We are not chassidish. If we were, we would not be cutting Barak's hair until his third birthday, at which point the grand event would be marked by an upshearin, complete with party. If we were chassidish and lived in Jerusalem, we might even give him his first haircut at the Kotel. It would be a very big deal.
But, as I say, we are not chassidish. And Barak's hair, now that he is closing in on his second birthday, has been getting pretty out of control. I've been talking about cutting it for a while, and putting it off, but yesterday I pushed it out of his eyes for the nth time and thought, okay, that's it. So I gave him some chocolate chips on his high chair tray, and while he was distracted with those cut him some bangs. I left the rest of his hair where it was--at some point I'll take him to the barber for a real haircut, but for now that's fine. It's incredible how different he looks--like a big boy or something. Wow.
Haircut #1--check.
And on to haircut #2. I haven't had a haircut since the infamous Borough Park Haircut Incident, which happened when I was around four months pregnant with Barak. That was traumatic enough that I've been ignoring the haircut issue entirely ever since, more than two years now. I've always had long hair, so this was easy to do. I put it in a bun in the morning, put a hat or a tichel on top of it, and that's it until bedtime. Once in a while I wash it. Once in a while I brush it. Most of the time, I don't do anything with it but wear it around on my head.
Lately, though, it's been annoying me. It just got way too long (meaning, long enough to sit on, and too long to fit under a sheitel, not that I ever wear mine anyway).
And now that I'm pregnant again, my hair is growing in faster and thicker, in addition to being generally healthier already as a result of being covered, not washed as often, and just, well, left alone for so long. So I thought, fine--time for my hair to go to a better home. To donate your hair, you need 8 to 10 inches that you can spare. This afternoon, I hacked off a 14-inch braid with one brutal snip. And my hair is still well past my shoulders (though the shortest it's been since I was about six).
So now I can, if I so choose, again wear a sheitel. Meaning that I'll be wearing the hair of some anonymous East European women, while some anonymous kid with hair loss wears mine.
2 comments:
How cool -- ever since I real "Little Women" and then had my butt-length hair cut to above my shoulders (right after 9th grade), I've wondered if I could sell, or give away, the hair as Jo did in the book. Didn't find anything at the time, but have vaguely had it in the jumble room at the back of my mind all along. Glad this exists, and that you did this. Very cool for all concerned.
Any chance of getting a new picture of you w/ your short haircut?
And, just wondering, would you want to wear a sheitel? I have to say, I understand the principle of covering one's hair (out of modesty, or not seducing men with it, or whatever) due to having lived in a Middle Eastern country and also having read all those Victorian novels where the lady's neat bun comes undone at a critical moment of passion, and all that. So I get the symbolism of female hair, and the importance of covering it for one reason or another. But then I don't understand wearing *somebody else's hair*, or even fake hair, over it. Surely that negates the whole point of the exercise? Not to mention being terribly itchy.
Yay! How wonderful of you to donate it.
And, yes, itchy. Ugh.
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