Informant Information:

Clerisse Cornejo is a student at the University of Southern California. She comes from a mixed background (Japanese/Mexican), and is originally from Fontana, CA.

Tale:

“So the tale is a wive’s tale, very common among a lot of Latino families. Uh, so as a child in order to make your hair grow thicker for the rest of your life (supposedly) you’ll get completely balded. The idea behind this is that as your hair grows back it’ll grow back thicker. I’ve looked into it there’s no actual evidence anywhere that says balding your kids will make their hair more thick and beautiful but that did not stop my mother from balding me as a two year old. I think the tale is mostly on my mom’s side and it was more common for the people (kids/cousins) that came before me. I have some cousins on that side of the family that were never balded as babies, so I think the practice has finally fallen out of use in my family.”

Q: Was there a ancient myth/tale associated with balding?

“Not that I know of.”

Analysis:

The informant mentioned that this practice is common in Latino families, and after investigation, it’s actually very true. I was able to find many articles detailing exactly what the informant said, especially on the belief that the informant mentioned. Apparently, it is common practice in Mexican culture to shave the heads of infant baby girls so that in the future they can have great hair, but I wasn’t able to find the origin of this old wive’s tale.