Lock of hair
Encyclopedia
A lock of hair is a piece or pieces of hair
that has been cut from, or remains singly on, a human head, most commonly bunched or tied together in some way. A standard dictionary definition defines a lock as a tress, curl, or ringlet of hair (dictionary.com).
ic value and have been utilized throughout history in various religious
, superstitious
, and sentimental roles.
Hair
Hair is a filamentous biomaterial, that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Found exclusively in mammals, hair is one of the defining characteristics of the mammalian class....
that has been cut from, or remains singly on, a human head, most commonly bunched or tied together in some way. A standard dictionary definition defines a lock as a tress, curl, or ringlet of hair (dictionary.com).
Symbolic value
Locks of hair carry symbolSymbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
ic value and have been utilized throughout history in various religious
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
, superstitious
Superstition
Superstition is a belief in supernatural causality: that one event leads to the cause of another without any process in the physical world linking the two events....
, and sentimental roles.
- A primitive belief maintains that owning a lock of hair from another's head gives one power over that individual, in the same manner that owning a piece of clothing or image of an individual grants the owner such powers.
- During antiquityAncient historyAncient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, with Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC...
, RomanAncient RomeAncient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
girls who were about to be married offered locks of hair to JoveJOVEJOVE is an open-source, Emacs-like text editor, primarily intended for Unix-like operating systems. It also supports MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. JOVE was inspired by Gosling Emacs but is much smaller and simpler, lacking Mocklisp...
(Jupiter) in his forest god aspect, Virbius (Virbio). - An ancient and worldwide (e.g. China, Egypt, Thailand, Albania, Ukraine, India, Israel, etc.) pre-adolescent custom was to shave children's heads but leave a lock of hair (sometimes several locks) remaining on their heads. Upon reaching adulthood the lock of hair was usually cut off (see Rites of passageRites of PassageRites of Passage is an African American History program sponsored by the Stamford, Connecticut US public schools. The program consists of an extra day of schooling on Saturday for 12 weeks, service projects, and a culminating educational trip to Gambia and Senegal. Gambia and Senegal are the...
). - The scalplock was a lock of hair kept throughout a man's life. Like childhoodChildhoodChildhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence. In developmental psychology, childhood is divided up into the developmental stages of toddlerhood , early childhood , middle childhood , and adolescence .- Age ranges of childhood :The term childhood is non-specific and can imply a...
locks, the scalplock was also a worldwide phenomenon, particularly noted amongst eastern woodland Indians (see IroquoisIroquoisThe Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
, Huron, MahicanMahicanThe Mahican are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe, originally settling in the Hudson River Valley . After 1680, many moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. During the early 1820s and 1830s, most of the Mahican descendants migrated westward to northeastern Wisconsin...
, MohawkMohawk nationMohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
) in north America (see also ScalpingScalpingScalping is the act of removing another person's scalp or a portion of their scalp, either from a dead body or from a living person. The initial purpose of scalping was to provide a trophy of battle or portable proof of a combatant's prowess in war...
and Mohawk hairstyleMohawk hairstyleThe mohawk is a hairstyle in which, in the most common variety, both sides of the head are shaven, leaving a strip of noticeably longer hair...
). - Sviatoslav I of KievSviatoslav I of KievSviatoslav I Igorevich ; , also spelled Svyatoslav, was a prince of Rus...
was reported to have worn a scalp lock by Leo the DeaconLeo the DeaconLeo the Deacon was a Byzantine Roman historian and chronicler.He was born around 950 at Kaloe in Asia Minor, and was educated in Constantinople, where he became a deacon in the imperial palace. While in Constantinople he wrote a history covering the reigns of Romanus II, Nicepheros II, John...
, a ByzantineByzantineByzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
historian. Later Ukrainian Cossacks (Zaporozhians) sported scalplocks called oseledetsOseledetsChupryna or Oseledets is the traditional Ukrainian Cossack haircut. It describes a style of man's haircut that features a lock of hair sprouting from the top or the front of an otherwise closely shaven head. This military haicut was of Circassian or Turkish origin...
or khokholKhokholKhokhol is a term used to describe the typical Ukrainian cossack style of haircut that features a lock of hair sprouting from the top or the front of an otherwise closely shaven head...
. In India this custom remains active but usually only amongst orthodoxOrthodoxyThe word orthodox, from Greek orthos + doxa , is generally used to mean the adherence to accepted norms, more specifically to creeds, especially in religion...
