A braid is made of a sequence of ties and twists--sort of like life. The hairstyle has lasted generation after generation, just like our families and their stories. Funny how something so seemingly simple as hair can be so very complicated.

Dear Ether, 

I have incredibly long chestnut brown hair.  It hits my shoulders and is styled in a simple blunt cut with a few layers in the front (a few hairdressers have begged me to snip more but I’m one tough cookie in that chair). It’s not dyed and I’ve been told it has a lovely reddish hue.  I’m not a slave to any particular product. I use what I’ve been given for free.  My hair is in healthy condition and falls in very lustrous waves when I brush it (though I usually wear it in a loose bun because I can’t be bothered to tame my mane).  

Why write about my hair? Well, I just saw my great-grandmother’s chopped off braid that my mother has gently kept and cherished for almost 90 years.  What shocked me was that a woman, whose lineage I share but never met, had the exact color and radiant locks that I do now when shears took that braid from the nape of her neck almost a century ago.  Everyone else in my family has black hair.  She and I are the only ones who have the reddish chestnut shade (so I’m told).  It was mind-blowing to look at an actual piece of what makes who I am and that was passed down from my gene pool.  My mom said that her grandmother, when she finally chopped the braid off, cried for hours and when her husband came home, turned over a table, and left the house fuming!  I asked my mom why she cut it off and she said she felt that she was too told to have such long hair.  

So, when is there a “cut-off” for having long hair?  When I was in high school I saw the film “Sliding-Doors” with Gwyneth Paltrow and HAD to have her boyish style.  I went for it, and I looked damned good.  But, I found short hair to be a nuisance and more maintenance and after 2 long years, grew it out.  I’ve had long tresses ever since.  I want to hold on to my length for as long as possible.  I love the way it looks, but it also gives me a certain air of youth.  I know that people would disagree and say that hair length has no age. But the hairdressers I’ve worked with have said that it does come to a certain point where you just get a bit too old to have long hair like mine.  Sometimes I do see older ladies with gray hair who have uber long braids swaying back and forth against their waists (usually tied with a scrunchie…hmmmm….) and that’s fine….but I will admit, an older grandmother type with a sleek, short, layered coif looks a helluva lot better than one with wiry granny coils. 

For now, I will enjoy the extra ten minutes it takes to shampoo and condition.  To do a hot oil treatment once a week to combat split ends and dry spells.  Because eventually I won’t be able to have my Rapunzel-do, and I wanna enjoy it while it lasts. The day will come when I take a final inhale, braid my hair, tie it with a band, snip it off and delicately wrap it for the next generation.  If hers holds up, maybe mine will have the honor of sitting next to that of my great-grandmother.  And who knows, long after I’m gone, a little girl with chestnut hair will unwrap our parcel and touch her own head and realize that she comes from souls who once existed that have given her the radiant locks she twirls every day.  And through our braids, our stories will be told and memories will be “brushed” through too.    

Dedicatedly yours,

—One of 365