As I made lamb strew today, they were talking about a monk's writing and the attack on Lindisfarne (photo) monastery in Scotland by the Vikings in 793 A.D.
As I sliced carrots, one of the writings read by the narrator deplored that people were beginning to copy the hair styles of the pagan Vikings and his consternation that anyone would want to do that.
Nothing changes does it?
Hair can be political, rebellious, enticing . . .
Putting up one's hair was considered a rite of passage into womanhood for many centuries.
Bobbed hair was shocking for women in 1920.
My grandmother considered any woman with dyed hair nothing better than a street walker.
DAs and the Elvis look sent parents into spasms of horror in the 1950s.
By the 1960s parents hated their children's (especially the boys) shoulder length tresses. Those same people as parents are upset at their own children shorn heads.
Nor is it limited to parents.
My first day on a military barracks in Germany, I heard a colonel say he needed to get a hair cut before the general saw him. It looked too short to me, but I like longish hair on men.
We won't even go into Samson's tresses or religions who consider that hair, especially women's hair, should be hidden. Catholics used to insist that women's hair be covered in a church, and a nun's habit doesn't strike me that different from the Muslim coverings.
Hair style worries seem to be confined to the human species, but it is only human hair that can grow to long lengths.
Anyone having a bad hair day today?
You have company through the ages.
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