h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

' For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.'
--1 Corinthians 11:10, Authorised Version, and your guess is as good as mine.

Why am I bringing up the subject of hair? Check out today's BBC news:

"Hair thieves striking fear in India'
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-40749640

Okay, I thought. That's nasty. Thieves must be stealing those ladies' hair to make a profit on the wig market. What a mean thing to do. That's what's been happening in Venezuela. They ought to be put under the jail, as my late dad would have said.

But no. It gets worse.

Apparently, these hair attacks are much more mysterious than that. Descriptions of the hair attackers range from men to women...to large cat-like creatures. Alien hair thieves? They knock the victims out. They don't always even take the hair away. The poor women are deeply traumatised afterwards. They are visiting shamans for protection spells. Some fearful women who still have long hair are wearing talisman hair ornaments to ward off the supernatural attackers.

In other words, it's UFOs again. Or incubi. Or malevolent leprechauns. Anyway, the cops are baffled.

This made me wonder. Long hair is way out of fashion over here, except for bikers, who would probably attack alien hair thieves with chainsaws and Dobermans. But we DO have a booming business in hair extensions...hair extensions which, let's face it, may come from other countries...what form of insanity could Americans come up with here?

You may have guessed, but in case you haven't, remember Judge Sewell, the colonial Puritan who warned against men wearing wigs *made of ladies' hair*. Enter the worry about...

Hair offered to idols.

'As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.'
--1 Corinthians 8: 4

Even Paul, who was worried about angels and hair in church, didn't think they needed to be concerned about food offered to idols, which was then sold as discount meat in the market. (Does anybody besides me think the people in Corinth were a bunch of superstitious worry-warts?)

I suspect the Corinthians didn't listen to Paul. I know the Baptists in Bonn, Germany, didn't listen to me in the 1970s, when I told them the fact that the baker said 'words' over his bread dough (an ancient folk custom he learned from his grandma) did not disqualify his bread from Christian consumption. I quoted Paul then, to little effect. I'll bet somebody will quote Paul on the hair extension business, and it will go in one ear and out the other.

Maybe they'll listen to 'Jezebel'. (I often do.)

Hillary Crosley Coker, 'Are You Wearing Demonic Weave? Maybe You Should Pray Over It.'
Jezebel, 4 March 2016
http://jezebel.com/are-you-wearing-demonic-weave-maybe-you-should-pray-ov-1762879009

Personally, I think I'll go and get a haircut. That should chase those hair demons away. Unless...the barber is a secret practitioner of witchcraft, and wants my hair for some arcane rite...

...rats collecting hair from the heads of the sleeping for nesting material...

...perhaps not quite on all fours, the meat of bulls killed in bull fights is traditionally donated to charity, a custom surviving from pagan times...

I did read that article, and I did wonder whether it was for "realistic" hair extensions - also big business this side of the pond. I had no idea about the rest of your fascinating journal though.

Personally, I have not had my hair cut (barring a fringe-trim) since my headshave in August 2015. It's now longer than I can recall being this long, but I still am not convinced to go get a haircut. I love my long hair and even all the palaver of caring for it doesn't put me off keeping it this way. Fashion? Pah. I'm no biker either...

GB

Good for you, GB! Keep that hair!

And if any hair-stealing demons lurk about, just call the Brightling aliens, they'll sort 'em out!

This made me think of a 1944 Powell and Pressburger film called A Canterbury Tale, made in my home county, The Garden of England (Kent). Girls who dare to date American GIs have glue poured in their hair after dark by a mystery assailant...

My daughter, Moonlight, and I love this film, but it's a bit of a secret and certainly not as well known as their other works. Check it out if you can!

http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/oct/25/favourite-film-canterbury-tale

That film sounds amazing. Thanks for letting us in on the secret...Michael Powell, that sounds good...

When I was a child, I had a friend with very long black hair that she usually kept in a single plait down her back. She was attacked one day by someone who cut off her hair and we were told it was because it could be sold for money. I haven't thought of her for a long time.

Aw. What a terrible thing to do to a child.

Where in the world was this? You don't mean it was in the UK?

Yes, in the North of England. It was a long time ago now, though. If I remember correctly, the attacker injured her hand with the knife. She kept her hair in a short bob after that time.

That sounds pretty traumatic. Poor kid.

Yes, we were both in junior school at the time. It must have been a fairly rare thing, though. I can't really remember her talking about it, which is a known response to trauma. I don't think they ever caught whoever did it.