This is one of the first zines I ever read in the archive. Chris, QZAP’s co-founder, recommended it and pulled it out for me to read. Up until then, I had been a very academic reader, and my whole zine collection was academic zines. This zine opened up my world to a whole new queer world.
At age 14, I was a baby dyke with nothing but scissors and a dream. Naturally, I chopped all my hair off and gave myself what I like to call to this day the shark cut. In the zine I am about to discuss, it is figure number 10. Since then I have probably given myself and other dykes dozens of haircuts over the last eight years. Like many lesbians, hair is so important to how I express my queerness.
DYKES and THEIR HAIR by Teresa Chun-Wen Cheng was published in April of 2008. The zine is both a satirical take on dykes and their particular trim choices and a commentary on what has commonly been accepted as dyke culture. It is another situation of who gets remembered in the collective, and who gets left out. Cheng comments, “So this is simply laughing at ourselves, or being pissed off that oftentimes “dyke” is a reserved term for non-heterosexual white women.”
The art is very simple, showing no faces and only hair. Yet with its simplicity, it tells a million stories. I myself have had four of the haircuts shown. As I am sure others can also say, they have had multiple of the haircuts shown as well. This zine is tied to a very particular era of hair. At (almost) 22 years old, these are the lesbians I grew up admiring from afar. These were my teenage sister’s friends who I would feel connected with and not know why. The age range displayed in the zine, to my best guess, would be eighteen to fifty-four.
Figure 12 in particular reminds me of the scene subculture that emerged in the early 2000’s. This would have been a popular style during the time that Dykes and Their Hair was written. There are a lot of hairstyles in the zine that I have not seen since I was a kid. There is a large chance I have just not been looking that closely at other people’s haircuts. Or a lot of these hairstyles have died out in popularity. That being said, I constantly see the comb-overs and mullet hairstyles. The most popular haircut I see with queer women my age is some form of a shaggy mullet. They are also the most requested haircut I get when people sit down in my chair.
While I was pursuing this zine, the way Cheng uses scraggly lines in the hair reminded me of my favorite comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel. While I was searching for a snippet to include in my blog post, I came across this snippet of characters: Mo, Jezanna, and Lois. I was struck immediately by the realization that Jezanna’s hairstyle could not be found. Lois and Mo’s hairstyles can be found within the first eight pages of the twenty-page zine.
“It must be noted that the most recognizable dyke hairstyles only cater to those with hair that is straight, straight–ish, able to be straightened, or wavy.”
Dyke styles often cater to a particular style of white, masculine-presenting lesbians. There is a pressure that comes along with the first queer haircut, because you want it to be queer, but what is collectivized as queer isn’t always what might be right for you. Especially because, as Cheng talks about, these hairstyles are catered to a demographic with no textured hair patterns, leaving out a large chunk of queer women of color.
There is a very baseline level of “greaser” that comes with a lot of these haircuts. They draw on classic working-class masculinity and rebellious fashion. Short haircuts also provide a relief from male-approved hairstyles for women. Allowing them to put space between themselves and the crushing weight of patriarchal expectations. This can be seen in figure 2 with a shaved side comb-over.
Another interesting thing about this zine is that it is a pre-2010s lesbian, not dyke, hairstyle takeover. Think Kristin Stewart and Ruby Rose circa 2015. That style of cut, I feel like, is inescapable when talking about lesbian haircuts. If you google lesbian haircut, the second picture is the style I am referring to. If you Google “dyke haircut,” it is the FIRST image I am referring to. I would describe this haircut as a volumized comb-over with a fade. There is probably an actual name for it, but my searches all led back to pixie cut. Maybe it is a form of a pixie cut.
From my experience, there are a lot of lesbians who do not play around with their haircut. Even if it is a choppy mullet cut with a two-blade razor in the bathroom. Once you gain some level of autonomy, whether that be at the beginning of adulthood or not, hair is a popular first choice for how you want to represent yourself. A good haircut can make or break the next couple of months afterwards. It can transcend your sense of self and belonging, not just with a group, but with yourself.
I would love to see an updated version of this zine. After all, it is almost twenty years old. There are so many hairstyles that I consider core dyke hairstyles that are really popular with other dykes my age that you NEED curly hair for. Everything can change, and everything can evolve. Even dykes and their precious hair.
So what is your next haircut going to be? Haven’t decided yet? Well, maybe Dykes and their hair is just the zine you are looking for! Or maybe it is the exact opposite. Either way, I hope you are left with the same joy and frustration I was after reading it.
Arabella (She/They) is interning at QZAP fall of 2026. She is an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee finishing her last year in Women’s and Gender studies. In her free time Arabella likes to spend time with her dog Magdalena and play learn the banjo.