Hindus. See SikhaSikhaThe sikha or shikha is a Sanskrit word that refers to a long tuft, or lock of hair left on top or on the back of the shaven head of a male Orthodox Hindu...
. - In Mark TwainMark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
's travel book The Innocents Abroad, he describes MoroccanMoroccoMorocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
men sporting scalp locks. - RiffianRiffianRiffian is a comune in South Tyrol in the Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about 70 km north of Trento and about 25 km northwest of Bolzano.-Territory:...
(BerberBerber peopleBerbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...
) men of MoroccoMoroccoMorocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
had the custom of shaving the head but leaving a single lock of hair on either the crown, left, or right side of the head, so that the angel AzraelAzraelAzrael is the name of the Archangel of Death in some extrabiblical traditions. He is also the angel of death in Islamic theology and Sikhism. It is an English form of the Arabic name ʿIzrāʾīl or Azra'eil , the name traditionally attributed to the angel of death in some sects of Islam and Sikhism,...
is able "...to pull them up to heaven of the Last Day." - A common superstition holds that a lock of hair from a baby's first haircut should be kept for good luck.
- An old IrishIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
superstition holds that it is unlucky to accept a lock of hair (or a four-footed beast) from a lover. - A lock of Beethoven's hair, cut from his head in 1827, was auctioned in 1994 through Sotheby'sSotheby'sSotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
of LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/001103/hair.shtml Research on the hair determined that the composer's life-long illness was caused by lead poisoningLead poisoningLead poisoning is a medical condition caused by increased levels of the heavy metal lead in the body. Lead interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems...
. - A Polish plaitPolish plaitPolish plait is a formation of hair. It can be viewed as a hairstyle similar to dreadlocks or a hair disease.-As a disease:...
(Koltun in Polish, meaning "Knot", but often referred to in English as an "ElfElfAn elf is a being of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally thought of as a race of divine beings endowed with magical powers, which they use both for the benefit and the injury of mankind...
-Lock") is a lock of matted hair similar to a dreadlock. Due to a scalp disease (Plica polonica), King Christian IV of Denmark (1577–1648) had a Polish plait hanging from the left side of his head, adorned with a red ribbon. His courtiers were said to have adopted the hairstyle in order to flatter the king. Due to superstitious beliefs, the Polish plait used to be particularly common in Poland (hence its name). Initially, the plait was treated as an amulet, supposed to bring good health, as the plait was supposed to take the illness "out" of the body, and therefore it was rarely cut off. - From the end of the 16th century until well into the 17th century it was popular amongst European "men of fashion" to wear a lovelock. The lovelock was a long lock of usually plaited (braidedBraidedBraided is a musical group consisting of Casey LeBlanc, Ashley Leitao, and Amber Fleury, who all competed on the third season of Canadian Idol in 2005. They are the third music group to come from an Idol show in the world, second being Young Divas from Australia and first being Feminnem from Croatia...
) hair made to rest over the left shoulder (the heart side) to show devotion to a loved one.
Sources
- The Golden Bough by James FrazerJames FrazerSir James George Frazer , was a Scottish social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion...
- Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0-14-018931-5 - The Innocents Abroad by Mark TwainMark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
- Signet Classic, ISBN 1-85532-848-8 - Armies of Medieval Russia 750-1250 by David NicolleDavid NicolleDavid C. Nicolle is a British historian specialising in the military history of the Middle Ages, with a particular in the Middle East....
- Osprey PublishingOsprey PublishingOsprey Publishing is an Oxford-based publishing company specializing in military history. Predominantly an illustrated publisher, many of their books contain full-colour artwork plates, maps and photographs, and the company produces over a dozen ongoing series, each focusing on a specific aspect of...
, ISBN 0-451-52502-7 - Daily Life in Ancient India From 200 BC to 700 AD by Jeannine Auboyer - Phoenix Press, ISBN 1-84212-591-5
- The Cossacks by John Ure - The Overlook Press, ISBN 1-58567-138-x Ancient Egyptian Hairstyles Ukrainian Cossack Display Group Common Superstitions Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland
See also
- DreadlocksDreadlocksDreadlocks, also called locks, a ras, dreads, "rasta" or Jata , are matted coils of hair. Dreadlocks are usually intentionally formed; because of the variety of different hair textures, various methods are used to encourage the formation of locks such as backcombing...
, commonly called locks or dreads. - Goldilocks, a nursery rhyme character so named due to her golden hair