This participant and I once traveled across the country with shaved heads and full hearts, advocating for queer liberation (check out www.equalityride.com to learn more!). She is, by far, one of the bravest, kindest, and most beautiful people I know.
The first contribution from a real-deal hair stylist!
To all of you lucky people in New Orleans, go get your hair cut by Katie Procido at the Paris Parker Salon on Canal!
Fuck yeah, femme visibility!
(And so many thanks to all the brilliant, beautiful, courageous, creative, and fierce femmes out there who help to make our community so rich!)
Hairvolutions and a haircut! Thanks to #92 for giving us cause to celebrate!
Whether hair is cut or not, it generally won’t grow beyond three feet in length.
Mathematically speaking, the hairs on our heads grow about half an inch per month and have an average life of two to six years. So…
½ inch x 12 months x 6 years = 36 inches or 3 feet
There are, of course, exceptions. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, in 1993, Diane Witt of Massachusetts reportedly had locks measuring 12 feet 8 inches in length, and in 1994, Mata Jagdamba of India beat her out with hair measuring 13 feet 10 ½ inches long.
In 1995, Jonathan Rees identified the”gene for red hair” – the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R), found on the 16th chromosome. This participant is definitely a carrier of this rare and recessive trait (less than 4% of the world’s population has naturally occurring red hair), and she wears it so well!
Unfortunately, redheads haven’t always been appreciated for their beauty. In addition to countless other myths, stereotypes, and superstitions associated with red hair (more here!), during the late Middle Ages, efforts to suppress peasant revolts and a growing movement of “people power” motivated the genocide of thousands of suspected witches (i.e. powerful women who were seen as threats to the ruling class and powerful elite). These women were typically stripped and searched for “marks of the devil,” including any “abnormalities” such as freckles, moles, warts, or birthmarks. Considering the almost inevitable combination of red hair and freckles, of the estimated 40-60,ooo women who were put to death during these witch hunts, it’s safe to assume that many of them were also carriers of the MC1R.
*To learn more about the relationship between the witch hunts, the historic suppression of women, and the rise of capitalism, check out Silvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation.
