the symbolism in Allison’s hair/wardrobe

curious about the significance of Allison’s hair, tbh

Here is what I think.

Allison is very much one of those people who tends to morph according to their friends and surroundings. In the pilot, her hair is very natural looking. Slightly wavy but predominately straight, not ornately styled or decorated, very simple. Her own unique style is rather Boho, actually, if you look at the first ep. Her bag, her jacket, etc, aren’t ultra girly like her other outfits in the rest of the show. Around episode three (or even episode two, really) she started morphing to dress and style herself more like Lydia. I think this may have been a subconscious choice to fit in, due to the fact that she was the ~new girl at school and, having been in that position two times myself, it’s entirely possible that traits were borrowed from her first friend in order to put herself at ease. Allison is an independent girl, as we’ve seen these past two episodes, but I’m not convinced she’s always been that way, necessarily. Notice how she deals with with Scott’s crap, most of the time. She’ll get upset about it and occasionally stick up for herself but predominately she internalizes and broods, until these past two eps. So I think it’s very possible that Allison indeed borrowed subconsciously or perhaps even actively borrowed fashion tips and advice from Lydia, because she has a tendency to observe and absorb. Whether she’s absorbing Scott’s fear and paranoia or Gerard’s hate and cruelty, she does soak up the feelings of her companions, and this is true, in my opinion, of Lydia as well.

Now when I say “soak up,” I mean that she takes in what they’re feeling and either rejects or accepts it, but still feels a great deal of turmoil during the process. In “Raving,” when Scott pushed her aside and told her to back off, note how she does nothing. She clearly is pained by this treatment and she takes a moment to inhale it and try to sort it out. Allison is a sorter, and a sponge. She sponges up the energy and emotions around her and then sorts it out inside her head, alone. If you think about it? Allison is a loner. Aside from Lydia, Scott, Stiles, and occasionally Jackson, she really has no one else. She’s frequently alone at school, no one else really seems to talk to her, Jackson was arguably using her (to make Lydia and Scott jealous), Stiles is there by proxy but not by choice, and Scott is her boyfriend. Which leaves Lydia. Now, Lydia and Allison are close, but how close are they, really? They don’t seem to talk about feelings very much and Allison never really has time for Lydia anyway. The only relationship Allison is 100% invested in is Scott, and in a lot of ways, she and Scott are exceptionally similar. Both try to do the “right” thing. The only difference is that Allison is extremely vulnerable right now and has fallen prey to some malicious manipulation.

Wow okay back on topic Lilly um anyway

So, for the majority of the show, Allison has soaked up a lot of Lydia’s characteristics: passivity, introspection, isolation, introversion, and- the point of this whole post- style. Notice that beginning with pretty much the second episode, Allison is styling her hair borderline elaborately, much like Lydia. She’s curling it, braiding it, wearing it up, etc. The reason I assume this is due to Lydia’s influence is because- well, think about it. Logically speaking, the first day of school in any new place is traumatizing. It’s scary and nerve-wracking, especially if you’re a transfer and you have no idea who anyone is. So, following that logic, it would make sense that you’d want to put a lot into your appearance and try to look nice and presentable and extra special the first day, right? Not to an extreme, obviously, but, you know, just nicer than you’d normally look, perhaps. Because first impressions are important and no matter what anyone says, in high school, first impressions start with appearance. So, assuming that, let’s look at Allison’s choice of clothing. She is wearing nice clothes, comfortable clothes, with cute accessories and a nice bag. But her hair is very natural, which suggests to me that the wavy look was her most comfortable go-to hairstyle, and that she felt wearing it down and not doing much to it would look best. Her makeup, also, is very understated and natural, unlike in some later episodes. Then she meets Lydia, who has pretty curly red hair and wears oodles of sparkly makeup, and voila! Allison begins to transition to much the same thing.

Also, notice the parallels between Lydia & Jackson and Scott & Allison. The reason I say Allison soaked up a lot of Lydia’s characteristics is because, in the dynamic between her and Jackson, she is often the underdog. She gets pushed around. She takes it quietly and can’t find it in herself to hate him. And are these patterns not similar to Allison in regard to Scott? Many times Scott has talked down to Allison, even though it comes from a place of love/worry. He knows she can protect herself but he still doesn’t want her involved. He doesn’t understand that she comes from a family where she has no choice but to be involved. He doesn’t really give her the opportunity to be a woman and a fighter. So it can be said that perhaps Allison, too, is an underdog in her relationship with Scott. Anyway, what I mean to say by bringing this up is that this stands, in my mind, as further proof of Allison’s absorption tendency. A tendency which, honestly, I think we all have. But it’s not just manifested in Allison’s personality, it’s manifested in her wardrobe too.

