Your So Emo...

Sure, we have all seen the people with the jet black hair, the extremely small, tight-fitting, shirts, and the kids with the cut-up wrists. But do we know who they are exactly? Most people would generally refer to them as “emo” but, what really is emo?

Emo is a slang term derived from the word “emotional”. Emo is also a term for emotionally-charged punk rock. The word can be used to describe the emotional state of a teenage (usually a depressed state), the person in general, or the emotionally-charged type of music.

More often than not, emo is seen as a degrading term, inferring that the person being called emo is depressed, a whiner, and one who cuts their wrist for the heck of it. Wikipedia describes as a style of fashion or music; or a general state of unhappiness or melancholy (as in "to feel emo”) Those stereotyped of emo are often unhappy, think they are misunderstood, and may have mild paranoia. Emo kids or emo boys are often found to be the rejects of society.

In my experience I have heard people use the word emo to describe a variety of things from clothing to music to a way a person is feeling. Some art nowadays is even being referred to as emo! Emo is a new way of life, a way of living, a way to express yourself through music, art, design, style, life. It is a statement, an expression, it’s emotional.

Blue Emo Hair

For a portion of the summer, I had the opportunity to dye my hair blue. Having blue hair is an enjoyable experience I'd suggest to anyone, it certainly makes life interesting. It helped get through a summer in a very boring town. But I sure did get a lot of weird comments. They ranged as anything from 'is that natural?' to 'did you spill paint on your hair?' Probably the most common questions I got from old people was 'It's just for the summer right?' or 'does it wash out?' Also common was 'Why?'. (it's something you cant really explain to a redneck in a convenience store in Nevada). Most younger people asked me 'whoa, how'd you get that color?' or 'what type of dye did you use?' When my parents saw it they simply said 'Whoa.. it IS blue'. I guess they didnt believe me.

All kinds of other interesting things happened to me when my hair was blue. When I was in the desert visiting Bodie, someone recognized me who had seen me at Rock Creek over 100 miles away. Having blue hair isnt good if you desire anonymity... don't yell things at people out of cars if you have blue hair. Also, part of my tub is now stained blue. Some idiot smacked me over the head randomly with a beer bottle at a show in San Jose and the beer in my hair turned blue and dribbled down on me, turning most of my shirt blue. Throughout the few months I had blue hair, I had to touch it up a lot. If you want to dye your hair use Special Effects brand.. don't use Manic Panic.

Anyway... if you have a job which will allow it, and you get bored, you can always give it a try. It sure did get a lot of girls to come up and talk to me, which is a good thing. It got me funny looks from middle aged people but who really cares what they think anyway? If you live in the boonies you might get pulled over by a cop or something. Also I literally had some cars almost crash when driving by me... which I thought was pretty funny because where I come from, dyed hair is no big thing. But... I would say that everyone should dye their hair while in college.

Emo music

Emo music is the boat that brought the term “emo” down the river. Emo music is a type of hardcore punk music. They type of music has slowly evolved over the years. This typic of music is very melodramatic and filled with lyrics of a depressing state. Emo music is said to have began with DC bands like Embrace and Rites of Spring but is in not limited to them, in 1985. Basically, the sound involved a slower and emotional (therefore the name "emo") version of hardcore music. The vocals are generally sung in a whiny sounding voice, or with screams that leave the lyrics indistinguishable.

Emo music today has created many opposite and contradicting combinations that all proclaim to be emo, rendering it somewhat useless. Here are some examples: there's political, scream-and-flail-on-the-floor, emo like Frail, Swing Kids, Impetus Inter, and a slew of San Diego based bands; there's the really slow, discordant, artsy emo like Cap'n Jazz, Joan d'Arc, Evergreen, etc.; then we have the more popular melody/pop-oriented bands like Texas is the Reason, Sensefield, Mineral, Promise Ring, Split Lip (now Chamberlain), etc.; and last but not least we have the slow, stop-and-go, melody-thrash alternating groups like Amber Inn, Still Life, and others I can't think of right now.

How To Create Emo Hairstyle By Yourself

It depends on the style that you want. Basically, Emo hairstyle are unconstructed and unblended look showing lots of texture. If you do a search for Emo Hairstyles, you'll find a ton of pictures to choose your look from. Once you have the cut, blow dry with some gel or a mousse, and then a pomade will give you that broken up grunge look that many of the Emo style have.

About Emo Hairstyles

'Emo' stands for EMOTIONAL HARDCORE and not just EMOTIONAL! To call it "emotional" is just listing one of its traits. Besides, ALL music are emotional anyways so that's a pretty stupid definition. Emo is a culture that has its own values, ideals, an emotional investment and of course fashion. They do not believe in conforming to mainstream fashion or trends. Emos want to be different and therefore create their own distinct styles. That is why it’s not surprising that Emo hairstyles break the mold as well.

