What girl hasn't grown up dreaming of long hair? Those fairytale braids that cascade and bounce off your shoulders. Everyone admires long hair. Having long hair is like having a garden. It needs extensive care, every day. I have always watched with amusement how women, well endowed in the hair department, spend hours disciplining their lush mane.
Ask them how they do their hair and they'll let out a torrent of complaints about how difficult and time-consuming it is to wash, dry, and tie it up. Suggest that they cut it to make life easier, and you're inviting teasing and contempt from a wounded soul.
I set hair goals for my mother, who had thick, long, and lush hair. Apparently, his supreme glory was the object of envy in the small town where we lived. Wherever I went, people would turn to me and run their hands over my mop and say, "Not even half as beautiful as your mother's." And they will tell me, on another occasion, about the legendary beauty of her locks that hung down to the back of her knees when she was 20 years old.
I used to imagine my mother curled up next to her braided hair every night. My mom would validate my imagination and say that's exactly what she did. โAll of that is gone now. I lost so much hair after giving birth, โmy mother said, stroking her locks that still reached her waist.
Because length is tied to femininity, I think women are conditioned to love long hair. It is a prerequisite for looking attractive. My grandmother used to say that girls need long hair to have a good husband. A woman is not allowed to own her hair and do what she wants with it. In patriarchal societies, it is still tied to the honor of the family. A woman with short hair is a disgrace.
Growing up, I was the only girl among my friends who had 'permission' to cut my hair and try out some new cuts that were all the rage. My mom was an athlete and she would take me to salons and ask me for haircuts that didn't compromise length. I remember the uproar I caused when I once pushed the boundaries and cut my hair down to my shoulders. My hair break was greeted with deafening silence at home ... lasting almost a week.
They say that every time a woman cuts her hair, she is about to change something in her life. When she's ready for a fresh start, the first thing she does is cut off those dead inches. She is making a political statement that she owns her body and will decide what she wants to do with her life.
Sometimes it is much easier. She just needs a change. Last week, I got rid of the weight of my locks.
"Everything is alright?" a concerned Facebook friend texted me. He thought I was 'brave' for cutting my hair. I just wanted to feel the breeze behind my neck this summer. That is the longest and shortest. It is a serious misunderstanding that emotions are always entangled with hair.
