Headgear

Where did cover your hair come from?

For those living in hot, tropical countries, I understand the need to wear a hat or a covering. Being in the hot sun day after day for extended periods, could fry the brain. My ex-husband, for example loves the cool weather. Once when we were married and the children were small, we went to Calgary raceway, for car racing.

It was a hot, dry summer day. Within half an hour, I could feel that I had too much sun. So I draped a t-shirt over my arms. My children and husband had caps on. However, we all went home with too much sun. My face and arms were burnt. The children were red across their faces, but my husband had a terrible headache. He then told me that he had sunstroke before and had been hospitalized. If he had not been wearing a cap, he would have been much sicker.

I used to have a Hutterite friend, Elizabeth. I spent the day on the colony with her. Elizabeth and the other females all wear kerchiefs on their heads. The rule is that all kerchiefs can be removed after 6:00pm.at home. Elizabeth said that she kept hers on until she went to bed, but that younger women, especially the unmarried ones remove theirs after 6. I should have asked why the kerchiefs were kept on all day, probably so the men are not driven wild, I presume. Anyway, Elizabeth was the same age as I was, yet looked older and her hair was terribly thin on her head. Elizabeth told me that all the older women were losing their hair. There is an easy solution, remove the kerchiefs, let the hair breathe!!! Remember men make the rules and rule each colony, so there is only a grade eight education allowed and guaranteed no woman would be allowed to remove her headpiece.

Then, when I moved to Alberta, I noticed every guy had a truck and wore a ball cap on his head. However, over the years, men coming from families with great thick hair, are indeed losing their hair. For those wearing a ball cap day after day, beware, beware!!!

I grew up in Quebec and while in grade seven, I went to a Catholic school in Rosemere. The nuns taught us and lived there in the school. The school had a depressed feeling as soon as I walked in the doors. I had to be quiet and I never saw any example of laughing or cheerfulness in the halls. It was like being in a church.

The headgear the nuns wore was pointed at the top and not a hair protruded from the tight fitting white cloth enclosing each face. We, the students used to wonder whether the nuns had shaved heads or very short hair. It must have been hotter than hell in the summer, I would bet.

Tibetan nuns shave their heads and don’t need hats. They may be more similar to the old time Christian nuns than they realize.

Several years ago, I worked in a number of group homes. One Saturday, I went to a home in the west end of Edmonton that I had never worked at before. A young woman with shoulder length dark hair answered the door. She explained all the duties and responsibilities for the house. We talked about a number of different subjects before she had to leave. It was then that she began packing on the clothes. I had not realized that she was Moslem. When I asked about covering her hair, she explained. Men are attracted to women and women could be raped because their hair is exposed. Hair is so sexual according to this woman. Can’t the men control themselves, I posed. We did get into another discussion, but this whole reasoning seemed so ridiculous to me. Look what happens when men make the rules. I grew up Catholic. Look how ridiculous, the rules were for women generation after generation. Women had to wear hats in church, men were not allowed. Nuns wore headpieces all the time, maybe that’s part of it.

My Dad’s old neighbourhood, in Montreal was peopled with mainly Irish Catholic and Orthodox Jews. The Hasidic Jewish men sported hats and curls in front of each ear. The women were reported to have shaved their heads once they married. Apparently, these same women have to resort to wearing wigs. The wigs are itchy. I don’t know the reasons behind this shaving, but I would guess again that men have made the rules, as they do in every religion.

Then there are men with covered hair and covered heads. Their women have beautiful hair they can show. The turbaned men all look like each other as they become older. Their beards and hair are allowed to grow long. The hair is tucked into a turban wrapped around their heads. The beards are tucked in at the sides to give a neat and similar appearance. I think I might have a hard time picking my guy out if I was married to one of these men. However, these men are wearing their uniform, just like the nuns of old. Hmmmm!!!!