Crowning Glory

    That we have, literally growing out of our bodies, this mass of flexible, changeable stuff we call our hair is remarkable.  Not because its a vestigial part of our long lost body pelts, but that its capable of growing to such length, and is similarly able to be twisted, rolled, waved, picked out, crimped, dyed, straightened, and clipped in pleasing shapes.

   

As such, it was one of the first things we played with, when we were just beginning to toy with the notion of the Attire language, and certainly long before we knew that that's what we were about.  From the very first, we stuck feathers, leaves and bones in our hair, we wound vines around our heads, and learned very fast that if you twisted hair enough, it would stay together into a long tendril. 
    Over the centuries, we have applied all our artistic talents, and no small amount of technological skill and advancement, to making of our noggins a wearable sculpture.  We've used our hair to convey status, religious belief, sexual prowess and availability, intellect, artistic demeanor, and a host of emotional, and psychological states that would be wordless without the endless expressive nature of hair.

    As long ago as 6000 years we were oiling our hair, braiding it in complex patterns, and stiffening it with gum, animal fats, and other gooey substances we found in the natural world.  That practice continued, for thousands of years, inviting vermin of all sorts to come and play on our scalps, because we didn't wash our hair much, and we ladled so many stinky, prone to rancidness things into our locks in the name of beauty, power, and position.

   

And when our own hair wouldn't do for one reason or another, we took the hair of other people, or barring that, the hair of goats, sheep, and horses, and made wigs to get to whatever visual statement we wanted.
    Over the many centuries of human existence, there is virtually nothing we haven't attempted with regard to how long, how vast, and how varied we have tried to get our hair.  And now, with myriad chemicals to hand, feats of sculptural engineering are possible that would have been the wildest flights of fancy 100 years ago.

  

Still, we have not even begun to exhaust the possibilities inherent in this infinitely flexible stuff we call our hair.   Where our next journey will be with regard to how we express ourselves with it is anyone's guess.  But what fun, to wait and see what happens!