#2: WHAT YOUR SCHOOL HAIRSTYLE SAYS ABOUT YOU

Shanice Tan
Mar 17, 2016
7 min read

To many of us ACSians, looks matter. But with the sea of rules that limit the panache distinct to us, what remains as a viable canvas is our hair. This article therefore serves as an essential companion to help you identify the vast array of hairstyles the ACSian species may be seen sport, and to uncover the latent connotations concealed beneath those incessant layers of hairspray and bobby pins.

(Disclaimer: I am neither a professional hairstylist nor analyst, but a year 6 girl writing at my free will. So please refrain from taking these comments to heart)

Let us begin with the clichéd ACSian phrase,

“Ladies first”

1. The ponytail:

If you wear you hair in a ponytail, you most likely share the same hairstyle with 90% of the IB girls in ACS. In fact, this hairstyle is so contagious it is spotted on a few of the female teachers as well.

Common Traits:

You usually complete your IAs and assignments by the day of submission itself
Your favorite food in the SAC is “ban mian” or “oyakodon”

Variations in the ponytail:

The high ponytail: You are/were from a performing arts CCA and you keep a comb in your bag. Your favorite study location in school is the SAC and the Star Vista is your second home.

The permed ponytail: You spend at least 3 hours on Instagram everyday, and you update your main once a week minimally. Your hair is your most precious asset and and comes way before your math assignments.

The low ponytail: You get by with the bare minimum in life. You often rush your IAs at a day before the deadline, and you take less than 10 seconds to do your hair every morning. You also tend to be very down to earth and amiable.

The braided ponytail: You appreciate art in general and you suffer from OCD to a varying extent. Your math tutors love your handwriting and your meticulous working steps, even if the answer is wrong. You spend 15 minutes tying your hair in the morning, 5 minutes to check it in the mirror, and another 20 minutes to redo everything.

2. The Braid

The braid is a hairstyle distinctive ACSian girls, and is seen as a common alternative to the ponytail. Its origins stem from the stringent customs in MGS- the largest feeder school of the IB cohort. The braid emanates elegance and class, but may also conceal many dark secrets beneath those tricky plaited locks.

Common Traits:

You know every line to the rap in Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood”
People often picture you with your langlit texts on one of the school benches or in the SAC, sipping on hot tea as you read in serenity. In reality, you are more likely to indulge in videogames secretly.
You came from MGS

Variations in the Braid:

The French braid: You possess a set strong arms muscles, or rather, “guns”, unintentionally. You deal with hair frizz like your EETOKIA; the struggle persists everyday. Your favorite time to shower is immediately after you untie your hair. Fortunately, receiving compliments on your hair is not rare. However, certain unsuspecting individuals of the male species may mistakenly identify your hair as the “Elsa” hairstyle.

The Dutch braid: Your favorite genre of music is Indie, and you perform the best in Biology as compared to other subjects. You hate sports. You involuntarily see yourself as a rival to other girls who wear the French braid. You are secretly an amazing artist.

3. The Bun

The bun, contrary to its simplistic look, requires a technique of one of the highest levels of difficulty to attain. You barely make up 1% of the already scarce female population in ACS(I), but your hairstyle also gives off the most elegant and sophisticated image.

Despite its petite stature, however, the bun is not one to be underestimated. Within its dense sphere of secrecy, the bun entraps an untamed snake that can only be unleashed upon the unsolicited unravelling of its well-assembled structure.

Traits:

A bun is a telltale sign of a powerful woman. However, that power is usually, like a bun, concentrated in one particular aspect of her set of skills. If you have a bun, you probably cook your own meals to school, and you hate running or dancing with your bun. You love all things “zen”, and you are also frequently spotted reading alone by the koi pond.

4. Short hair

Short hair is a bold and unconventional style in ACS. Having this hairstyle symbolizes maturity and ignorance towards the trivial matters in life. Girls with short hair in ACS make up for <5% of the female population, but they are often good friends with each other due to the characteristics they share in common. If you have short hair, your male friends tend to call you by your alias, “Bro”, instead of your name.

Traits:

Your signature slogan is “I’m so done”
You resonate a cool, indifferent vibe.
Your favorite food in the SAC is the entire menu on the prata stall.
You never feel cold around your neck

(Now that you have a clearer picture of the hidden inferences behind ACSian female hairstyles, it is time to move on to the male section.)

Male Hairstyles

1. The un-styled(,short) hair

A hairstyle that is neatly cropped and does not carry the extra weight of wax. You may be known as the au naturel, and you make up for a whopping 90% of Y1 boys. Amazingly, this percentage decreases proportionately with the increase in academic year, such that by the time you are in y5, you may notice that only an endearing 10% would have remained loyal to this hairstyle. The drastic fall in percentage has yet to be scientifically proven in our MEs or EEs, but rumor has it that it is directly associated with the increasing vanity of the ACSian males as they grow older.

