coifs and alignment

[barbara_mbowen]

No: HPFGUIDX 82740

   <"Serena Moonsilver" wrote:  Maybe it's just me but I'm 
beginning to notice a connection between 
hair and whether a character is good or evil. In general 
characters 
with messy or unkempt hair are good (Harry, Hermione, Luna, 
Hagrid). And characters with more managed hair are more 
questionable if not evil (Lockhart, Umbridge, all the Malfoys).>

Me:  I do think you are onto something here.  It may not be as 
blatant as Messy=good or kempt=bad.  A more subtle reading 
might be that hair itself is an indicator of something about the 
character:  red hair and black hair for instance.  Red haired 
people are:  Dumbledore, Lily, the Weasleys, Mungus and 
Crookshanks.  All good.  Black hair:  James, Harry, Sirius, 
Snape, Tom Riddle.  I think a male character with black hair is a 
Harry doppelganger; someone with a deep connection to him.  If 
that man is also thin, more significance.   

Look at the beginning of PoA.  The first three times Sirius is 
mentioned, he is directly compared to Harry.  The first one, on p.  
17  concerns hair.  Uncle Vernon says of the picture of Black on 
tv:  "'No need to tell us *he's* no good....Look at the state of 
him...Look at his hair!'
      He shot a nasty look sideways at Harry, whose untidy hair 
had always been a source of great annoyance."  

Sirius with "filthy, matted" hair and Snape with "greasy" hair.   
These two are also connected, like opposite sides of the same 
coin.  (But that's another post and has probably already been 
done.)  Whether father figure or enemy, all thin black haired men 
are connected to Harry, are his opposites or doubles.

I would also argue that Lupin and Dumbledore are connected by 
virtue of their gray hair....gray hair signifying someone carrying a 
a heavy  weight, and dark secrets.

As for McGonagle and her tidy bun, I think she puts it in a bun to 
get it out of her way and never thinks about it again.  She is clean 
and well-organized but far from vain.  People who are well coifed 
(Malfoys, Umbridge with her "large black velvet bow", Rita 
Skeeter in her GoF days, Lockhart, the Dursleys) are vain as well 
as tidy about their hair.  For the Dursleys it's a sign of their 
respectability.  For Rita Skeeter it's a sign of her persona, like 
her long fingernails and makeup.  When she finally gets 
cornered into doing something good in Oop, her hair is no 
longer well coifed, but a mess.  p 565 OoP:  "The hair that had 
once been set in elaborate curls now hung lank and unkempt 
around her face."  

As for the girls:  Cho with her beautiful, long hair is not bad, but 
not exactly a deep character, either.  She is a pretty typical
"pretty 
girl".  Hermione on the other hand has an unmanagable bush.  
For the ball in GoF, she spend hours making it look good, but 
the very next day announces she can't be bothered to go to all 
that fuss everyday, and we have yet to see her glamourized 
again.  She is too smart to fall for the "looks are everything" 
mentality.  And I would argue that Ginny's red hair connects her 
to the two mother (figures) in HP:  Lily and Molly.  I suspect that 
means she will be Harry's girlfriend on that basis.

Any more thoughts on hair out there? 

Marmelade Mom, brushing the hair from her six cats and two 
dogs off her sweater, and going off to read more Harry.