Hair is a very important expression of who we are.

It is often the first thing you notice when you meet someone, especially if they have nice hair.

Well-groomed, luxuriant, lustrous, hair is, quite simply, beautiful and sexy. It can signify youth, health, strength and vitality.

Many people don't feel right unless their hair looks perfect. If their hair looks good they feel great. Otherwise they say they are having a 'bad hair day'. This applies to men and well as women.

Hair reacts to our state of well being. This includes our physical, spiritual, and emotional bodies.

Emotionally, if we are in balance, our hair grows and looks beautiful as a personification of of our inner self. Under stress many people have hair loss or their hair looses its texture and sheen.

One such disease is Alopecia Areata which is a highly unpredictable, autoimmune skin disease resulting in the loss of hair on the scalp and elsewhere on the body.

Other factors that affect hair include: Physical illnesses - Diet - skin conditions - - hormones - shampoos & conditioners - hair dyes, perms - the water you use to wash you hair, as well as other factors that impact on our daily lives.

The manner in which you care for your hair also various greatly. Some people just wash their hair and let it dry naturally, other people spend hours blow drying and styling their hair. We all seem to find a style that is 'us' and keep it until something in our lives changes - and we change our hair style along with it.

The hair we are born with changes several times during our time on planet Earth.

Some of these changes occur naturally, while others get a little help from hair stylists and barbers.

The word Barber comes from the Latin word barba meaning beard.� It may surprise you to know that the earliest records of barbers show that they were the foremost men of their tribe.� They were the medicine men and the priests.� But primitive man was very superstitious and the early tribes believed that both good and bad spirits, which entered the body through the hairs on the head, inhabited every individual.�

The bad spirits could only be driven out of the individual by cutting the hair, so various fashions of hair cutting were practiced by the different tribes and this made the barber the most important man in the community.� In fact, the barbers in these tribal days arranged all marriages and baptized all children.� They were the chief figures in the religious ceremonies.� During these ceremonies, the hair was allowed to hang loosely over the shoulders so that the evil spirits could come out.� After the dancing, the long hair was cut in the prevailing fashion by the barbers and combed back tightly so that the evil spirits could not get in or the good spirits get out.

We visualize a young baby with short cute hair . . . as babies are usually adorable. Most babies loose their newborn hair, the new hair growing in with a different color and texture. Some babies remains bald until after a year old then grow in mountains of thick hair..

As children grow older boys seem to have fewer choices of style. The final style depends on the natural texture of the hair, the parents chose, and the society in which they live.

But girls are a totally different story.

This is where many factors are at play . . .

Mothers who keep their daughters in short hair usually tell me it's because the child will not allow the mother to fuss with the child's hair or the child's hair is very thin and fine and looks bad when long.

Other than that, many mothers like the long look which can styled differently and usually reflects that natural look.

In the teens years the look is often long hair, which remains that way until after school when the person goes out into the world and society dictates the hair style that is best for them.

In many cultures long hair is the norm for women - and sometimes men - in all age groups.

How much time and energy you put into your hair varies with how important it is to you.

If you are lucky you have 'wash and wear' hair that always looks great after it is washed and dries naturally.

If you are like most people you have to create the illusion of how you see yourself by creating you hair color and style.



WORKING WITH OUR HAIR

  • Color: The right color accentuates one's aura - the person glows - Sometimes a few highlights can create the same illusion. Many depressed people dye their hair black!
  • Perm or Straightening: It seems to be true that most curly-haired people like straight hair and vice versa.
  • Hair blowing: Used for style and held in place with hair spray Curling irons
  • Gels of Mousse: Give the hair body and often shine
  • Extensions and Wigs: Can create any illusion that you desire - from the business look to the priestess - to the sophisticate. Many men wear hairpieces that are undetectable. Wigs are also worn in different religions and after certain medical procedures - such as chemotherapy.
  • Styling: This varies with the hair texture you have and the nature of your lifestyle
  • Accessories placed in your hair: Jewels, fancy pins and other ornaments



    LONG HAIR - BACK TO NATURE


    Long hair is primal . . . It stirs and arouses something within us. . . . It is sexy.

    It references a return to the creational source - water - the flow of the collective unconscious.

    In many places woman style their hair in 'snail shell' curls turning to the right. This is linked with Fibonacci - The Spiral of Consciousness energy moving upward through the crown chakra.

    We are in the Age of Aquarius - The title song of the hit show 'Hair'.

    Aquarius represents the mother creator - the priestess and goddess the creational mythology - the return of feminine energies - the higher frequency energies/chakras.

