All about hair

I have been growing my hair now for the past 24 years. It all started for a very practical reason. I decided one day that I couldn’t take any more of the peer pressure concerning hairstyles and looks. It seemed easier to me to simply grow my hair long and I felt very comfortable with the idea.
I also owe my long hair to my sister Janie. She was the one who gave haircuts to the boys in our family. One day she slipped with the shears when she cut my hair. I was always a self-conscious kid but to make matters worse, my sister buzz cut a chunk of my hair the night before my first communion. As a solution to fill in the portion of exposed white scalp on my head, she used black magic marker to hide the spot.
It didn’t take long for me to get used to having long hair. I think part of the comfort came from my realization that this was more of a traditional style that my ancestors followed. In many of the old photographs I have seen of James Bay people up the coast, many of them had long hair. Cutting hair was just not part of our traditional culture for all kinds of reasons.
These days when I have my hair in a long pony tail it drops down past my waist. I find the amount of attention I get from people very strange as they seem to think that long hair is a rare and weird thing. This is true in particular in other countries. In Islamic cultures, the reaction has been one of humour. When I visited Egypt, ladies on the street giggled and laughed at the fact that a man could have long hair. In Germany, I was stopped and asked many times about my hair. The German culture is very intrigued by Aboriginal people. In Thailand, I was surprised at the reaction of people who thought that my long hair and the fact that I was Aboriginal symbolized the mystical and magical Hollywood Indian.
Hair is an unusual feature of the human body. Compared to other animals, the hair on our heads can grow long, whereas the hair on our bodies stays short. Most animals that do grow hair have it grown evenly either long or short throughout their bodies.
In our modern civilization, different cultures grow hair or cut it for various reasons. At different periods during the past centuries, hair has either been looked at as a symbol of wealth or something that belongs to the poor. During the Middle Ages, someone with long hair was thought of as wealthy because they could afford to grow and groom their hair. In the 20th century, it became a sign of poverty as someone who was disheveled and could not afford to groom themselves properly.
Hairstyles and length in men and women also holds a powerful psychological hold on all of us.
It is a sign of vitality, sexuality and fertility in women. From ancient and prehistoric times, a woman’s fertility and ability to bear children could be judged by the length of her hair as she grew older and more mature. For men, historically it was used as a symbol of domination over others. During times of conflict, slaves, prisoners of war and captured soldiers had their heads shaved as a sign that someone had domination over them. There was and still is nothing more humiliating than to cut off someone’s hair against their will.
The idea of short hair also became a symbol of authority and order. Those who became part of the military, police organizations, organized groups or religious orders had to have short cut hair as part of their uniform and dress. In our modern world, the opposite has also become true. Native American men and women with their long hair were always thought of as being outside the norm of organized society. Aboriginal people actually helped to popularize the idea of an individual who was free to have long hair. This image was part of the pop culture of the 60s when hippies and young people identified with long hair as a break from the military buzz cut.
My long hair these days is really part of who I am. Some people like it, some people don’t but I don’t really care. It shades me from the hot sun in summer and it keeps me warm in the wintertime.