Tag Archives: hair

Don’t Comb Wet Hair

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 2014-04-29
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The informant learned from his father, who learned from his mother, not to comb your hair when wet, as doing so would make you more susceptible to being struck and killed by lightning.

This belief is likely rooted in the observation of static electricity, a phenomenon which immediately evokes images of lightning.

The informant’s grandmother, who received no formal education, was born, lived, and died in Irapuarto, Mexico. The informant is generally mistrusting of all things he has learned from his grandmother, as he refers to most folk belief as “batshit.” Such beliefs hold no weight to him and serve only to be laughed at.

Mother Daughter wedding traditions in Hong Kong

Nationality: American
Age: 24
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 13th, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Cantonese

Informant Background: The informant is originally from Hong Kong. She now lives permanently in the United States but travels back once a year to visit her relatives in Hong Kong. She speaks both Cantonese and English. Her family practices many of the Chinese traditions, folk-beliefs, and superstitions. She celebrates many of the Chinese holidays through cooking of special “holiday food.”

 

On the wedding day, before the wedding, the bride’s mother will comb the bride’s hair three times… I think the first time is so that the couple will love each other forever. Then second is so the bride can have one child per year… And third is that the bride and groom will grow old together.

The informant learned about this through her aunt and observations of the weddings she attended in Hong Kong. According to the informant this is a common Chinese wedding ritual. She said it is usually a time shared privately by mother and daughter only.

 

I think this tradition clearly reflects how wedding is more than about the bride and the groom coming together but also their relative and other people in their lives. In this case it is the ties between the mother and the daughter. This is similar to Western traditions where the mother would help the bride get ready for the ceremony in a separate room hidden from the crowd.

The bride’s mother is passing down the knowledge and wisdom. The first blessing is so that the bride and groom will have the unconditional love as her family. The second reflects how the older generation wants the next generation to keep continuing the bloodline through children. It also reflects how marriage is about celebrating reproduction through different metaphors. The third is for the bride and groom to grow old with grey hair together. I think the combing of the hair reflects this idea of beauty since women tends to grow their hair longer than men. Hair color also reflects a person’s age through color. This tradition has the element of the number three which occurs in many cultures through different rituals.

Wedding ritual is a way to always strengthen the ties between the older and younger generation, and younger generation to the next generation. This tradition then keep the mother involve before losing her daughter to the other family. The combing of the hair is also an act a mother would perform when the daughter was younger; this is a way of bringing closure before they say their goodbyes.

Sweater Vests and Slicked Back Hair for Basketball Luck

Nationality: Canadian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/11/2013
Primary Language: English

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“When I was playing basketball and we had a winning streak going my coach wore the same sweater vest and even had the same slicked back hairstyle until we lost.”

My informant told me that his coach had a repertoire of sweater vests and hairstyles that he cycled through over the course of a season. Apparently, the thinking is that if things are going well and everything stays the same, then things should continue to go well. The coach would also refuse to wash his sweater vests until the end of the season, treating luck as something tangible that clung to his sweater vests and could be easily washed off.

This belief ties closely with a Chinese belief. On Chinese New Year, parents tell their children not to wash their hair because it will wash away the good luck for the coming year.

People enjoy correlating a spurt of good luck with common items such as clothing because it implies that luck is a force that can be controlled and called upon when needed.

The origin of such beliefs may be centered on the fact that with repetition, people tend to improve at a task. So when a favorite shirt is worn often, a person may believe that it is the article of clothing that improves his “luck.” In actuality, it may be the extra practice that accounts for his improvement.

dreadlock gesture

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: Eugene, Oregon
Performance Date: 3/23/12
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

(I didn’t hear this, but my friend did, so even though it was directed to me it was technically my friend serving as the informant:)

A guy approached me at a concert (I have dreadlocks) and said, “I hate to stereotype, but do you have a pipe?”

A lot of people stereotype someone with dreadlocked hair to be a dirty hippie stoner bum, which is not always the case, but why this guy prefaced his question with “I hate to stereotype”…

Italian women’s hair length

Nationality: Irish/Italian
Age: 85
Occupation: English Professor
Residence: Massachusetts
Performance Date: March 13, 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: Italian, Spanish

My informant told me about the customs of italian women in relation to their hair length:

“Native women tend to avoid cutting their hair. This is a female concern men do not seem to give a damn. I recalled your great grandmother (Santa’s)  friends, how slowly they got used to American ways and cut their hair. Your grandmother and I used to laugh how they all found an excuse  for shortening their hair usually lamenting that arthritis made it impossible to comb it long. Long hair was part of their system of belief.  And they felt the necessity to find an excuse for their sin.”

My informant told me that his wife kept her hair long, just like her family would have liked back in Italy.

Again, the connection between Italian customs/superstitions and religion shows through in my informant’s use of the word “sin” in relation for women cutting their hair. Even little customs like hair length is tied back to belief.