Rip's Notes: Reasoning to Snape's greasy hair!

Hair

There is something you didn't know about young Severus' appearance. Something you wouldn't have caught in my lack of description.
When his adoration for James Potter became an obsession, he decided to do something drastic. He wanted to be James Potter. Such a feeling is unbearable. Severus thought by cutting his hair like James', he could achieve the feat. It was near madness that made him take the knife, the one his father had bought for him on his 10th birthday, and put it to his beautiful, shoulder-length strands.
He knew it would not grow back because of his purebred heritage. He knew if he ever wanted it to, it would never look the same. People had always loved him for his magnificent hair. They would stroke it's silken delicacy and swoon at it's touch and feel. It was complete sickness that made him slice it away and trim it short and sweet. Complete obsession makes one do incredible things.

His best feature became his worst that lovely spring morning. The sun was rising as he moved himself into the bathroom and shut the door. He looked in the mirror with total disgust and quickly back down to the book he had in his hands titled "Hair for the Hormonally Challenged." Stolen from the library and very dusty was this savior of a book. He opened it to the page he had marked and read through it in a shuffling whisper.

"For hair growth: Place a strand of wanted hair in a cup of water and swallow it then repeat the incantation. Sleep for an hour and hair it is!
Warning - Variation on style of wanted hair may occur depending on unknown factors. Conjure with Caution."

He snorted at the final sentence and put the book aside. Wincing as he plucked a stand of hair from his scalp and placed it in a glass of water. He swallowed it easily and then read from the book.

"I beseech you, hair,
grow from my head,
so when awakening from my bed
I feel again the little strands
of which I've grown to again demand."

In an hour, he awoke, and brushed a hand through his hair. It wasn't it usual soft, silkiness -- but now a glaring, greasy reminder of his fiery hate for James Potter.