At the time, hair represented our need to break free from adults in our lives. Long hair represented our freed inner selves.
My clients are often surprised when I asked them questions about their hairstyle—why they choose it, how else they’ve worn their hair, how they feel about it, and so on. However, while it may seem to be a simple topic, even today our hairstyles still have many psychological and emotional meanings. Understanding some of those meanings can lead to understanding of many different aspects of a person’s mind. How we view our hair, for example, can show something about how we view ourselves.
Our hair can show physical and emotional wellbeing, desirability, and even social and financial status. When it becomes dull or fragile, it can communicate emotional and physical diseases. But hair can also show unrecognized and often unspoken daydreams about oneself and one’s world. One woman—a successful professional—wore her long hair in a thick bun(发髻).
But one day she showed me that tangled(缠结的) hair was kept in the bun. She said that she never brushed out the tangles because the hair showed her secret image of herself as a helpless, disturbed woman, like Ophelia in the play Hamlet.
Another woman came to therapy in a huge shirt and huge pants that she believed they could hide the weight she had put on since the birth of her child. She talked about how much she hated her body and how helpless she felt about doing anything about it. But her hair was always beautifully coloured and decorated. When I pointed out that she seemed to have a different relationship with her hair from she did with her body, she said that her hair had been thinning and that she was trying to make it look as good as she could. I pointed out that what she was doing with her hair and her body was kind of contradictory, and wondered if she had any thoughts about that.
She was surprised. But as we talked about her contradictory attitudes towards different parts of her physical self, we began to open up all sorts of other thoughts and ideas about her inner self.
And interestingly, as we continued opening those internal doors, changes started to happen. She started eating differently and exercising regularly. One day some months later, she appeared in my office in skinny jeans and a tight sweater, and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. “I decided to see what would happen if I stopped trying to hide myself, ” she said with a big smile.
“And…? ” I asked. “People keep smiling at me in the street. My husband hugged me this morning for the first time in ages. And I feel good! ”
Besides, selfrespect in both men and women can be damaged by thinning hair；they may feel alone even though they are really not. Given our cultural focus on physical appearance, youth, and health, hair loss can be unpleasant for both men and women. The market is filled with hairenhancing treatments, but there are those who have decided to be against the system and change to the “bald is beautiful” position. But it is much harder for women to take the “bald is beautiful” approach to hair loss. We tend to try to hide it in one way or another.
But no matter what approach you use, it is important to remember that the thickness of your hair has nothing to do with your value in the world. Remember that you have nothing to be ashamed of if you have thinning hair. Thinning hair may not be something you can change, but it doesn’t have to control how you represent the person who lives underneath it.
1. In the 1960s, long hair represented___________.
| A．fashion | B．honesty | C．peace | D．freedom |
| A．Because this topic can reduce clients’ pain. |
| B．Because the hairstyle can reflect one’s inner self. |
| C．Because it’s a simple topic to start a conversation. |
| D．Because this is a topic most people are interested in. |
| A．prove her idea |
| B．introduce the topic |
| C．make comparisons |
| D．stress the importance of good hair |
| A．She had long but thinning hair. |
| B．She was helpless and disturbed. |
| C．She was too busy to brush her hair. |
| D．She loved the play Hamlet very much. |
| A．Not to be affected by thinning hair. |
| B．To take the “bald is beautiful” position. |
| C．To find suitable treatments for thinning hair. |
| D．Not to pay too much attention to our physical appearance. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Nowadays, WeChat is about expressing our opinions and Weibo is about collecting things we like. Both of them develop our self-focus. Self-focus simply means you pay attention to how you feel, think and behave. Self-focus isn’t naturally a bad thing. Particularly in individualistic (个人主义的) cultures, we value our ability to be self-aware.
Unfortunately, when you are regularly focusing on yourself, you’ll notice any dissatisfaction, anxiety, or general discomfort you might not have otherwise.
But quitting technology is no longer a practical solution.
