On the geographies of hair: Exploring the entangled margins of the bordered body

Abstract

This paper extends discussions of the geographies of the body by examining hair as a geographical lens that reimagines the body’s borders. Hair is a key agent in producing and representing the body, specifically through the presences and absences of hair that influence, disturb, transform and transcend its margins. By examining the materialities, performances and discourses associated with how and where hair is situated (or not) on the body, this paper situates hair as a geographical prism that explores new frontiers of the bordered body, shapes corporeal understandings of appearance and projects identities and power well beyond its physical limits.