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Crowning Glory: Hair, Sex, and Politics by Sadi Ranson
Lady Godiva, painting by John Collier
When I was a child there was a terrible blizzard and on that day, our parents did not
know what to do with us. Schools were closed, people were stranded at work, in the
city, in their offices, in their cars on the highway and me, I was stranded with my
brother at a friend’s house. School was closed for more than two days and our
mother didn’t know what to do with us and, after we had spent hours in the snow,
we were finally given permission to go and see a movie – it was “The Spy Who
Loved Me” –starring Barbara Bach who wraps her hair around a hotel room curtain
and escapes. Had she had short hair she would have died, of course. It was her
long hair that saved her and having long hair myself, I loved that. Barbara Bach
became iconic to me of everything a woman ought be: she was sexy, smart, had
great hair, and was resourceful.
Not unlike Lady Godiva who got her husband, Leofric Godiva of Coventry, England,
to stop all taxes on local people by riding on a horse totally naked through the
village. Leofric agreed that the only tax that would remain in place was the tax on
horses. And records dating to the fifteenth century note that yes, in fact, there were

2. no taxes levied on the people that year. Only one tax is noted and it is on horses.
Lady Godiva knew that she had power. In her hair, in her body, in her wits.
Rapunzel used her hair as a rope and that’s how she met her prince who climbed
up it, fell in love with her, and got her pregnant and of course the witch found out
and promptly chopped off Rapunzel’s long plait, later tricking the prince by dropping
the golden plait out of the window where he found, at the top of the tower, the witch
and his Rapunzel gone. The witch blinded him and he wandered the woods for
months, solitary and desperate until he heard his Rapunzel singing and followed the
sounds. She kissed him, tears of joy overflowing from her eyes into his which cured
his blindness just as his touch to her embrace and her bald head immediately
caused her hair to grow and all’s well that end’s well.
What is it about hair that makes it matter so very much. The classic trifecta of hair
symbolism is 1. Long hair is sexual potency and unrestrained sensuality 2. Short
hair symbolizes restraint and control and 3. A shaved head symbolizes celibacy and
chastity.
These archetypes have been expressed throughout history time and again. Think of
Samson and Delilah, Samson who had unmatched strength and could defeat
almost anyone but who, ultimately, trusted Delilah and told her the source of his
strength, his seven locks of hair which she promptly cut off while he was sleeping
causing his strength to leave his body, the enemy now able to capture him, blind
him, cast him into prison from where he ultimately was able to get even when his
hair started to grow back and with it his strength enabling him all the power that was
required to push on the two pillars of the temple causing the whole building to crash
down and yes, kill him, but his enemy too.
The Japanese sumo wrestler wears his hair in a style called chonmage in which the
wearer wears a long ponytail that is gathered and folded into a top-knot. The knot
on the top back of the head was originally intended for samurai warriors and was
worn so that the helmet would stay in place. In fact, to the Japanese hair is so
important that there are special sumo hair dressers to tend to the hair and trim it
only very lightly until the end of the Sumo’s career when there is a hair-cutting
ceremony the long pony-tail is cut in portions by competitors, family members,
friends, and finally the warrior’s agent who makes the final clip releasing him from
his duty as a sumo.

3. Japanese sumo champion: note top-knot
Great Swaths of You
Cutting off someone’s hair though was not only a way to take away strength or
perceived strength, it was a very effective way of shaming someone, especially a
woman. Cutting hair and shaving the head was used during World War II in France
to shame and humiliate women, including prostitutes, who had sex or any dealings
with German officers.

4. The women were taken hold of in the street by French civilians – most often men –
who would hold the women down while another man or men would cut their hair
then shave their heads, afterward parading the shaved woman through the streets
to the jeers and taunts of the crowd. Members of the Resistance also employed in
this large scale humiliation tactic. The Catholic Church used head shaving and
shorn locks to punish those they labeled heretics.
In England in 2006, Michael Ross Smith forcibly cut off his girlfriends ponytail then
cut the rest of her hair with scissors while he held her down. The magistrate, Igor
Judge, found the man guilty of assault with bodily harm though the defense’s lawyer
claimed that hair was dead and no harm had been done. Judge, however,
disagreed and concluded that the act was “not trivial or insignificant” as hair matters
“intrinsically to each individual and the identity of each individual” and that hair was
a “person’s crowning glory”. Smith had succeeded with his intent (if intent can be
inferred by holding someone down and forcibly cutting off all their hair til they are
bald) – he humiliated, shamed, degraded, frightened, and traumatized his ex-girlfriend.
You wonder then, how anyone could say there had been “no real bodily
harm”.
Humiliated French women, shaved, are forced to march through the streets of Paris.
World War II, circa 1944
Hair & Crisis
Miley Cyrus talks about her ex-lover heartbreak in her song “Wrecking Ball” and
who can think of Miley Cyrus without thinking about her hair – or the new lack
thereof since she cut off her rather comely auburn lengths, shaved the sides,