Traits:

You hate the hassle of wax
You have a significantly higher chance of attaining 45 points
You can actually use the hashtag or phrase “I woke up like this” without sounding like a ludicrous liar.
Your mom decided on your haircut
Your mom is also willing to sit the IB examination in your place.

Variations in the un-styled (, short) hair:

The mushroom: You tend to be naïve and innocent-minded. Your closest family member has never been Dad. You also possess the ability of washing your hair just once weekly. You detest whenever someone calls your hairstyle a “bowl-cut”. Contradictory to the last statement, your favorite SAC food is porridge.

The Butch cut: You know the right time to be serious and the right time to have fun. Your hair may be teased for its visual and tactile similarities to Velcro, but the best advantage to this hairstyle is that it literally takes 10 seconds to dry after your shower. You may also embody similar traits to an authoritarian dictator.

2. The styled hair

This hairstyle experiences a spike in numbers in y3, and its popularity reaches its maturity by the time y5 arrives. It has an individualistic quality to the style as every guy uses a different amount of wax/gel/hairspray to achieve their personal desired look. The styled hair is most frequently seen on sportsmen.

Traits:

Within a 40-minute period, you will have touched your at least 10 times. Unknowingly.
You own at least three bottles of hair spray and hair wax, which you bring to school on a regular basis
In the case when you have forgotten to bring you hair wax, water is your best friend.
You like to think that nobody can tell the difference between water and wax.

Variations to the styled hair:

Fringe styled down: you have a habit of flipping your fringe back/ to the side of your face. You get chided off frequently for having your fringe below your eyebrows, but you take pride in the beautiful front-mane that you have painstakingly grown out. You almost always eat noodles.

Fringe up: You replenish you supple of hair sprays and wax the most often. You do not mind the fact that you may take longer than girls to do your hair in the morning, because you have a strong feeling that having the same hair as David Beckham is worth it. You are seen playing soccer in the AstroTurf more often than in the LTs.

Styled by a girl: You like to think that you are charismatic and a ladies-man to be able to get a girl to style your hair for you. You may like to think twice about that.

3. The Undercut

The undercut is an amalgamation of a sleek and neat hairstyle. It’s strategic alliance with an adequate amount of hair wax also creates one of the chicest hairstyles seen among ACSian males. Despite its dynamic image, the undercut is a hairstyle that is easily manageable and fuss-free.

Traits:

You are neat
Your food in the SAC is chicken cutlet noodles.
You never leave the house without a comb
You are either at home, at school, or the at the gym.

Variations to the undercut:

The High Pompadour: Your hair is full of secrets. Despite your masculine exterior, you love to read and you do not exclude fashion magazines from your reading list. You love dining at Bread Street and you think that the food in the SAC requires improvement before it is worthy of your consumption. You spend 80% of your time in the toilet facing the mirror.

And last but not least…

4. The Bald Eagle

They say we leave the best for the last. Indeed, this article ends with the rarest, but unsurpassed hairstyle: The Bald Eagle. This hairstyle is truly one that deserves copious amounts of respect and admiration, representing a high level of maturity and courage to serve the nation.

Traits:

You like to touch your hair even more
You are a keen supporter of the hair-for-hope organization
You are a year 7 old boy

Thank you for your time taken to read through this article, and I hope you had as much fun reading these irrational statements as much as I had coming up with them! You are warmly welcomed back to ACS and I wish you all the best with your remaining ACSian journey.

Shanice Tan 6.13

Images taken from:

1.http://g03.a.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1dCg5JXXXXXXiXXXXq6xXFXXXR/7A-Gluless-High-ponytail-full-lace-human-real-hair-wigs-silky-straight-glueless-peruvian-lace-wig.jpg_640x640.jpg 2. http://www.dhgate.com/online-shopping/short-curly-hair-ponytail-online.html 3. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CKss4fC27_s/maxresdefault.jpg 4. https://www.pinterest.com/1valerielh/braids/ 5. Long | Hair extensions USA, http://hairextensions-usa.com/?tag=long&paged=4 6. Hair and Face,https://www.pinterest.com/amandacheah/hair-and-face/ 7. Hair design mushroom haircut,https://quanyou1999.wordpress.com/page/2/ 8. 7 Buzz cut styles along with instructions | Induction, Burr and Buzz cut, http://www.enkivillage.com/buzz-cut.html 9, 10, 11 : http://hairstyles-galaxy.com/tag/trendy-hairstyles-for-men/