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Nosey person: Why don't you cut your hair?
Person with long hair: Why don't you just FUCK OFF? *accompanied by a punch in the nose if this one is a violent specimen.
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It always puzzles me when people get offended by the remark: Why don't you cut your hair? I've had long hair ever since I was a wee little girl this small and the response I always had (well, the only response I remember giving) was:
Nosey person: Why don't you cut your hair?
Me: Dunno, don't feel like it. Wastes money and I'm stingy. Why? Does it look bad or something?
Nosey person: Nope. It's fine. (Or yes, in that case I should start treating my hair better. But maybe, they thought I was offended and shut up.)
The idea that I should have felt offended only occured to me somewhere around last year. Most people who were asked that kind of questions took it as an insult. Damn. I should have scolded a few more people and thrown a few more punches.
Or should I?
Firstly, why is 'Why don't you cut your hair?' such an offensive statement? For me, it falls into the same category as questions like 'Why are you wearing a white shirt?' My response would be something like 'The weather's hot and a white shirt is more cooling' or 'I like the design of this shirt', etc.
Reasonable answers for a reasonable question.
When people ask 'Why don't you cut your hair?', they can mean anything from 'Wow, there's a person with really long hair. What inspired him/her to keep it so long?' to 'Yucks, your hair sucks and I hate you'. So maybe the person may be just curious, rather than hostile. She may even want to give a compliment!
So the next time someone asks me that question, I've decided to prompt her for the reasons behind it. If she doesn't bear any ill will or is just plain curious, I'll smile and give her a proper, polite answer. If she's one of those people whose hobby is insulting people, I'll throw that punch. *bish*
:D :D :D :D
(I don't mean the punching part seriously of course. The law here isn't very kind to violent people. :D)