    Aquarius is always portrayed with long flowing tresses - often flowing into creation.

    The Mother - Prime Creator - Isis - is always portrayed as tall, slim, with flowing long hair.

    She is sexy and alluring . . her hair naturally thick and often wavy.

    She is the Mother Nurturer - The Protector

    Mythological creational gods are portrayed with long hair - is a return to our natural state of being.



    LONG HAIRED MEN

    Jesus of Nazareth
    Zoroaster
    George Washington
    Thomas Jefferson
    Benjamin Franklin
    Yanni
    Willie Nelson
    George A. Custer
    Famous Native Americans (Red Cloud, Black Elk, Tecumpseh, Crazy Horse, Etc.)
    Silent Wolf
    Steven Seagal
    Beethoven
    Einstein
    Rasputin Michelangelo
    William Shakespeare
    The Ascended Masters
    Creational Gods

    In the movie Harry Potter Harry worries about his aunt Petunia cutting off his hair.



    LONG HAIR IN FILM

    Women in movies - femme fatales - have almost always had long hair.

    They are soft, sensual, desirable.

    A woman letting loose her long tresses - that have been tied or pinned back, suddenly is seductive and alluring.

    Her energies are strong as she shakes looses her lion mane of hair.

    As we move back into the Aquarian - Feminine Age - we find our movies and TV shows filled with female heroines - who are tougher than their male counterparts.

    These woman are always portrayed in the primal goddess look having long flowing tresses.

    Female heroines seem to be in vogue now.

    No longer are they quiet and demure waiting to be rescued.

    This is the age of Aquarius - the return of the feminine in strength and frequency.

    Country singers always have mountains of hair sometimes wearing wigs.

    Hair is all part of the illusion - the game.



    LOOKING YOUNGER

    Hair makes a statement at any age.

    I believe that longer hair, kept in a natural color, not too dark, is more youthful that short gray hair.

    For some reason when the hormones go . . . during menopause . . . many women cut their hair short and let it go gray.

    That's fine I guess if that is how you see yourself ...but I work with many people and unless gray hair is really flattering to you, it should be replaced with a color that softens your aura and makes you look young.

    I have one client in her 60's who has had gray hair for 20 years. It is gorgeous, but she has very think wavy youthful hair and has it style in a shoulder length hair-do that she blows out each day.

    Is it important to look and feel young?

    For most people this is the case especially in western societies where we are judge so much on appearance.

    When you look young - you send out the message - I am young and stronger and in control.

    When you look older - or sickly and poorly kept - as you age - it says, "I am depressed and not in control I am bored and getting laid back and perhaps lazy about who i am. I am boring. I have issues, etc.



    PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

    Many people who are mentally ill often tend to:

  • cut off random chunks of hair
  • dye their hair black - a true sign of depression
  • loss their hair in different parts of the head
  • do not properly maintain their hair
  • dye their hair based on a multiple personal disorder
  • twirl their hair
  • pull their hair out - called Trichotillomania

    Trichotillomania is a term coined by a French dermatologist in 1889 to describe the compulsive or irresistible urge he saw in patients to pluck out their hair. The word trichotillomania is derived from the Greek thrix, hair, tillein, to pull, and mania, madness or frenzy. This name is somewhat of a misnomer in that people with trichotillomania are not "mad", "psychotic" or "crazy" as the name suggests.  In psychiatry, trichotillomania, is classified as an Impulse Control Disorder.



    PHYSIOLOGY OF HAIR

    On the average there are over one hundred thousand strands of hair on a young adult. Blondes average about 140,000 strands, brunettes average 108,000 and redheads average 90,000. Hair grows at a rate of about 150mm a year and each individual hair lasts for two to six years before it falls out, the follicle has a rest for a while, while another takes its place. Hair grows quickest in young adult women aged between sixteen and twenty-four (who are often then at the height of their possible reproductive capacity)

    The quality and appearance of hair is influenced by overall health and diet as would be expected. Anorexics who starve themselves often have very fine, brittle hair deficient in various minerals. Hair conveys information about a person and their state of health-analysis of the hair can also tell what drugs they have taken. Long hair obviously suggests at least a recent history of good health.

    Hair Science



    DREAM SYMBOLOGY

    To dream of hair in your dreams could suggest some strong thoughts are floating around up there but a strong mental power can hold them in check. To dream of gray or silver hair could suggest wise thoughts. For a woman to dream that she has beautiful hair when in reality she does not, denotes carelessness in her personality. For a man to dream of losing his hair, suggests too much generosity will put him in the poor house. To dream that you cut your hair close to your head may signify regrets of a willful extravagance.



