Beliefs about hair...?

[Hex]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for beliefs and legends about hair. I know that sounds kind of weird but I'd love any suggestions, especially about the significance of cutting hair.

 

[Susan Boulton]

It was believed at one time that until a lock of hair was devoted to Proserpine, she refused to release the soul from the dying body.

There is also an old rhyme;

A red beard and a black head
Catch him with a good trick and take him dead.

 

[Hex]

That's fabulous. I didn't know either of those two. Thank you

 

[Sapheron]

Many western european people in the middle ages and dark ages burnt hair they cut off because they believed that in the hands of a witch it could be used to curse them.

 

[Tyburn]

"Trust not the man, be he friend, foe or brother,
Whose hair is one colour and beard is another."

(Or the alternative version suggested on "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue")

"Trust not the man, be he friend, for or brother,
Whose hair is not his but that of another."

Yeah, don't trust anyone in a toupee...

 

[The Judge]

Sikhs, of course, don't cut their hair -- or, at least, never used to. Judaism, Islam and Christianity all have a thing about women's hair, requiring it to be covered in some form or at some times (I think I'm right in saying that ultra-orthodox Jewish women wear wigs). The Biblical story of Samson equates male hair with physical strength, so cutting his hair off left him vulnerable to his enemies.

I've also part remember something about sleeping with a hair under your pillow, but it's not coming back to me. I'll have a mooch around to see if I can bring it to mind.

not quite beliefs, but filling a locket with a loved one's hair was very big in Victorian times, and much earlier (ie 1600s) Donne has a poem which envisages the poet wearing a "subtile wreath of haire" around his arm, ie a bracelet of his lover's hair.

 

[HareBrain]

The Biblical story of Samson equates male hair with physical strength

In "America: a Prophecy" Blake makes mention of Orc's "hairy shoulders" when he breaks his chains. So there seems to be a general association of hair and strength, perhaps, which I guess is just a basic link with wildness and the animal.

(Note, lest it need pointing out, not all characters called Orc have hairy shoulders.)

 

[The Judge]

I've no idea how reliable this site is, but this might help Hair folklore | TraditionsCustoms.com

Ditto this one http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/faq/f/Hair-Length-and-Religion.htm

 

[Boneman]

You know, I saw this musical three times, when it was actually topical (the Vietnam War was on....), so here are the lyrics - better with the music, though.

Hair Lyrics — Hair Cast | from "Hair"

Some of hair is folklore now...

 

[Phyrebrat]

In Sub-Saharan Africa there are lots of folklore stories to do with hair and culturally/historically I learned something interesting about the practice of Canerowing (Cornrows/cornrolls in the US);

Canerows in West Africa was an exculsively female practice apart from the deity Shango who is the first male figure to be depicted with this hair style (Shango is analogous to Satan, Anansi or the trickster - who was male. Anansi BTW has a few incarnations; Caribbean, African-American and West African (oh, and Djimon Hounsou's Papa Midnite in Constantine, if you like, was heavily based on Anansi)).

Anyway, it's interesting how this feminine style has become an overtly masculinised way of wearing afro hair in such patriarchal societies.

Typically, when you see female African tribal groups with shaved heads, it is usually because their bodies are heavily adorned with jewellery etc., It is to draw the attention to the wealth of ornamentation on the body instead of the hair (Maasai and I think some Swahili).

There's also a tale similar to Samson and Delilah where captured huntsmen and bushmen who then had their hair shaved and sent out to the bush to hunt food, were ineffective. They came back with no food. The captors then stopped cutting the hair of new slaves and sent them out, finding they were successful in their hunting.

