'A woman's crowning glory is her hair'

Recently I was shown an old school photograph of five beautiful sisters and the first thing which dated the photo was the five large bows in the children's hair.A caring mother had spent much time that morning ensuring that her daughters' hair was perfect for the school photographer. This was the fashion of the time - which was my time too. Girls wore plaits a lot in those days also, which we uncivilised brats sometimes could not resist a pull of and this was a serious offence when carpeted before the teacher. Old photos show us how hairstyles, mostly women's, but men's to a lesser extent ("Oh daddy you didn't go around looking like that - did you!?) change from generation to generation; but the one sustaining feature is that, as Saint Paul said to the Corinthians, "A woman's hair is her crowning glory". (Or words to that effect.). Some shampoo crowd advertise "A woman's hair is her shining glory" and nobody can argue with this either because healthy shining hair is what catches the eye irrespective of the style.Is it any wonder therefore that from that day till this every woman feels it is her prerogative to be obsessed with her hair? Nowadays hair salons and beauty parlours work around the clock to give a woman the look she wants to fit her mood of the day. No matter how long she sits there, lads, it is better than the bad old days when she couldn't come to the pictures on a Thursday night because she "had to wash her hair!" Furthermore, for your information, I am told that some women would actually iron their hair after washing! Yes, a lot of time is spent on a woman's hair - but do you know how much time? Thought you didn't: get a pen and write this down, lads, it will come in useful during the next little "exchange." The average woman spends two and a half years of her life working on her hair. Yes, that's years I said! Question number two: do you know how much money she spends on her crowning glory? Again, write this down fellows, for the next night you want to go playing poker with the boys. Here again we are talking about averages but those who know about these things say it's €40,000. As Neddie Harris might have said; "you could buy an awful lot of carbolic soap for that!"Some women are now resorting to wigs to save time and money. Oh, this column is not in favour of this! It's not the same girls and we will look at you in a different light. Last week I heard an attractive lady friend of mine say she was shaving off her hair in favour of an array of fashionable wigs on the market: don't do it!As readers of this column will remember, I went totally off Dolly Parton after she stood me up in Cork. But even before then, every time I drooled over Dolly, I always felt short-changed. It didn't bother me all that much that she had built an extension to the front, but knowing her crowning glory isn't her own brought the thing to a head.According to the fashion pages of my daily newspaper, I see that curls and the "untidy look" are in this year. I wonder how much does the "untidy" treatment cost.I suppose a woman's hair is one of the first things a man notices about a woman. Nice hair shows her femininity; especially the full (hope that's what it's called!) look or nice long hair with a shine and bounce. This column doesn't go much for the short chopped hair look on women. Even if a woman has a beautiful face, but bad hair she will not look attractive. Clean nice hair frames the face nicely and accentuates the features.In medieval times it was the men who wore the wigs, but the women did grow their hair long that time. It is said that lice was a constant irritant - especially for the men in their wigs. I can believe this because even when I was going to school my mother checked our hair for lice every night. To see her approaching with that fine-tooth comb was just one more torture implement to put the fear of God into us!Women used always collect rain-water to wash their hair - or better still, bog-water on account of its softness. Now though, this €40,000 expense we mentioned above incorporates a multi-million industry taking in shampoos, conditioners, sprays and a lot more stuff that this column knows nothing about. Of course this range is not only for women as there is lots out there "just for men"!Until recent years when a girl entered a convent to become a nun, her hair was shorn off. This shows the importance of a woman's hair to her esteem when parting with her hair was regarded as the greatest sacrifice she could make. Shaving off a woman's hair was also used as punishment or to humiliate.This practice was widespread in France during and after WW2 as the French Resistance identified women who had collaborated in any manner with the Germans.We have covered, or rather un-covered, baldness in men in a previous column and this is one of the advantages the sisters have over us: they very rarely go bald; and aren't they more the beautiful for that!!Don't ForgetA hair in the head is worth two in the brush.