Sailor Lum (ex_sailorlum330) wrote in snape_sanity, @ 2010-10-11 08:45:00 |
|
|||
Current mood: | geeky |
Entry tags: | featured topic, featured topic #2, meta |
Featured Topic #2: Snape and his appearance (including his hygiene or lack thereof)
Featured Topic #2: Snape and his appearance (including his hygiene or lack thereof)
So, according to canon, Professor Snape is a thin, pale man with sallow, oily skin, greasy black hair that is shoulder-length and hangs in curtains around his face, black eyes that are most often cold and sometimes glittery, uneven yellowish teeth, and a very large hooked nose. Snape greatly resembles his mother, but has his father’s nose. He wears all black during the day (although he did wear green for a Quidditch match, once), and a gray nightshirt at night.
Teen and child Snape are all that, minus the often cold eyes and yellowish teeth (neither is attributed to Snape’s younger selves), and with different wardrobes. Both teen and child Snape tended to have more intense eyes, and were described not just as thin, but also stringy.
Teen Snape was additionally described as looking “like a plant kept in the dark”, being “round-shouldered yet angular” and walking “in a twitchy manner that recalled a spider.” He was shown at Hogwarts wearing his Slytherin uniform and graying underpants.
Child Snape was additionally described as having dirty, poorly cut, overlong hair. His clothes were “so mismatched that it looked deliberate: too short jeans, a shabby, overlarge coat that might have belonged to a grown man, an odd smocklike shirt.” (Petunia thought the shirt looked like it belonged to Snape’s mother.) He was described as looking not well-cared for.
I think it’s safe to say that Snape was not well taken care of as a child, and didn’t take very good care of himself as a teen or adult. He was never described as smelling bad, so I assume he took good enough care of himself so that he didn’t stink. And he’s not missing teeth and his breath is never described as bad, so I assume he took care of his teeth enough to avoid those things. I think it’s also safe to say that he probably didn’t eat or sleep properly, as his skin looked consistently dull and unhealthy.
Thoughts?
Here’s some follow-up questions:
1) What is up with the graying underpants? (Esp. at school where there are house-elves to do the laundry – you can’t hand them clothes or mean to give them clothes to wear, but I would assume they are able to pick up dirty laundry to do the wash.) Does Snape only own a couple pair of undies and they don’t get sent to be washed often?
Also, it takes a long time for underpants to gray like that…unless you wear cheap dark blue or black trousers on a hot day and the dye bleeds through to your underpants a little (I’ve had this happen), or unless you wash your underpants with darks (had this happen too), or unless they are very old and haven’t had a proper bleaching in a long time (I’ve seen this, as well). So, if the undies are graying due to lack of wash, how does Snape not smell? I would think that James and Sirius would have a field day if he smelled bad. They teased him a lot for being greasy and having a big nose, so surely they’d tease him for smelling. Does he cast Scourgify or another cleaning spell on them to at least keep them from smelling and to keep himself from getting jock itch (which he would so get if he wore completely dirty undies long enough for them to go gray)? Perhaps a cleaning spell would prevent smell and swamp ass, but clothes need to be properly washed to keep from getting dull and gray? Were they really old undies (boxers that had been handed down from his father)? Did Snape borrow cologne from his Housemates? Is there an anti-stink charm? A combonation of the above? Or did JKR just decide to spare us the detail of a smelly Snape, LOL?
2) What’s up with the yellowish teeth? Does Snape drink a lot of tea and coffee? Does he smoke? Does he brush good enough to not lose his teeth and to keep from having bad breath, but not so much that they stay whiter? Does he not brush and use some kind of potion to avoid tooth loss and bad breath?
3) What’s up with all the grease? Is Snape naturally oily and just doesn’t take care of his skin and hair well enough to combat being a grease pit? Definitely, whatever he’s doing is not getting the job done. In terms of the hair, I wonder if Snape washes it with soap instead of shampoo (my grandparents would do this – I have oily hair and can not get away with it like they could)?
4) Why doesn’t Snape take proper care of himself? Depression? Feels like his time is better spent elsewhere? Both? Some other theory?
5) Why didn’t Eileen take proper care of Snape when he was a child? Depression? Drugs and/or alcohol? Extreme poverty? A combination of the above? Some other theory?
6) Why does Snape wear his hair long? Does he use it as a shield to hide his face? Is shoulder-length hair a Prince family tradition? Does he just like the style, but isn’t willing to put in the work to keep it looking good?
7) What do you think about child Snape’s clothes? Child Snape wore a lot of ill fitting and mismatched clothes and his family was quite poor. I think it’s safe to say that Snape was given clothes that started out too big and had to wear them till they got too small. How much of his wardrobe was hand-me-downs and how much came from a thrift or second-hand store? Where did the hand-me-downs come from, do you think? His parents? Some other relatives? Clothing drive? Did child Snape ever get brand new clothes? Did he get his Hogwarts uniform second-hand, or was he able to get a brand new uniform so he didn’t look so shabby at school?
8) Would Snape have been an average or decent looking guy by most standards if he took better care of himself and had a better attitude (ex. smiled more)? I think it’s safe to say that taking better care of himself and such would be an improvement, but how well do you think he’d clean up?
As always, feel free to answer whichever questions interest you or riff on the topic however you like.
PS: The sub-topic of Snape and facial hair will be covered by an upcoming poll that ravenstar84 is putting together. Stay tuned.