Happy Pride Month, day 17, hair

[sonia]

17. I'm proud of my hair. It's long and thick and has only recently started looking gray overall. I remember one evening as a young teen having my hair loose and feeling the curtain of it around me and thinking with surprise, "I like my hair." It was a new thought, liking anything about myself.

I mostly wear it braided, because it gets into everything when it's down. And I shed a lot. I don't know how there's any hair left, but there's always plenty more.

During pandemic lockdown, it kept growing until the braid was well past my hips and was brushing the ground when I bent over to weed the garden. I finally had to figure out how to cut it myself.

Looking around at a bunch of older ladies with abundant hair at a Portland synagogue event one day, I realized that it's Jewish hair. It stood out because of the relatively small number of Jews in Portland. Random strangers would comment on my hair when I was waiting at a traffic light on my bike. When I started saying, "Thanks, it's Jewish hair," they would suddenly look very uncomfortable. Strangers haven't commented since I've been back in the Bay Area, where there are all sorts of people with all sorts of hair, so mine doesn't stand out in the same way.

(Randomly, because icon, I've seen a male peacock just hanging out on the neighborhood street a block from the Rockridge Trader Joe's, twice now. Someone's pet??)

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Ahhhh, the joys of Jewish hair, which we share.

I fully committed to short hair after I started getting stuck on my hair in bed -- I'd lay on it and then I'd get a sharp pain when I cocked my head forward.

Do you do yours up to sleep?

[sonia]

I take the scrunchie out, but it's long enough to stay braided, and I sweep it above my head on the pillow. I don't get tangled up in it too often. I think I've probably learned to manage it in my sleep over the years.

I know what you mean about the sharp pain, though. Back when I had a car, I knew it was time to get my hair trimmed when it would start getting caught in the car door and then give me that sharp pain when I moved my head.

[amethyst73]

You have AMAZING hair, and I've always loved it!

[sonia]

Thank you!

[zdenka]

I like my Jewish hair too!

[sonia]

Yay!