Do you like to take selfies (自拍)? It’s easy to take a quick picture of yourself to show what you re doing, or how you re feeling. But paying attention to ourselves often makes us feel worse.
| A．Too much self-focus means few friends. |
| B．Self-focus is generally helpful in daily life. |
| C．Therefore, try taking pictures of your friends. |
| D．In fact, we can use technology in ways that are less self-focused. |
| E．By bringing your attention to those negative emotions, you strengthen them. |
| F．We want to know who we are and why we do what we do to uncover possible ways to improve our lives. |
| G．Technology-when used in certain ways is having negative effects on our mental health and well-being. |
【推荐2】If you are a fan of US TV series, you’ll be familiar with the morning breakfast routine: Each family member pours a mound of cereal into a bowl, adds enough milk to send it flowing over the top, before getting stuck into their sugary start to the day.
For generations, cereal has been the bedrock of the American breakfast, but it now seems to be losing some of its momentum. Sales of breakfast cereals in the US have gone stale, owing to concerns about the morning food’s lack of nutrition, as well as a rise in demand for more convenient options for those constantly in a hurry.
There’s nothing new about cereal being labeled less than nutritious and too high in calories.
But the consumer’s desire for a healthier way to start the day is now at its highest ever. Shoppers are seeking out “high protein and fiber content and natural ingredients,” the US-based research firm Mintel Group Ltd said in a report. “Consumers today believe cereal is overly processed and doesn’t contain enough nutrients.”
“Consumers are increasingly seeking products that match their personal definition of real food, and that can mean foods that are less processed and have simple labels with recognizable ingredients,” Kendall Powell, chairman of the US-based food company General Mills, said at an investors’ conference in July.
However, manufacturers and industry analysts say that if breakfast cereal makers can keep on adapting to changing consumer needs, especially among millennials, the business can grow again.
“While millennials may look at breakfast differently, they are still eating a lot of cereal, just not always for breakfast,” “According to Nielsen data, ready-to-eat cereal is in 90 percent of all households and nearly 94 percent of millennial households.
| A．That means cereal is facing stiff competition from fresh fruit, yogurt, breakfast bars and drinks, and even all-day breakfast meals at McDonalds or other fast-food chains |
| B．Millennials want something quick and simple in the morning, and they love variety. |
| C．Another big challenge for the industry is the ever-changing pattern of breakfast eaters, with an emphasis increasingly being placed on satisfying time-squeezed lifestyles. |
| D．Brand-name cereal prices jumped after the financial crisis in 2008, owing largely to the higher prices of grains and other ingredients. |
| E．For this group, cereal is more than just a breakfast item, it is also a popular snack option. |
| F．Critics for years have been saying that some cereals are laced with too much sugar. |
Proudly reading my words, I glanced around the room, only to find my classmates bearing big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes. Confused, I glanced toward my stone-faced teacher. Having no choice, I slowly raised the report I had slaved over, hoping to hide myself. “What could be causing everyone to act this way?”
Quickly, I flashed back to the day Miss Lancelot gave me the task. This was the first real task I received in my new school. It seemed simple: go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington. Since my idea of history came from an ancient teacher in my home country, I had never heard of that name before. As I searched the name of this fellow, it became evident that there were two people bearing the same name who looked completely different! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts, while the other led some sort of army across America. I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant. I called my grandfather for a golden piece of advice; flip (掷) a coin. Heads—the commander, and tails—the peanuts guy. Ah! Tails, my report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver.
Weeks later, standing before this unfriendly mass, I was totally lost. Oh well, I lowered the paper and sat down at my desk, burning to find out what I had done wrong. As a classmate began his report, it all became clear, “My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American Revolution.” The whole world became quite! How could I know that she meant that George Washington?
Obviously, my grade was awful. Heartbroken but fearless, I decided to turn this around. I talked to Miss Lancelot, but she insisted: No re-dos; no new grade. I felt that the punishment was not justified, and I believed I deserved a second chance. Consequently, I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year. Ten months later, that chance unfolded as I found myself sitting in the headmaster’s office with my grandfather, now having an entirely different conversation. I smiled and flashed back to the embarrassing moment at the beginning of the year as the headmaster informed me of my option to skip the sixth grade. Justice is sweet!
1. What did the author’s classmates think about his report?
| A．Controversial. | B．Ridiculous. |
| C．Boring. | D．Puzzling. |
| A．He was unfamiliar with American history. |
| B．He followed the advice and flipped a coin. |
| C．He forgot his teacher’s instruction. |
| D．He was new at the school. |
| A．annoyed | B．ashamed |
| C．ready | D．eager |
| A．by redoing his task |
| B．through his own efforts |
| C．with the help of his grandfather |
| D．under the guidance of his headmaster |
