Hair Reigns

Hair is one of the most important aspects of appearance. That's nothing new. Times ago, men wore elaborate wigs to do important political jobs, women were admired for the height and decoration of their top knots, and in some societies, hair was deemed a religious expression in its length or cut or curl. Hair isn't always what grows on one's own head, but such that someone else has grown, or that someone has manufactured. We cut it off, shave it, glue it on or add to it, according to fashion. We colour it and iron it and curl it and straighten it. The hair structure itself holds clues to the state of our chemical being and our genetics. Hair appears to be more important than getting thin. And that's saying a lot! Hairdressers or stylists or whatever name they adopt, work in conditions that are not comfortable, nor often, safe. The ones I know, are on their feet for hours, they breathe in dangerous substances all day and they put their hands onto a myriad of scalps that doctors may not choose to do without concern. They are seldom rich and yet, they enrich our lives.Why are we so obsessed with hair? It is said, that our eyes are our "souls", but I would say that our hair, is. I know men who go to extreme lengths to fake hair on their heads and woman who go through relative torture to colour or curl or straighten their locks. Too much hair or hair in the wrong places makes up a whole segment of the beauty business. Hair products dominate our bathroom shelves no matter what our status be. Few people I know, do not go to someone else for hair therapy. Why do we place so much importance on hair? Like Everest, perhaps because it's there? What is this hair thing all about?  Why are we not satisfied with it, just as it is? Why isn't grey hair or naturally coloured hair satisfying? Why do we need to have someone else tend to it and change it and send us out the door, poorer, feeling happy? I seldom exit a hair salon feeling satisfied. I go home, as many ladies I know do, and comb it out and adjust it  the way I want it. Alternately, some women have had the same hair-do all their adult lives. They wouldn't miss their weekly appointments for the world. I know one who, the days after her weekly styling, slept with her hair wrapped protectively, in toilet paper. It isn't just a female matter. Men I know, go for years, religiously, to the same barber. Some bald men, suddenly appear youthfully and gloriously adorned with a  miracle. I have been fooled frequently when admiring someone's hair-do, to have whispered in my ear, "it's not mine". And the actors we so love for their perfect images are seldom without their accessories of long or coloured or fulsome "hair". Up with hair, long may it grow!