We know from several episodes that Lydia not only shops with Allison but shops for Allison. It leads me to wonder, what say does Allison have in how she presents herself? Obviously she could tell Lydia to stop- but she doesn’t, which is significant. Again, the theme of passivity. Again, the internalizing. So when Allison’s mother dies and she starts throwing everything in her room away, including her clothes and pictures and various baubles and all that, it signifies to me the formal separation of whatever part of herself soaked up Lydia and Scott’s influence. Not only did she completely withdraw inside herself and force out any outside influence, she also took it to the extreme. She straightened her hair, wore all black, gave herself and her room a tabula rasa. She succumbed to the agony inside herself, again without reaching out for help- all within, as we see evidence of when she is alone in her room crying after her mother dies- and now she is “cleansed,” so to speak, of the parts that were never her own to begin with. She assumes the mantle of her family because she is so broken that she doesn’t know how to continue playing both sides. Everything she has done to help Scott help Derek, all the enabling she has participated in with Derek’s pack, trying to protect them and let them survive in peace- as far as she knows all of that is a lie and she, I think, blames herself in part for her mother’s death. And she absolutely cannot handle that. So what does she do? She flushes out every remnant of her friends and her life and focuses on one, single goal: revenge.

We see this take a step further in tonight’s episode. Allison’s wardrobe is still black, not much of a change there, but notice that her hair is completely straight. She’s not only flushed out Lydia and Scott, she has stamped it out and gone completely the reverse. She’s not the same girl they knew anymore, she’s not even the girl she was before she met them. She’s a whole new person, a killing machine perfectly orchestrated and manipulated by the machinations of her grandfather. Allison’s natural tendency to absorb is now present with Gerard, and she takes on his ruthless attitude toward everyone because it is the only thing that makes sense in her world right now, it is the only thing that feels good, that takes away the pain. So we see her transform from Lydia’s style to a hunter’s- to her grandfather’s. Her emotions and personal struggles are so beautifully mirrored in her hair and clothing that I honest to God cannot believe that it isn’t intentional.

Wow omg I just typed that much on hair meta what the hell has this show done to me.

Allison & Jackson as vessels of revenge

I feel like there are actually a lot of parallels between Allison and Jackson.

Both are now turning into vessels of revenge, both ultimately controlled by Gerard. She’s almost as unaware of herself as Jackson, like she’s being swallowed by bloodlust and is letting it control her. Both of them function out of perceived necessity, controlled by a force outside of them. Not saying Allison isn’t responsible for her actions, but when you think about it, she’s not really herself right now. She’s a killing machine. Like Jackson. But contrary to popular belief, I don’t think it’s of her own volition. I think the point to which Gerard has manipulated her literally reconfigured some of her brain chemistry.

She’s a lot like Jackson right now. More in control of herself than he is, but still you gotta think- by how much?

To all the Allison hate:

I feel bad for Allison.

I don’t think she’s fully lucid right now.

Grief can do very terrible things to people, and right now she’s a victim of her own heart- her own need for revenge.

She’s angry and hurt and terrified because her mother is gone. She doesn’t know her mom was trying to kill Scott. She doesn’t know Erica and Boyd ran from Derek’s pack. All she knows is that, somehow, satisfying this urge within her to destroy will make it easier to deal with her mother’s death. And Kate’s, too- she never really processed that, and she claimed that Kate was “more of a best friend than an aunt.” All she knows is that Derek and his kind killed two of her family members, and she’s in an INCREDIBLY vulnerable place right now so she’s falling prey easily to Gerard’s manipulations. Look, all in all, she is a sixteen year old girl who has just lost her mother and with her, much of her reality. She’s losing her mind with grief and Gerard knows exactly how to get to her and twist her to his advantage.

I can’t blame her for what she’s done. I don’t excuse it, but I can at least attempt to understand it. She’s young and broken and part of a world she never really wanted to belong in. But honestly this kind of madness is in her blood.

So the combination of grief, genetics, and expert manipulation = the worst case scenario for Allison. Her plot arch is only barely beginning like this; I think they could go two ways with her. She’s either going to parallel Kate and surrender to her misery and hate, or she’s going to realize what Gerard has done to her and return to Scott and the gang. But I don’t believe they’re going to kill her. It’d be a waste of a fantastic opportunity.