    ONCE UPON A TIME . . .

    Once upon a time . . .the story of human evolution was written. Everyone had long hair as there were no scissors.

    Once upon a time . . . in other magical and mythological places everyone had naturally long hair. . .


    LADY GODIVA

    She was the wife of Leofric, earl of Mercia; famous for her legendary ride through the city of Coventry. She was a benefactor of several monasteries, especially that at Coventry, which she and her husband founded (1043). The legend about her, which first appears in the chronicle of Roger of Wendover, states that her husband agreed to remit the heavy taxation on the people of Coventry if she would ride naked through the town on a white horse. The story of Peeping Tom, the only person who looked through the closed shutters, did not enter the legend until the 17th cent. Michael Drayton (1613), Tennyson (1842), and others made Lady Godiva the subject of poems. A bronze statue of her by Sir William Reid Dick was erected in Coventry in 1949.



    SAMSON

    Because of certain resemblances some scholars have claimed that the biblical account of the career and exploits of Samson is but a Hebrew version of the pagan myth of Hercules. There is no serious proof to this. Still less acceptable is the opinion which sees in the biblical narrative merely the development of a solar myth, and which rests on little more than the admitted but inconclusive derivation of the name Samson from shemesh - sun.

    Samson was supposedly the last and most famous of the Judges of Israel. The narrative of the life of Samson and his exploits is contained in chapters xiii-xvi of the Book of Judges. After the deliverance effected by Jephte, the Israelites again fell into their evil ways and were delivered over to the Philistines for forty years. An angel of the Lord in the form of a man appears to the barren wife of Manue of the tribe of Dan and promises her that she shall bear a son who shall deliver Israel from the oppression of the Philistines.

    He prescribes abstinence on the part of both mother and son from all things intoxicating or unclean, and that no razor shall touch the child's head, for he shall be a Nazarite of God. The angel bearing a similar message again appears to Manue as well as to his wife, and it is only after his disappearance in the flame of a burnt offering that they recognize with great fear his celestial nature.

    The child is born according to the prediction and receives the name Samson, and the narrative informs us that the spirit of the Lord was with him from his youth.

    Strangely enough this spirit impels him in spite of his parents' opposition to choose a wife from among the ungodly Philistines (Judges, xiv, 1-4). On a visit to Thamnatha, the town of his intended bride, Samson gives the first evidence of his superhuman strength by slaying a lion without other weapon than his bare hands.

    Returning later he finds that a swarm of bees have taken up their abode in the carcass of the lion. He eats of the honey and the incident becomes the occasion of the famous riddle proposed by him to the thirty Philistine guests at the wedding festivities: Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.

    In their inability to find the answer the guests, toward the end of seven days' feast, induce Samson's wife to coax him to reveal it to her, and not sooner has she succeeded than she declares it to her countrymen. Samson, however, in order to provide the thirty garments pledged in the wager, goes down to Ascalon in the spirit of the Lord and slays thirty Philistines whose garments he gives to the guests who had declared the answer to the riddle.

    In anger he returns to his father's house, and his bride chooses one of his wedding companions for her husband.

    He returns later to claim her and is informed by her father that she has been given to one of his friends, but that he may have instead her younger and fairer sister. Samson declines the offer and catching three hundred foxes he couples them tail to tail, and having fastened torches between their tails turns them loose to set fire to the corn harvests of the Philistines which are thus destroyed together with their vineyards and olive-yards. The Philistines retaliate by burning the faithless wife and her father, whereupon Samson makes a "great slaughter of them" and then retires to dwell in a cavern of Etam in the tribe of Juda.

    Three thousand Philistines follow him and take up their quarters at Lechi. The men of Juda, alarmed, blame Samson for this invasion and deliver him up bound to the enemy. But when he is brought to them the spirit of the Lord come upon him; he bursts his bonds and slays a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass.

    Being thirsty after this exploit, he is revived by a spring of water which the Lord causes to flow from the jawbone. Later while Samson is visiting a harlot in Gaza the Philistines gather about the city gate in order to seize him in the morning, but he, rising at midnight, takes the gate, posts and all, and carries it to the top of a hill in the direction of Hebron.

    Subsequently he falls in love with a woman named Dalila of the valley of Sorec, who is bribed by the Philistines to betray him into their hands. After deceiving her three times as to the source of his strength, he finally yields to her entreaties and confesses that his power is due to the fact that his head has never been shaved.

