This post is by Angela Williams. A Founder Member of Pens Around the World, she left us in 2021, to pursue a demanding creative writing course. We wish her well! More about Angela on our Friends of Pens page here.
At least that’s what women are led to believe from an early age and the beauty industry is more than happy to divest us of our money in pursuit of that ideal. I’ve been thinking about fictional characters’ hair a lot recently. In films and novels Caucasian women often have character-defining hair. Black; witchy and duplicitous, red; fiery and vivacious; blonde; angelic or tarty, brown; plain and intelligent, grey/white; wise and intellectual, curly; unpredictable and bubbly, straight; cool and calculating. This left me with a dilemma because I was struggling to choose the hair colour and type of my young, female protagonist, but I didn’t want to push her into any of those stereotypes.
In a Tangle
So I began to tackle the problem in a circuitous way and by happy accident discovered the fascinating, non-fiction book, Entanglement: The Secret Lives of Hair by Emma Tarlo. Now, like you, I knew that both men and women can need wigs for a variety of medical, cosmetic or religious reasons but I had no idea of the global, largely covert, billion-dollar trade in the procurement and processing of human hair into wigs and extensions. Sourcing hair generally starts in third world countries. Some women sell their hair to barbers for a short-lived respite from poverty in China, India, Myanmar and Pakistan. Relatively wealthy women from the other side of the world choose to boost their income by selling their hair directly to the client via the Buy and Sell Hair website. The reasons for sale are as various as the hair types on offer. Hindus have their hair tonsured in Indian temples as a way of showing thanks, or to seek rebirth; indeed the vast temple of Tirumala acts as a magnet for pilgrims drawing people and hair from all over India. Each year the tonsured hair adds around 20 million pounds to the temple’s coffers.
Giveaway Hair
Sometimes, hair donation is purely altruistic as in the case of the Duchess of Cambridge donating seven inches of her locks to the Little Princesses Trust for children and young adults who have lost their hair through cancer treatment. How bizarre to think that a sick child somewhere will be wearing our future Queen’s crowning glory! The hair is sorted anonymously so no one will ever know that their wig contains Kate’s tresses.
Fictional Hair
While all these hair stories make fascinating reading, it isn’t taking me nearer a solution in my writing dilemma! What it does show me though is how important this decision is and how much identity and status are invested in luscious locks or lack thereof. Would Dennis the Menace be as naughty without his black, unruly mop? Could Maxim de Winter have been blonde? Could Pippi Longstocking have had mousey-coloured hair? Would Bond villain, Blofeld, have been as menacing if he weren’t bald? How do you decide your characters’ hair colour and type? Can you think of fictional characters defined by their hair? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Good one Angela! I am currently having a hair raising experience. My last trip to the barber was almost a year and a half ago – since the beginning of the virus. I think many of us are creating new hair styles these last months. An interesting and provocative subject.
Thanks, Bruce. Indeed, the hair band has been a life-saver for me, but I guess it’s trickier for men. Funny how we take hairdressers for granted until we can’t use their services..
Interesting post, Angela. I knew that human hair for theatrical wigs is often sourced from Asia. In the “extra material” for the Directors Cut of the Lord of the Rings films, there’s a mini-documentary all about the hair they used. Someone talks (a bit piously, I thought) about how the LOTR films helped Asian people living in poverty by buying their hair. The Hindu religious aspect was new to me.
It’s not so long ago that young women in western society would grow their hair without getting it cut until they were old enough to marry. Long hair was a sign of maidenhood. Towards the end of that tradition – and it’s not long ago – young working-class women and even middle-class girls might get a short cut before starting work, selling their long hair at the same time. There’s a well-known American short story by O. Henry “The Gift of the Magi” that plays with this. (It’s on Project Gutenburg here: http://webhome.auburn.edu/~vestmon/Gift_of_the_Magi.html )
You ask “Would Dennis the Menace be as naughty without his black, unruly mop?” Perhaps you don’t know, but there is an American children’s comic character also called Denis the Menace, and he’s blond. Brought up on Beano, I was very surprised when someone first showed me the US version. But he’s just as naughty, though perhaps not quite as anarchic. So the answer to your question is, probably, yes!
Just found this article online about the 2 Menaces. https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2010/10/18/the-odd-case-of-dennis-the-menace/
Seems like UK Dennis was much more belligerent and US Dennis a sort of hapless fool. I do recognise the blonde version, maybe he had an animation series in the UK?
Thanks for reading and commenting, John. I look forward to reading the short story in the link. It seems that Romany families still adore long hair for their daughters. I saw on a Channel 5 documentary a father saying that cutting his girl’s hair would be like losing a limb for him! In the book, Entangled there’s a section about women getting the bob cut in the roaring 20s and how this outraged their fathers. Strange sense of ownership!
I didn’t know about DtM American style. Blonde! This is sacrilege. Will have to check it out.
Thanks, Sue. Hair is a fascinating subject if you look into it. Indeed, making notes is a good idea although people do use coloured lenses nowadays and hair dye! I always love transformation scenes in fiction.
A fascinating subject, Angela. Just think how styles have changed from very long to short – even bald – and back again. Remember Mods, who were menacing with their shaven heads and Rockers who were equally menacing with their greasy locks?
Like Bruce, we’ve had to endure long periods when all hairdressers were shut. I’ve always disliked long hair for myself and I get quite ratty when it begins to flow over my ears and I can’t get a trim.
And finally, one of my definitions of getting older is less hair where you want it and more where you don’t.
Thanks for commenting, Nigel. Indeed hair fashions are capricious! I had a blonde fringe in the eighties which went green when I tried to dye it with black henna. Not a punky green either!
I seem to be lucky on still having a thick head of hair but I am getting noticeably greyer. I would grow my hennaed hair colour out but don’t have the patience…
Really enjoyed this article, Angela! Absolutely fascinating! Writing very short fiction, I don’t use a lot of description and often there’s not room to disclose hair colour, length, texture, etc. but you’re certainly right that when used, it immediately conjures certain images. Will think very carefully next time I describe a character’s hair. Did you decide on your own character’s hair in the end?