We unlock the deeper meaning of Rory Gilmore’s hair evolution through the years.
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
00:01
When it comes to Gilmore Girls,
00:03
everyone talks about the talk.
00:04
“Lorelai for God’s sake be quiet.”
00:06
But there’s also something to say about Rory Gilmore’s locks.
00:10
“You can get your hair done.”
00:11
“You won’t think I’m an idiot?”
00:12
“Depends on what hairstyle you choose.”
00:15
In dreams and literature,
00:16
hair is often interpreted as representing mental process or thought.
00:20
So a character’s hairstyle can symbolize their mindset,
00:24
how they think.
00:25
“That’s why her hair is so big, it’s full of secrets.”
00:28
Changes in hair, from a drastic cut
00:30
to a temporary night out do,
00:32
can signal a new idea or a change in how a character views the world.
00:36
Hair also reflects self image because hair is something we control to present ourselves.
00:41
It’s how we want to be seen by others.
00:44
In a long-running show like Gilmore Girls,
00:46
the creator’s can send messages
00:48
through stylistic choices like the evolution of Rory Gilmore’s hair.
00:52
Through the years Miss Gilmore’s mane
00:54
has morphed, grown, and curled like an unconscious mirror
00:57
that’s in tune with her emotional twists and turns.
01:03
Sure, sometimes hair is just hair
01:05
but at times it might be a clue the subconscious and what’s going on inside
01:10
So let’s have some fun unraveling the memorable moments in Rory Gilmore’s hair.
01:15
Long, simple, and straight-laced,
01:18
that’s how we meet the young Gilmore girl.
01:20
“Rory, me, that’s… that’s me.”
01:23
The look reflects a small-town girl and shy bookworm
01:26
who depends on her mother for her social life.
01:28
The girl is a blank page, innocent and unformed.
01:31
If hair symbolizes thought
01:33
long hair can symbolize a lot of thought,
01:35
being a circumspect, considered, and conscientious person,
01:38
even sometimes getting in one’s own way
01:41
by overthinking.
01:42
First boyfriend, first dance, first big screw-up.
01:45
Rory’s pretty updo has a contrived play-acting look,
01:48
like a broad imitation of an Audrey Hepburn figure.
01:51
This lovey-dovey dance business and her
01:53
entree into the world of serious relationships
01:56
might be a little more grown-up than she’s ready for.
01:59
“I’m coming out.”
02:00
“Out of what?”
02:01
“Out to society.”
02:03
The ballerina bun is de rigueur for a deb,
02:05
but while she was at least trying the ill-fated dance do for herself,
02:09
the high society bun is her grandmother, Emily’s world.
02:12
Rory is just faking it, much to Lorelei’s relief.
02:15
“There you go.”
02:18
The retro look for the dance marathon
02:20
is called victory rolls, a 1940’s World War II-era style.
02:24
The vintage do announces that Rory is performing a fiction,
02:28
she’s masking the reality that her romantic feelings
02:30
are shifting from Dean to Jess.
02:32
But her over-the-top make-believe isn’t convincing enough.
02:36
“You don’t want to be with me Rory.”
02:37
“Yes I do.”
02:38
“Oh, please.”
02:39
Curls give off a carefree, pixie muse vibe,
02:42
but these new curls aren’t laid back,
02:44
they’re an emotional upheaval.
02:45
“I also failed to mention that I’m seeing someone else.”
02:47
“Who?”
02:48
“Jess.”
02:48
The brief changed the curls corresponds to Rory’s testing the waters of rebellion.
02:52
Her feelings for Jess are both
02:54
more complicated and more physical than she’s experienced.
02:57
“How can you let your daughter be with that abominable thug?”
03:00
In their eyes her new look is her acting out of character,
03:04
no longer as straitlaced as her once straight hair.
03:07
Braids correspond to unified, methodical thinking.
03:10
The three strands reflect the harmony of a trinity.
