A Very Hairy Observation

Crazy times! Aren’t these?

When one imagines experiencing a global phenomenon, this is not what one expects. Nevertheless, it is a unique situation that has got everybody thinking – about slowing down occasionally, about your priorities in life, about life in general!

This lockdown was also an opportunity of many firsts for most of us –

• Baking for the first time (huffing and puffing and whisking into the culinary kingdom)
• Entering the kitchen and cooking a meal for themselves (for the first time!)
• Working out (How many fitness challenges did you demolish?)
• Reading (How many books did you devour?)
• Painting (Pleasantly surprised at the number of friends who brought out their artistic prowess during this lockdown. A calming treat for my eyes. Thank you guys 😊)
• Making Coffee (Dalgona or plain, a coffee lover’s gain!)

Well, there was a first for me and it wasn’t just me as social media would suggest –

Giving someone a haircut.

It was NOT a good first to have.

Here’s what happened:

Summer-time long hair was getting irritating for my sister. Long hair in this case is defined as huge Afro styled hair on the head and not waist deep long hair.

The task was to chop it real short – army style short. I decided to take up the task. It felt like a good addition to the list of things I did during the lockdown.

And so we began! Bit by bit, patch by patch, I started cutting her hair. Halfway through this I realised how awful I am at this. By end of it, her hair looked like it was eaten up by rats in patches. I felt terrible for doing this to her hair. It felt like I took an exam and failed at it miserably. It took me back to my drawing classes in school. Firstly, because of my grades in drawing. Luckily, I never failed. Managed to scrape through. And secondly, for the way her hair looked. It looked like something I would have drawn in one of those human figure drawing classes.

Shivers went down my spine just remembering about it. *Brrr*

Looking at the haircut, she suggested that I trim her hair completely. I was hesitant but that seemed like the best option.

Going bald at least once was part of her bucket list. So, she was super excited with the idea.

I was not.

Yet, I went ahead and began chopping her hair. A complete chop.

And this is where I was surprised at my reaction.

While cutting off her hair, tears started pouring out from my eyes. I was cutting her hair with minimum visibility, as my eyes were fogged now by some very strong stream of tears. My sister, who was bald now, consoled me saying that this is what she wanted so I don’t need to feel bad about it.

The funny part – I don’t know why I cried. It was a surprising, unexpected and inexplicable outlet of emotion. Was it because I saw my little baby bald or was it something else? I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

A few days later, I saw an Instagram story of a lady who experienced something similar. She gave her son a messed-up haircut and cried because of it. Might have happened with more people since everyone was giving haircuts to people around them?

This got me thinking.

Now that we are in a lockdown, we have plenty of time to think, don’t we?

And so, I spent a lot of time thinking about this. Deep thoughts!

What is the connection between hair and emotions?

How do the barbers, the salon stylists, do it? Do they feel emotions while giving hundreds of haircuts they do?

Do all of us feel it or is it only some weirdos like me?

The mind went into a flashback – The year: 2018.

I had just gone from long curly hair to an extremely short pixie cut.

My reason – It was summer! People with crazy, frizzy and dense hair will understand why I needed that haircut. And thus, my summer was blessed with a light, fluffy and bouncy head.

My first day at work post this hair cut was a heart-breaking one –

Not for me! But for many around me.

“Why Priya Why?”

“Where’s your hair?”

“Noooooo! What did you doooooo!”

Well I needed it, people! I needed it! It was summer! An Indian Summer!

The most surprising reaction to this came when I traveled to Germany for work that summer. A German colleague was surprised to see my short hair. “Why did you cut your hair so short? Bad breakup?”

I always thought a haircut because of a heartbreak or breakup is a Bollywood notion. Not anymore! Apparently, a global phenomenon. A global emotion.

Then one fine day, summer was over, and I started missing my long curly hair. All I could see around me were women flaunting their long curls and all I could do is go back to my old pictures and sigh!

“Short hair – Never again!”, I said to myself.

