RECAP- Our visual conversation in a nuttshell:
ME: "Scissors. Scissors are bad. See -look here."
ALICIA: "No, scissors are alright. See here -they're a tool for getting a haircut. No biggie."
ME: "Yea, okay, but haircuts...haircuts are part of that whole system of 'beauty' and salons, and that stuff is wack."
Narrow the scope & frame the dialetic.
The interrelated components Alicia has sent me (scissors, combs in barbicide, and a spray bottle) work together in such a way that their product alludes to a barbershop/salon scene. This notion of barbers as a product has a relationship with other products such as the dentist and others, in that they are a human service based on routine and up-keep. Or in another sense the salon could be lumped together with nail salons, spas (facials, manicures), or even the cosmetic surgery industry. To insist that scissors are a tool of beautification in the salon setting, one could argue that they are far less superior than, say, a razor (from a technical perspective); Socially one could also argue that the job of a beautician is an unnecessary occupation all together. This system of "beauty" has been thought of as shallow and, truly, only skin-deep --a haircut cannot make you beautiful inside and out entirely. This ephemeral work is costly and never-ending, few will ever be fully satisfied, and our cultural expectations of what is a good haircut seems to come solely out of salon doors.
