Negotiating liquid identity through hair supported by the salon experience

Ball, E ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0770-4740, 2024. Negotiating liquid identity through hair supported by the salon experience. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

This thesis explores processes of forming fashionable identities through hair with the support of a stylist. Going beyond clothing, there is limited understanding of hair as a socially navigated element of fluid identity.

Bauman’s theory of Liquid Modernity frames the destination of self-construction as ‘endemically and incurably underdetermined’. Hair is an important yet constantly shifting element of identity and therefore fitting to be examined through a liquid lens. Although hair sometimes functions like dress, in terms of visual communication, it is further complicated because hair is rooted in the body. Growing continually, hair requires regular maintenance to keep it looking ‘right’. Importantly, unlike fashion consumption, we usually undertake fashioning the hair with the support of a skilled professional. Hairdressers support and steward clients to navigate fashionable identity with limited resources, therefore potentially offering a model for more responsible forms of engagement with fashion.

This study seeks to answer how identities are formed and how the client and hairdresser negotiate, using interviews with clients and hairdressers, alongside autoethnographic fieldwork visits to salons in the dual role of client/researcher. This rich qualitative approach draws on the experiences of professionals, individuals and embodied experiences within the salon.

Three key themes frame the analysis and form the chapter structure:

Forming Fashionable Identity Through Hairstyling considers the relationship between identity and hair, within the context of a society where constant change is both encouraged and inevitable. The visual symbolism of hair is complicated by the epoch of universal comparison, causing anxiety and uncertainty. Striving for stability, incremental change and goals that appear solid is a reaction to the contingent and ever-shifting nature of identity within liquidity.

Revealing and Concealing highlights the pressures women experience when navigating liquid identity through their hair. The appearance of women is incurably entangled with the ideals of beauty, which demand effortlessness - that women not only conform to unachievable standards, but also conceal the effort, energy and care they put into these practices.

Negotiation and Collective Crafting identifies how the negotiations that occur in the salon impact the formation of liquid identities. The steer, where hairdressers guide their clients towards styles that ‘suit them’, revealed that alongside guiding their clients through the unfamiliar terrain of fashion trends, hairdressers also enforced fashion ideals of youth and thinness. The steer is socially enacted and is more effective when performed by a hairdresser with a close relationship akin to friendship.

This thesis concludes that fashioning hair, with a hairdresser, is a supported and ultimately slow way to navigate liquid identity, offering calm and reducing fashion anxiety. This occurs through the expertise of the hairdresser, steering the client towards a version of themselves that feels stable, if only for a moment.

Item Type:	Thesis
Description:	This research was funded by the M4C Doctoral Training Partnership
Creators:	Ball, E.
Contributors:	Name Role NTU ID ORCID Brown, V. Thesis supervisor FAS3GILLBV https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0855-920X Twigger Holroyd, A. Thesis supervisor FTK3HOLROAT https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3403-3516 Kent, A. Thesis supervisor MMC3KENTA https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9741-4335
Date:	September 2024
Rights:	The copyright in this work is held by the author. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed to the author.
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham School of Art & Design
Record created by:	Laura Borcherds
Date Added:	06 Jan 2026 09:30
Last Modified:	06 Jan 2026 09:30
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/54922

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