How to say in Chinese: "Why can't girls just leave their hair alone?"

[anonymoose]

How would one say in Chinese: "Why can't girls just leave their hair alone?"

Perhaps this sentence needs context. Imagine someone is chatting about perming hair, making it curly, pulling it straight, etc., and then you wanted to say (rhetorically) "Why can't girls just leave their hair alone?" (in other words, not do any perms or other treatments).

The sentence I came up with was: 女孩为什么不能不碰自己的头发啊？

However, this doesn't seem to be very 地道.

A chinese friend of mine came up with: 为什么女孩总要和自己的头发过不去？

This seems to be more 地道 than my sentence, but I'm not sure that the meaning is the same any more.

Does anyone have any better alternatives?

Thanks.

[bootrom]

女孩子不做头发不行吗?

女孩子不能不做头发吗?

[glock]

I just cant think of anything better than bootroms those two

[Lu]

I know you asked for a translation, but why would you say something like this at all? Do all girls constantly mess with their hair? (If yes, then what am I if not a girl?) Do boys not mess with their hair? Reminds me of the guy who noticed I brought a purse, and asked: why do women always carry around so much stuff? apperantly expecting me to answer for all of womankind. I know you asked for a translation, not for criticism, but remarks like this annoy me to no end.

[mandarina]

女孩子干嘛总整理头发呢？

[anonymoose]

I know you asked for a translation, but why would you say something like this at all? Do all girls constantly mess with their hair? (If yes, then what am I if not a girl?) Do boys not mess with their hair? Reminds me of the guy who noticed I brought a purse, and asked: why do women always carry around so much stuff? apperantly expecting me to answer for all of womankind. I know you asked for a translation, not for criticism, but remarks like this annoy me to no end.

Yes, I was asking for a translation, rather than a critique of the comment itself. I didn't ask for the translation so that I have a ready-made comment to rattle off next time the occasion arises, but rather because I was interested in this from a theoretical linguistic point of view.

Nevertheless, since you brought up the issue, I think most people on hearing such a comment would recognise it as a harmless piece of rhetoric, and not meant to be taken in its literal sense. I think it is fairly clear that the comment is not asserting as fact that all girls constantly mess with their hair, and that boys do not, but rather expressing an emotion of the speaker. It's a little like when people make comments such as (from this thread):

You speak for HK, but I think that this way of thinking is not uncommon in the rest of China either. Girl is passive, guy will make the choices for the both of them. That's pretty much the reason I'll probably never have a Chinese boyfriend, I can't stand that attitude (and neither would a Chinese boyfriend be able to stand my attitude).

Is this to be interpreted as saying all Chinese guys are control freaks? And that no girls are? Do you also find remarks like this annoy you to no end?

[gato]

Maybe 女孩子们干嘛老弄她们的头发? I think this is more colloquial. Note the question is being asked in the positive rather than negative as in the English original, but it sounds to me more natural this way.

A more direct translation might be bootrom's suggestion of 不做xxx不行吗? That works, too, and sounds a little more forceful (maybe it's the more accurate translation).

No comment on whether it's true.

[stoney]

为什么女孩总是改变理发？

Does this work at all? Any suggestions?

[anonymoose]

Thanks for all your input everyone.

After consideration, I think probably the closest to the intended meaning was bootrom's 女孩子不能不做头发吗?

However, at the risk of making it not 地道 anymore, I think I'd like to suggest a further change and state it as 女孩子为什么不能就不做头发啊？

I feel this is closest to the nuance of the original sentence which, by the way, was a response to a girl who asked for an opinion on whether she should have her hair done or not, and feeling that her hair was very nice in its natural state, I just wanted to convey that she needn't do anything to it.

[skylee]

However, at the risk of making it not 地道 anymore, I think I'd like to suggest a further change and state it as 女孩子为什么不能就不做头发啊？

Consider changing the position of 就 like this -> 女孩子为什么就不能不做头发啊？

[Hanlink]

Anonymoose: It is strange that in choosing your preferred Chinese answer, you chose one which did not really convey the positiveness of what you were thinking, which you explained very clearly, which seemed to be that your hair is fine as it is and you don't need to do anything to it. You seem to have decided what you wanted to say in English first and then hit a brick wall as to expressing it, whereas probably what you should have said if you wanted to be more 'local' is something along the lines of: 头发搞那么多干吗? 已经很漂亮! The last bit, you need to keep relations sweet.

[semantic nuance]

Or, a related but may not be a direct translation to your English sentence--為什麼女生就喜歡在頭髮上搞花樣?

[Neil_1985]

女孩子不能不做头发吗

This is how to say it.

But you do realise that scissors would do the trick... no words needed. haha

[Music&MeForever]

Both 地道 & simple:

女孩怎么那么爱玩弄发型呀?!

or

女孩为什么总要玩弄发型呀?!

[skylee]

玩弄发型

Sounds strange to me.

[tiny_wang]

both ok

and u can say:你头发这样很好了，不用整它啦。

it's too complex about"女孩子为什么不能就不做头发啊"

and it's sounds strange,if u want to use the sentence item like this,u can say:"女孩子为什么一定要做头发啊？"or"女孩子就不能不做头发么"

not more"negative word" more 地道

sometimes it's just make people confuse