Below is an excerpt from "The 17 Most Ridiculous Things Guys Have Said About My Hair," which originally appeared on MIMI [1]. Read the full story here [2].

I really, really love my hair [3]. I get it, it's just dead cells, but I can't pretend it's not important to me. I care for it, I nourish it [4], I primp it [5] — it's basically my pet. My oft-repeated and embarrassing mantra is always, "My hair is my source of power." And, I truly think it is, purely due to how much care, time, and love my strands are imbued with. In an ideal world I would flout the patriarchal constraints placed on how a woman's hair must look to be considered societally beautiful, but I can't deny the fact that I adore being blonde and I love having long hair (and that doesn't make me a bad feminist — but more on that later).

Due to the fact that my hair is just that — what society views as conventionally desirable — I've gotten a lot of interesting responses to my strands from all different types of men over the years. Some have been boyfriends, some have been just friends (well, mostly . . . ), and some have been strange men on the street who feel like they are somehow entitled to have an opinion about my body because I'm a woman who dares to exist in public ( . . . sigh). Either way, I'm usually either extremely amused or moderately confused, so I've catalogued some of the best responses I've gotten for your reading pleasure here [6].

Check out more from MIMI:
Tips For the Brazilian-Wax Virgin [7]
11 Inspirational Celebrity Selfies [8]
Mascaras That Will Stand Up to a Sad-Movie Marathon [9]