potterverse wherein nearly all of the adult characters are still traumatized in some way by the past and Dumbledore is practically the only person who can say "Voldemort" out loud. This is a society of people who have failed to recover. And Snape has fairly personal reasons to be in mourning; regardless of whether he's more grief-stricken at the loss of the Potters or his own fellow housemates, his generation was decimated. Not to mention his depression and self-hatred from whatever past actions he blames himself for. At least his outwardly expressed acrimony (both in looks an!
d behavior) is easier to sympathize with than the tendency towards avoidance or under-rug sweeping in the manner of Crouch Sr., Fudge, Karkaroff, the Dursleys or any of the other characters who utterly fail to face up to the unpleasant realities in their lives.  

~~Porphyria