Going grey

May 14, 2011 at 12:06 pm · Filed under Hair

My hair started turning grey when I was 13 years old. So when I was in std 8^th in school, when all the girls around me had beautiful dark lustrous hair that they tied in ponies or plaits, I hid those striking greys against the rest of my blacks as best I could. After all, I was a silver haired 13 year old. Going grey even before her first period!

“Hey, you have white hair!!”, my 13 year old classmates exclaimed.

As if I didn’t know already. As if it needed to be said. As if the whole world hadn’t noticed already.

“Put some henna”, “Put some dye”.

So I put some henna. And I put some dye.

Then they exclaimed-

“Hey you apply henna?!” “Hey you have dyed your hair?!”

As if I didn’t know already. As if it needed to be said. As if the whole world hadn’t noticed already.

And so my 13 year old self fought a losing battle in front of the mirror trying to tie her hair in a way that hid those greys as best as possible. Efforts went mostly in vain.

But soon, I was not 13 anymore. I grew up. I matured. I grew out of my inhibitions. I grew out of the inhibitions society threw me into. So what if I have greys? Now this 20-something me sports her greys without feeling ashamed. Perhaps, even a little proud…

Yashada, 25, India.

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My Hair

April 26, 2011 at 1:38 pm · Filed under Hair

Schoolbooks taught us that hair was provided us to protect us from the elements. One wonders : for thousands of years we have been living indoors, why does hair grow on our scalps, under the armpit, on the crotch? The hair should have fallen off, as in case of some of the African tribes whose scalp hair does not grow beyond a few curls no longer than the tip of our smallest finger.

A doctor couple I know, when migrating to one of the Carribean islands, took the barber’s set of instruments along. The male said there are no barbers on that island, people’s hair does not grow. That sounds like some impending evolution.

Females shaving off the head is not half as startling in half of India, the Southern half, as it may be elsewhere. How people react to a shaven head depends upon the culture itself. Sheaves of poetry has been written in Persian and Urdu, where a woman’s hair is counted as one of the most erotic parts of her body.

Logically the entire orthodox Islamic world would be shocked on seeing a woman without any hair but then the same people also wear the hijab, the naqab, the chador or whatever, always covering this erotic portion, so it leaves us guessing.

Gujarati culture looks unkindly at short hair in women, unlike the profusion of short haired professional executives in other parts, most of whom cannot afford to waste two hours in preserving, grooming and tending their long hair. For decades in Gujarat, only the mentally disturbed destitute ladies used to have shaven heads apart from the Jain Sadhvis, who are said to have plucked each single hair out with their own hands… that’s some sort of penance, or self-fortification against pain. These stereotypes often force the modern Gujarati girl to avoid having very short hair though the influx of youngsters from the West has been rising, and customs are changing.

Short hair is common, but very short hair and shaven heads are not. Those of us who spend a fortune on all kinds of shampoos, hair conditioners, pomades, lotions, herbal extracts and a thousand other formulations, often agree with the grandmas who look at the modern young girl and curse the whole hair care industry – many old ladies often tell them you are driving the goat out from your house and letting a camel in. This can be paraphrased as you are trying to solve a small problem whilst creating a much larger problem.

The fact that in USA the cosmetics industry is 33 times larger than the general engineering industry speaks volumes for the obsession the females there have about their bodies and how they look. Jane Karo, an advertising executive hit the nail on the head when she quipped : If the average woman wakes up one fine morning, slaps her forehead and announces, I am happy with my shape – entire economies could collapse. No doubt about that.

– Max Babi

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