03:12
But the tightly constrained hairdo suggests a repetitive, inhibited thought process.
03:17
This braid matches how she’s reaching for order,
03:19
fighting inner feelings of stress and chaos.
03:22
The girl is regressing, unsure about starting adult life.
03:26
Rory’s still a girl, still a mama’s girl.
03:31
It’s no coincidence that alarm bells go off
03:33
when Lorelai sees the long bob for the first time.
03:36
“It was a spur of the moment thing.”
03:38
“A spur of the moment and let’s not tell my mother I’m pulling a G.I. Jane?”
03:41
Cutting your hair in movies and TV
03:43
is a trope for a reason,
03:45
it represents a desire for change, a grappling with identity and control.
03:49
Rory’s cut signifies the end of her rollercoaster relationship with Jess
03:53
and her coming to terms with her re-emerging feelings for Dean.
03:56
She takes the impulsive step to shed all this emotion.
03:59
But, surprise, her new hair looks just like that of Dean’s fiance, Lindsay Lister.
04:04
The matching look, however unintentional, suggests that on a subconscious level,
04:08
she’s not ready to give Dean up forever.
04:11
“He’s not your Dean. He’s Lindsay’s Dean. You’re the other woman.”
04:14
Metaphorically hair can also represent a character’s strength and health.
04:18
“Do you see how long his hair is?
04:20
When Dothraki are defeated in combat, they cut off their braid so the whole world can see their shame.”
04:26
The obvious example is Samson in judges 16 of the Bible.
04:30
When Delilah cuts his hair,
04:32
the non-consensual hair loss weakens him.
04:34
Like Samson’s, Rory’s cut, even if it’s her choice,
04:38
could be a sign of vulnerability.
04:40
Still, even if she’ll look back on this bob as an impulsive mistake,
04:43
it’s a key step in her growing up process.
04:46
She’s shedding the long, girlish hair
04:48
that weighed her down in overthinking and the undetermined childhood state.
04:52
“Are you ever going to ask me out?”
04:54
And here we go again.
04:55
The start of Rory’s relationship with Logan brings back the flirtatious undertones of curls.
05:00
But this time they’re tighter, and more regular.
05:03
Rory’s taught almost-ringlets reflect the tightly wound, high society culture she’s trying to win over.
05:08
“Why don’t they think I’m good enough?
05:11
“Rory.”
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“I mean I’m a Gilmore do they know that?”
05:14
Like her contrived curls, Rory’s glamorous life starts to unravel.
05:18
The loosening of the curls coincides with a Rory who’s
05:20
trying to seem low-key yet put together as she takes a break from Yale.
05:24
The trendy, wild-child bangs and carefree waves are a comfortable look,
05:28
but comfortable is not how she really feels.
05:31
Her life is just as messy as her hair right now.
05:33
“Everything’s falling apart.”
05:36
Rory is terrified of the unknown abyss of her post-Yale life
05:40
so she makes a radical hair change to process her radical life change.
05:44
Dyeing her hair pink.
05:45
Dyeing one’s hair symbolizes a break from the usual self.
05:49
Even trying to be someone you’re not at your roots.
05:52
The punky pink hair could be both a cry for help
05:54
and a way of camouflaging dark feelings in happy bright colors.
05:58
It’s an assertive move by a young woman who’s feeling confused about who she is.
06:02
“And my relationship with Logan and the rest of my life.”
06:05
By the end of the show’s original run,
06:07
Rory arrives at a professional, put-together look.
06:10
But the side pony is also a twist.
06:13
It’s asymmetrical, unresolved.
06:15
This isn’t a conclusion it’s a beginning.
06:18
Nine years later, and Rory returns with an integrated blend of some of her former highlights.
06:23
She’s arrived at a carefully, casually unified melting pot of all the many inner hair selves
06:28
she discovered over the years.
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This post was previously published on Youtube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video