As far as folklore goes;

The Yoruba (large West African ethnic group predominantly from Benin and Nigeria) have a story about how women have long hair: A village woman fell into a hole dug by a rival. The other villagers tried to pull her out by her hair and as they did, it made her hair grow longer. As a result the other women in the village jumped into the pit and the same thing happened. Bingo: long hair. (clearly in the days before weaves )

Another story - which I think is from Kenya as it is a Bantu tribal story (but don't quote me as my East African knowledge is pretty lame) - is about a princess who has beautiful long hair and refuses to give even one strand to a bird who wants it to build its nest. As a result the village suffers famine and a beggar goes off to find the bird and along the way he shares his last supplies with a flower (water) and his food with another animal and his skills with another (Sorry, I can only remember the water bit, but I think the skills bit is a termite). It's a moralistic tale of course and the princess learns the importance of sharing and the sacredness of life (the boy thinks about killing the bird but he doesn't do it after he has shared his food etc with the other living things).

I'll probably come up with more but that's all I can think of the mo - I should be working on my Sekrit Santa II story ; when the other half gets home I'll ask.

pH

 

[SleepyDormouse]

HAIR'S MYTHOLOGY

This page has quite a few myths. I like the American indians belief that your thoughts go into your hair and the longer hair you have the more thoughts. If you explore the website there is a lot more info on hair to be read.

I have always found it interesting how styles of hair are indicative of status as well.

 

[Mouse]

Saw lots of stuff about hair when I went to the Witchcraft Museum recently. Lots of dolls with bits of hair (and nail clippings, yuck) sewn into them - I can't remember the reasoning. Either to get someone to love you, or to cause them harm. Either or.

Also, if a lady slept with a pin in her hair it'd be infused (not sure that's the right word - embedded?) with power (hair power, I dunno) and then if she gave the pin to a bloke she fancied it'd make him love her. Or some such.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Harald Bluetooth, King of Norway or suchlike, said he wouldn't cut his hair until he seduced a certain lady. He ended up not cutting his hair for decades.

Obviously there's the Samson example from the Bible as well.

 

[prizzley]

Check out Yao women, Chinese ethnic minority

http://http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/huangluo-the-worlds-first-long-hair-village.html

 

[Mith]

Don't L'Oreal give lots of people beliefs about hair?

I do remember reading once that in ancient Greece, long hair on a man was basically a status symbol for having wealth and power and being bald meant you were a slave.

I don't know if this is relevant, but there's the old legend about Lady Godiva riding naked through Coventry, clad only in her hair.

 

[BenSt]

There are some great legends about hair that I know of from India.

In Hinduism, long hair is a sign of wisdom and many of the roaming ascetics grow their hair long and in coils. One of the Gods, Shiva, has long locks which are used to cushion the river Ganges as it falls from Heaven to Earth. That's why when you see a picture of Shiva he often has a spout coming from the top of his locks.

In Sikhism, an old popular folklore explanation for the necessity for unshorn hair is that Waheguru grabs your hair and pulls you up to him. As I said, it's a folk explanation not based on scripture.

There is also a ritual by which hair is completly shorn off when you reach certain stages of life. A widow used to be shaven to show that her husband had gone. Young boys when they reach the age of manhood and are initiated into their caste are completly shaven to indicate the losing of their old selves and the gaining of their new shelves. Indeed, shaving is seen through out the world as a means of purification.

A very famous episode in the story of the Buddha has him taking a knife and cutting off his top knot, a sign of his regal status, to show his acceptance of an ascetic life.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Oh, this is sort-of hair-related: Medusa's beautiful hair got turned into snakes after she (I think) had frisky time with Poseidon in the temple of the goddess she was meant to be serving.

 

[BenSt]

Oh, this is sort-of hair-related: Medusa's beautiful hair got turned into snakes after she (I think) had frisky time with Poseidon in the temple of the goddess she was meant to be serving.

Yeah, that's the Roman version, an original Greek version has it that she was born monstrous. In the Roman version specifically her hair is turned to serpents by Athena. Athena is somewhat interesting in this because a lot of the changes to Medusa was around the head, and Athena was born from Zeus' head.

I meant to mention before, there is also a whole array of symbolic meanings and myths connected with the elaborate hairstyles of the Geisha in Japan. Immortal Geisha - Hairstyles of Kyoto Maiko

 

[Hex]

Brilliant. Thank you so much, everyone.

 

[Harpo]

This is from 1909