5. bleached it and climbed naked on a wrecking ball sporting nothing but her Doc
Martins. Miley looks good with this haircut – the exception, not the rule. But she
pulls it off though subconsciously I think a lot of women identify with her heartache
that she speaks about so clearly in the song. If Miley didn’t keep licking things in the
video her message might be more effective. And I for one will never equate
heartbreak with fellatio. Still, her emotion is otherwise so raw, so out of control that I
can’t help but believe she has been radically wronged and hurt. And her side-shaved
head just makes the point all the more. It only stops being believable and
feels like a total disconnect when she holds the pole in proximity of her pouted
mouth. You can’t be devastated and sexy at the same time. Heartbreak never was
and never will be sexy.
Women will tell you that we tend to do strange things to our hair when we are in
crisis or going through a period of major change. A woman going through a life
change will perm her hair, crimp it, tease it, bleach it, dye it, and cut it. It may be that
she wants a new look to outwardly symbolize the change she feels internally. This
makes sense. But hair is also symbolic of time and of memory. Hair grows about 0.5
inches per month. Cutting hair is akin to cutting away swaths of memory. If you
have long hair, it is like a shedding of skin, though I tend to think this is not
something we are totally aware of but more of subconscious gesture. Perhaps that
is at least part of the reason why we tend to cut hair when going through major life
change – a way of leaving behind part of either a painful past or, a way of just
starting anew.
Bergholz, Ohio
In the small town of Bergholz, Ohio in 2011, a breakaway Amish sect made
headlines when it was reported that an Amish Bishop named Samuel Mullet, Sr.
had recruited other sect members to forcibly cut off the beards and hair of other

6. sect members, some of whom were related to the assailants. The victims (in some
cases the elderly parents and grandparents of the cutters) were lured to meetings
where they were held down, their hair and beards cut with sharp scissors (this often
left the victims bleeding the cuts were so severe). The Amish do not cut their hair or
beards for religious reasons making the attacks all the more vicious. Beards and
long hair are central to Amish identity – cutting of the hair was intended to shame
the victims. Mullet, the organizer of the acts, was bishop of the sect and
investigation revealed other highly questionable behavior on his part. Authorities
report that Mullet often had younger women in the sect to his house where they
would “stay for weeks” while his wife was sent to live with other family members.
Local police set to work but the attacks continued until the FBI was called in and
alerted to what they labeled a hate crime. After a trial, Mullet was sentenced to
fifteen years in a federal penitentiary for committing a hate crime and his followers
were also convicted and sentenced. All of this was overturned by a circuit court
judge who contended that the judge who had found the individuals guilty had an
overly expansive definition of hate crime. Instead, he felt, that the act was not a true
hate crime but was part of a personal vendetta regarding a custody issue and other
issues.
Mourning Wreath made of human hair, framed behind glass

7. Mourning Wreaths & Jewelry
Mourning wreaths are elaborately constructed designs made of human hair clipped
at the ends onto flexible wire and then bent into flower shapes, feathers, and even
whole scenes. In the Victorian era, and also in America in the 1800s, women began
taking the hair of family members – usually everyone in the family – and weaving
the strands and locks into elaborate designs. Each part of the family wreath had
beneath the hair a tiny card with the name of the person whose hair it was and the
date the wreath was made. The whole wreath was then framed and mounted
behind glass as a family keepsake. The same was done with a deceased’s hair
which was cut and then worked into a scene – often a cross or cemetery gates and
trees – to commemorate and remember the dead.
We keep what we can of those we love – and why not hair? These wreaths may
seem to us a little odd at first, but when you consider someone you really love, one
of the first things that occurs is how they smell. When we lose someone, we lose
their scent, their movement – and hair is both. We brush a lover’s hair, a mother’s
hair, a sister’s hair, a child’s hair. We cut the hair of those we love, we braid it, oil it,
caress it, smell it, we take it down when we make love, we shave it as a sacred
offering to the gods. Some grow a part of their hair longer so that the angel Azazel
can take hold and more easily lift us to heaven. Geishas weave and entwine their
hair and fill it with all kinds of hair jewelry. Other women cover and conceal their hair
from everyone except for their husband. Hair is totemic, hair is taboo.
Jewelry that contained a lock of hair or was made of human hair was a popular way
of carrying the person you love with you. It was made by artisans and metalworkers
who worked from swaths and locks of hair that were given to them by relatives,
though many less scrupulous merchants scoured the countryside, offering money to
poorer women for their tresses and then pre-fabricating the designs with the bought
hair, saving them valuable time when making what were supposed-to-be custom
pieces. The hair sent to them was summarily dispatched to the trash, never to be
seen again and no one was any the wiser. For those on the up and up though, it
was rather a noble trade. It eased the suffering of those who wore the jewelry and
appealed to our sentiments. Husbands going to the mines or to work often wore
their watches on long braided chains made of their wife or sweetheart’s hair. More
than keepsakes, they were talismans to guard and protect and keep the wearer
safe.
All over Europe and America hair jewelry was fashionable – and as it did the art of
working with hair and keeping it as a tribute or memorial became increasingly
popular.
In 1825, a group of young women traveled from Vamhus, Sweden, throughout
Europe to work with human hair. Vamhus is still a center for hair jewelry and it can
be bought today or special ordered with a loved one’s hair. You can find in Vamhus
(or online but often made in Vamhus), intricately woven drop chandelier earrings
woven entirely of human hair, crosses and crucifixes, broaches, elaborate butterfly
design broaches, chains and bracelets. In 1957, the Swedish home arts and crafts

8. society revived the art of working with hair by encouraging and training a new
generation of hair workers. And it worked. In 1992 the hair-workers formed their
own society based in Sweden.
Last updated on November 11, 2014