    The paramour treacherously causes his locks to be shornand he falls helpless into the hands of the Philistines who put out his eyes and cast him into prison.

    Later, after his hair has grown again he is brought forth on the occasion of the feast of the god Dagon to be exhibited for the amusement of the populace.

    The spectators, among whom are the princes of the Philistines, number more than three thousand, and they are congregated in, and upon, a great edifice which is mainly supported by two pillars.

    These are seized by the hero whose strength has returned; he pulls them down, causing the house to collapse, and perishes himself in the ruins together with all the Philistines.



    RAPUNZEL

    Rapunzel was the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old the Witch shut her up in a tower, in the middle of a great wood, and the tower had neither stairs nor doors, only high up at the very top a small window.

    When the old Witch wanted to get in she stood underneath and called out: "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your golden hair,"

    Rapunzel had wonderful long hair which was as fine as spun gold.

    Whenever she heard the Witch's voice she unloosed her plaits, and let her hair fall down out of the window about twenty yards below, and the old Witch climbed up by it.

    Many years past. Then one day that a Prince was riding through the wood and passed by the tower. As he drew near it he heard someone singing so sweetly that he stood still spell-bound, and listened.

    It was Rapunzel in her loneliness trying to while away the time by letting her sweet voice ring out into the wood.

    The Prince longed to see the owner of the voice, but he sought in vain for a door in the tower, but found none.

    One day, when he was standing thus behind a tree, he saw the old Witch approach and heard her call out:

    "Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
    Let down your golden hair."

    Then Rapunzel let down her plaits, and the Witch climbed up by them.

    So on the following day, at dusk, he went to the foot of the tower and cried:

    "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your golden hair,"

    She let it down the Prince climbed up.

    At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man came in, for she had never seen one before; but the Prince spoke to her so kindly, and told her at once that his heart had been so touched by her singing, that he felt he should know no peace of mind till he had seen her.

    Very soon Rapunzel forgot her fear, and when he asked her to marry him she consented at once. "For," she thought, "he is young and handsome, and I'll certainly be happier with him than with the old Witch." So she put her hand in his and said:

    "Yes, I will gladly go with you, only how am I to get down out of the tower? Every time you come to see me you must bring a skein of silk with you, and I will make a ladder of them, and when it is finished I will climb down by it, and you will take me away on your horse."

    They arranged that till the ladder was ready, he was to come to her every evening, because the old woman was with her during the day.

    The old Witch, of course, knew nothing of what was going on, till one day Rapunzel, not thinking of what she was about, turned to the Witch and said: "How is it, good mother, that you are so much harder to pull up than the young Prince? He is always with me in a moment."

    In her wrath she seized Rapunzel's beautiful hair, wound it round and round her left hand, and then grasping a pair of scissors in her right, snip snap, off it came, and the beautiful plaits lay on the ground. And, worse than this, she was so hard-hearted that she took Rapunzel to a lonely desert place, and there left her to live in loneliness and misery.

    On the evening of the day in which she had driven poor Rapunzel away, the Witch fastened the plaits on to a hook in the window, and when the Prince came and called out:

    "Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
    Let down your golden hair," she let them down, and the Prince climbed up as usual, but instead of his beloved Rapunzel he found the old Witch, who fixed her evil, glittering eyes on him, and cried mockingly:

    "Ah, ah! you thought to find your lady love, but the pretty bird has flown and its song is dumb; the cat caught it, and will scratch out your eyes too. Rapunzel is lost to you for ever -- you will never see her more."

    The Prince was beside himself with grief, and in his despair he jumped right down from the tower, and, though he escaped with his life, the thorns among which he fell pierced his eyes out.

    He wandered about for some years,as wretched and unhappy as he could well be, and at last he came to the desert place where Rapunzel was living.

    He heard a voice which seemed strangely familiar to him.

    He walked eagerly in the direction of the sound, and when he was quite close, Rapunzel recognized him and fell on his neck and wept.

    But two of her tears touched his eyes, and in a moment they became quite clear again, and he saw as well as he had ever done.

    Then he led her to his kingdom, where they were received and welcomed with great joy, and they lived happily ever after.



    MEDUSA

    Medusa - Hair of Snakes

    Perseus and Medusa

    The Triple Goddess



    ACHILLES

    Achilles sacrifices his hair on the pyre
    Henry Fuseli, 1803



    THE GIFT OF THE MAGI

    The Gift of the Magi

    
    
    
    
    
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