Being Alternative...

The question I want to put forward is, how important is it you to look alternative. Having left college and being in full time work for the last 2 years i've slowly gone to a look that can be nothing but plain.

I'm trying to grow my hair as a subtle way to look alternative but its going very wrong, so i'm kinda in a dilema.

My attitudes tastes and personalitly are still very liberal open minded and alternative but i just look like a member of the rat race.

So how important is it to you?

It was important to me when I was twelve and the term "alternative" actually meant something. Now? I'm not twelve anymore, and I don't give a good goddamn how I look to others.

It's weird. I used to not care at all and dressed like a slob, now I have to actually worry if a tie matches or not. I mean sweet baby jesus, I have to match ties!

I dress pretty vanilla. My standard uniform is blue jeans, black t-shirt and a pair of black Docs. I'm not all that hung-up on style, but I always try to dress appropriately for the occasion.

there are so many 'alternative' people how can you really look alternative anyway? its stupid. I hate the whole 'alternative' thing. Yeah I have stripey socks and a lip ring. Alternative.

I reccomend molting and growing in a new carapace. It should adapt it's colors to your current environment.

woo now i feel immature.

I think saying you dont give a goddamn how you look to others is a lie. I mean jesus you must buy a t-shirt because you like it, you like it because you'll look good in it.

I'll believe you dont give a goddamn when you travelk to work stark naked.

It's important to me at the moment but i need change, but i wont go out and out to look alt, i'll buy t-shirts i like and think i'll look good in, and get the odd new piercing i like and think will suit me. If thats 'alt' great,

But as blanche said, i must admitt there is no such thing anymore.

You've never met MisterSatan, have you?

You know what I hate more than people who worry about looking alternative?

People who look alternative and claim that they don't give a fuck what they look like.

"alternative" is a stuck up word/phrase in my opinion

[Edited on Jul 23, 2005 by Saucer]

Growing your hair out is a serious commitment. You have to be willing to go through the ugly stage, which could last as long as six months. You might want to join the Long Hair group for support.

Thanks been growing it for 9 months now major curlyness going on, But its cool, it feels better longer for me, may lool ugly but pfft so what. I like it.

Joined the group thanks.

Nope so i could very well be wrong with that statement.

I wear jeans/shorts/capri pants and t-shirts. Sometimes those t-shirts say "Ramones" or "Pixies" on them. Sometimes they are plain and say nothing. Sometimes I wear sandals. Sometimes I wear Chuck Taylors. When it's cold I wear hoodies. I don't know what that all means.

I care what I look like to the degree that when I am shopping for clothes I don't buy the first thing I see, but I don't spend too much time thinking about it either.

i was once on a tain in london and there where two kinda liek 14 who were comeing back from a thusday gig or soemthign with liek the useall Emo/harcore/alternitive look

and this guy oppiste then siad, roughtly,

'i like the same music as you guys,i i can tell you jsut came back from Thusday, but i don't dress up like a pirck to listen to it, why nor were normal cloths'

it was kinda funny

I am the original alternative to sanity. The upshot is that there is no one quite like me. The downshot is that there is no one quite like me.

Umm. I reccomend wearing clothes that make you want to get yourself liquored up, strip yourself down, and do naughty things with yourself. That's my general rule regarding clothing, and it's worked pretty well for me.

not important at all.

i've found people who try to model themselves after a certain look instead of dressing for comfort and self-style are tools.

it's more important to me, to be me.


I don't give a rats what anybody else thinks/says/does. my life is pretty good and I do what i want, when I want.

they're clothes. They exist to keep you warm when it's cold out, keep the rain off your head, and help you dodge public decency laws.

Thats the bloody truth!

"Alternative" isn't very alternative. I think it is hillarious the way that people wear an outfit that amounts to a punk/goth/emo/etc uniform just to look "alternative". It isn't very different when you look exactly like everyone else. It is simply buying in to what some corporation has marketed as "alternative".

I just try to wear whatever i have clean.

i don't know about this one.

on one hand, the rational part of my brain has always believed that the whole "not giving a fuck" attitude is way more "anti-establishment", "alternative", and/or "punk rock" than going out of your way to dress differently and draw attention to yourself. and, this rational voice will say, the uniform of punk rock is still a uniform, the same as the kids who dress in all Abercrombie clothing.

on the other hand, the rest of me says, "so fucking what?" i've always dressed differently, even when i was a small kid. i am a very visually stimulated person, and it's important to me that i look "interesting" if only to myself. i don't like plain, non-descript clothing. i don't feel comfortable in a sensible blouse and slacks. i don't like shaving or straightening my hair or doing my make-up in a sophisticated and toned-down manner.

so yes, i would be upset and feel like i was being stifled creatively if i were forced to work in a place where i had to conform to someone else's standards of dress. maybe that makes me shallow. maybe i'm still conforming, and the only difference is it's to a "subculture" standard instead of a mainstream one. whatever. it makes me happy. that's all i care about.

I couldn't care less. I like to think I'm pretty "normal" looking, although I periodically do have complete strangers tell me I look like a rock star.