Cognitive Dissonance
This weekend, I heard some gossip about a group of female friends who gave each other lice and had to shave their heads. The gossip was prefaced by "hey, have you seen so-and-so? she shaved her head, it looks good!" "Oh yeah, she had lice."
One of them was in a class of mine today, and yes, she had a shaved head. And yes, she looked good. Like, hard-to-take-your-eyes-off-of-her good. But the eye candy was ruined by the constant reminder that, at least according to the gossip I'd heard, the shaving was due to lice, not due to fashion.
Imagine, if you will, not knowing this, and walking up to give her a compliment.
Person A: Hey, that looks fantastic!
Person B: I hate it. It was lice. Don't come near me.
Person A: (internal monologue) Well, guess who's an asshole, cause it's me!
Anyway, it was hard not to look at her, because the haircut was so striking, but on the other hand, every time I did, every slight feeling of maybe an itch on my scalp made me paranoid.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go shower.