Summary: So to start with… what is with hair? Why is it so symbolic? Well, it’s easily changeable. It can be cut, styled, dyed, bleached… bleached then dyed… it can be bleached, dyed, and then drenched in elmer’s glue so it would stand up in liberty spikes… just saying. There’s all kinds of stuff you can do with hair. But it also is part of the body. It’s not clothing, which is external, but rather it’s part of you. It’s something you’ve grown. Clothing can simply be discarded, but this is attached to your body and is there to stay… until you cut it off. It’s also attached to your head, which is a primary source of communication. It frames and sometimes obscures the face. It’s intertwined with facial features, which are often the most remembered aspects of a person’s appearance. Hair is strongly tied to who we are on a superficial level. You only need to describe someone to a friend to see it’s importance. “Hey, do you remember Charlotte? You know, the girl with short red hair.” It’s highly identifying. And hair also transmits some bits of information regarding the person’s life. It can communicate age, whether sexual maturity has been reached (for example, if body hair is present). And the way hair is treated can show a person’s life stage. For example, many cultures have tied the first cutting of the hair to a rite of passage or major life event. In some Germanic tribes, there was an important relationship that formed between a boy and the person who first cut his hair. And you just have to look across the channel to the Frankish territories to see how serious that was. The Franks actually had heavy punitive fines for anyone who dared to cut the hair of a long haired boy without his family’s permission. And considering how close the Franks and the English of the south were, it’s not impossible that some of that behavior made it across the channel.