Summer of 2019, I was back to short hair. It was Summer, people!!

Summer of 2020 was spent at home. Thank you Lockdown – Good time for haircare – No shortening of hair was required. *Phew*

 

Then, another flashback – A recurring war.

I have this habit of getting my hair blow-dried straight instead of my curls for a day after every salon visit. It is my one day of sporting a different look once in a while (two – if I’m lucky and not sweaty). These are the days when again, the reactions get interesting.

My hair has the ability of dividing a house into two – The Curl Crusaders and The Straight Hair Supporters.

Imagine my hair being the initiator of World War III! Okay. Fine. Exaggeration!

But the day it happens, we will refer to this post! Okay, some more exaggeration. Stopping now.

I’m serious when I talk about how much both parties invest in debating on which hairstyle suits me the best.

1: “You should permanently straighten your hair. It looks awesome”

2: “No please don’t do that. Don’t listen to her. You look good with curls.”

1: “She should definitely try permanent straightening once in her lifetime”

2: “No. Never. Let her be. Don’t do it, Priya”

Sometimes, I feel really jealous of the celebrity level attention my hair gets!

 

Flashback #3 – Haircut Hate

I remember this one very clearly because it made me very angry. My sister got her hair styled differently than she usually did. This got her a lot of unpleasant reactions. The number of these reactions were so high that she had to write about it on her social media to let people know to backoff.

Why would you want to use your Freedom of Expression to put someone down for their choices is beyond my comprehension. But then these days, people do use their freedom of expression for precisely this, don’t they? ☹

By the way – She totally rocked that look!

All these flashbacks made one thing clear. There is clearly a lot of emotion associated with hair. It may not be your emotional attachment with your own hair. It could be just anyone around you. But there are undoubtedly too many emotions attached.

Then I thought some more.

I was surprised at how much hair related content my memory holds!

How about Hair and Beliefs?

There is so much significance of hair and beliefs associated with it.

Our country has the best examples.

• On one hand, you have a religion that prohibits cutting your hair at all. On the other, you have a belief in shaving all your hair as an offering to the Lord.

• Head-shaving as an important part of the thread ceremony which signifies that the child is ready to take on the responsibilities in terms of education and other challenges.

• The son of the family shaving off his hair on death of his parent. A ritual that could have originated from emotions, perhaps?

Why is hair so significant in our beliefs? Some deep dive is required into this.

I’m not doing it!

Next, let’s talk about the fairy tales.

Rapunzel and her hair. I didn’t read the complete story because of her grim story the Grimm brothers wrote. But she is still popular because of her long golden hair. Her hair story got her a Disney movie as well! And to be honest, I prefer the Disney movie (Tangled) any day to the actual story. It’s different and pleasant.

Still thinking about hair, I remembered a colleague had shared a book recommendation with me where the story revolved around hair. So, I picked it up.

The Braid by Laetitia Colombani is a fictional story that addresses some strong non-fiction topics.

• The untouchability issue and the associated stigma and injustice that prevails.
• Challenging a patriarchal society.
• Breaking the glass ceiling and the sacrifices one is willing to do in achieving that.

Though the main premise in the book was not hair, it was an important part of the story and it was quite interesting to read about the emotions attached with it. Especially, since my head was already filled with all the hairy thoughts.

With so much thought into hair and associated emotions, I finally googled “Hair and Emotions”.

Surprisingly, there were a good number of articles that popped up as results. Google it, if you are interested in reading more about it. 😊

It may seem that I’m just rambling about hair.

Some may think, “Whoa, she has got so much time to think about hair. Does she not have any other work to do?”

Well, I can’t help it. Curiosity is my middle name. Okay, it’s not. But it could very easily be. I am a thinker with a highly active imagination. I have the ability to just think about the letter A and somehow end up thinking about Arachnophobia. See what I did there?!?

With so much thought and time spent on hair, I couldn’t let all this go waste.

I had to write about it.

If you have some hairy stories, do share, and help me prove that I’m not the only one with these.

Please?