Probably nothing characterizes the Emo look more than the Emo hairstyle. Typical Emo haircuts are characterized by asymmetrical lines, bold highlights, usually red or white and a jet black hair. An emo girl or an emo boy dye their hair jet black and the bolder the effect the better. You don’t have to worry about the dye looking unnatural and can even shade the edges with frosted highlights, blue, orange, or purple. Emos usually wants to be alone and their haircuts are simply an extension of this belief. An Emo hairstyle is a one of a kind experiment. Its not the type that you can get at an ordinary salon. If you want an emo hairstyle, better bring a picture of Pete Wentz and tell the barber this is the style you want.

It is perfectly acceptable to create your own Emo hairstyle just with a pair of scissors, razor and dye. Emo hairstyles has no set technique. It maybe described as more of a personal art-form, a style of expressing yourself, of one’s deepest emotions. In other words, any style can pass off as an Emo hairstyle as long as it looks different and doesn’t look like one of those “dos” that you might wear to a prom. Being an Emo is all about being true to yourself, being unique and comfortable with one’s self. An Emo hairstyle is also all about the distinct personality of an individual and self-expression. If you feel that you are not one to follow the flock either, then you might just want to consider picking up any pair of scissors and doing up your hair the Emo way!

Poisonthehat, aka Electrocuute

This is Poisonthehat. Probably, most of you emo guys would like to have this look. Here is the instruction and the tools you need to achieve this emo hairstyle according to Poisonthehat himself.

In his own words:

"Well, there are a couple of different "emo hair styles" I guess you could say. If you're looking for something like the picture above, then I can pretty much tell you everything I do to my hair, because that's me. I can still help you with whatever you're looking for though, since I've been through a couple of different "emo hair styles". I didn't part my hair in the picture above, but I usually do."

The basics of emo hair:
-A flat iron straightener (a MUST have)
-Black hair dye
-Some sort of hair product, not sure what they're called but I use Neutrogena Triple Moisture Healing Shine Serum
-Cut short in the back to prevent mullet-ness
-Conditioning your hair every night
-Combing your hair after you get out of the shower and whatnot helps

On the color of his hair:

"Yeah it's a blue black color but I don't remember what dye I used. I think it was some of that crap you mix up with the other crap and then you use the cap thingy and all that. If you cut the back short and then straighten your hair with a flat iron I'm pretty sure you could get a haircut close to mine. Oh, and make sure to let the sides grow out."

On Neutrogena Triple Moisture Healing Serum:

"Neutrogena Triple Moisture Healing Shine Serum fixes up ugly "straggling" hair like woah. It's like this oil type stuff, and you put a small dot of it you hand, rub your palms together, and then run your palm through your hair or something like that. I know there are other brands of it out there, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. I always use it after straightening my hair because my hair gets all dry looking after I straighten it, and then this stuff fixes it right up.

I recommend you just ask one of your female friends to straighten your hair, or if your mom has a straightener or whatever, just use hers. I'm pretty sure it would end up looking something close to my hair. As for the part, I'm not really sure how I get that. I just use my hand and push my hair to the side and it works. I'm sure you can figure it out.

The moisture shine stuff keeps it from poofing and fix flyaways and makes it look straighter and thinner. Also, I use the straightener every day."

Final words:

"Just grow it out, use flat iron straightener, cut it short in the back, and you can spike the back if you wish. I usually don't but sometime I get bored and will do it. You don't have to dye it black if you don't want, especially if your hair is already naturally black. Yes it could take a couple of months for your hair to grow as long as mine. It's a long process but if that's what you want then it'll be worth it."

I am with myself on the inside..

Everyone is right and at the same time wrong on being emo. It's just the way the world works. See, everyone has their own opinions and no one should shut them up no matter what others think, or if they don't agree. It's just how the world works. Isn't that the whole point of trying to "find" you? To never hold anything back and always look for a you that you feel comfortable in, and all the people who call the others posers, how are you to judge that?

Everyone is still human, still people trying to find themselves in this image crazed world. There's no right or wrong thing to think or say or be for that matter, "When your mother tells you to love and appreciate your body, it's not just to get you to shut up. They know that when you're old you are going to feel exactly the same way you do inside as you do now.

We try on different dresses, different selves, but our souls are always the same— ongoing and full of light." It's from the book, Psyche in a Dress by Francesca Lia Block (All time favorite book). It's true, no matter what shells you try on you're always going to be the same, no site on the internet can tell you who to be, but you make that choice to look at it and see if maybe you could try on that shell. That is you, the human that wants to appreciate and love their own body. You just gotta see the good and bad in it. Not just what you want to, but everything else that makes it.