Throughout folklore, the importance of hair is a common feature - it’s been associated with spirituality and divinity since very early in our evolution as humans.
In magickal practise, hair is often used in various types of contagion magick. This is where the hair is thought of as still being of the person it came from, and so whatever happens to the hair connects to the person themselves.
Hair has been used in witch bottles, binding spells, poppets, witch ladders and hoodoo jars as it has a very strong connection to the person it came from.
In many religious doctrines and spiritual practises all over the world, there are rules about how the hair should be worn.
Our hair is a symbol of both our masculinity and our femininity, but it’s also a symbol of our humanity itself, and its condition can often be a signifier for our overall health and wellbeing.
In Native American culture, hair is a symbol of an individuals spiritual practise. To comb the hair is a representation of the alignment of thought, braiding it is representational of solidifying thought, and bringing it in to oneness, while tying up the hair represents the securing of thoughts.
This practise stems from the belief that new thoughts are situated close to the roots, while the memories of the past are at the ends of each strand of hair, and so what you do to that hair will be a symbol of where you place your thoughts and memories.
Long flowing hair is a symbol of being in harmony with the flow of life.
To Native Americans, hair is also a huge part of their identity - how it is worn symbolises which tribe they’re from and is a key part of who they are.
It’s also why scalping was a historical practise by many Native American tribes, as the removal of the hair is to remove the power from a person.
This removal of power is evident throughout folklore too, from myths, legends and stories such as Samson and Delilah, where the source of Samson’s great strength was seated in his long hair, and once cut, he was powerless.
Also there’s the fairytale of Rapunzel and her extra long locks, which were a key to not only her real identity and ancestry - after she was taken from her parents at birth by the evil witch - but also her hair was the key to her freedom too.
In the famous C.S Lewis story, 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' the great and mighty lion Aslan - when allowing himself to be captured by the white witch - is shaven of his golden mane in order to strip him of his power.
In Norse mythology, the goddess and wife of Thor, Sif, was renowned for her long golden hair which symbolised a good harvest and fertility, and if cut, would mean the failing of the wheat and therefore lead to starvation and death.
Hair seems to play a far deeper part in many spiritual and even supernatural abilities than we might think.
In both world wars, Native Americans from the Navajo and Choctaw tribes were enlisted in the US military as expert trackers. But when in the field, they performed far worse than expected, and when asked why, they claimed that it was because they had had their military buzzcuts beforehand, and as a result, the loss of their hair also meant the loss of their tracking abilities.
When the US military tested this theory, a group of long haired Navajo trackers and Navajo trackers with military buzzcuts were put side by side in the field and their tracking abilities put to the test. All of the long haired soldiers outperformed the buzzcut soldiers by a large margin.
The conclusion seemed to be that their long hair was an extension of their nervous system, and that in very much the same way a cats whiskers help it to navigate the world, so too did the long hair of the men.
Even now, in many war torn places, the cutting or shaving of a persons hair is seen as an act of diminishing and dehumanising the being.
Humans are the only species who have hair the way ours is. The genetic makeup of our hair is unlike that of fur and of that of other hairy animals. It is uniquely us, and perhaps, that’s the reason why if it is taken from us, we feel less than human.
Perhaps just like Samson, Aslan, Rapunzel and Sif, our hair really is the source of our power and our identity.
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