Hair has long been associated with superstitions and beliefs across many cultures throughout history. Hair is considered a symbol of strength, power, and spiritual purity in many societies. There are a number of prevalent superstitions regarding hair that still influence customs and practices today.
What are some common superstitions about hair?
Some common hair superstitions include:
- Cutting hair on certain days brings bad luck
- Pulling out gray hairs will cause more to grow
- Having someone else cut your hair can drain your energy
- Hair contains spiritual power and should be protected
- Throwing cut hair away allows others to place curses
- Going out with wet hair makes you vulnerable to illness
- Losing strands of hair signals upcoming misfortune
- Long hair represents health, strength and youth
- Burying cut hair prevents misuse of your spiritual essence
- Maintaining uncut hair indicates spiritual devotion
Where do superstitions about hair come from?
Hair superstitions originate from a variety of cultural sources:
- Spiritual beliefs: In many religions and spiritual practices hair is connected to one’s soul or spiritual power. Hair is seen as an extension of the self that contains your essence and strength. Cutting it carelessly is thought to weaken you.
- Folklore: Myths and folk tales often warn against the magical dangers of hair getting into the wrong hands. Evil spirits, animals, or people could use it to place curses, change your nature, or exert control.
- Ancient medicine: Traditional healing practices devised links between hair traits, quality, and illnesses. Hair condition was used to diagnose. Cutting or wetting hair at the wrong time could impact health.
- Cultural identity: Hairstyles and hair maintenance have long indicated social status, life stage, marital status, ethnicity, and other identities. Superstitions helped enforce cultural norms.
- Pagan rituals: Hair was integral in pagan ceremonies and magic spells. Locks were sacrificed, buried, or burned to elicit desired outcomes.
Over time these beliefs perpetuated protective taboos around cutting, disposing of, and styling hair in certain ways.
What are some common superstitions about cutting hair?
Hair cutting superstitions stem from a belief that timing cuts or coordinating them with moon phases, tides, seasons, or numerical patterns can influence fortune, fertility, and protection from evil.
Bad luck days:
- Tuesday – In European folklore Tuesday was considered dominated by the influence of Mars, the god of war, making it inauspicious.
- Saturday – Named for Saturn, Roman god associated with misfortune.
- During a new moon – The new moon marks the start of a new lunar cycle, thought to be a risky time for new ventures or changing health.
- Ember Days – Religious fasting days on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday each season were seen as spiritually vulnerable times requiring protection.
- During storms – Cutting hair during turbulent weather encourages bad energies to attack.
- January 6th – Feast of the Epiphany/Three Kings Day was risky.
- Good Friday – Cutting on the holy day was sacrilegious.
Good luck days:
- Full moon – The peak of the lunar cycle marked a spiritually and physically fortuitous time.
- March or April – Thought to add protection and thickening during spring.
- May – Symbolizes fertility and growth.
- Folding or knotting cut hair brings luck.
- Coordinate with astrological sign’s numerical value.
What are numerology haircuts?
Numerology haircuts follow the superstitious practice of coordinating the timing or amount of hair cut based on associated lucky numbers.
Key numerology haircut beliefs:
- Cutting on days that reduce to your birth number strengthens your lifeline.
- Adding up digits to get married couples’ compound number brings unity.
- Cutting hair in increments of seven years honors the life-renewal cycle.
- Trimming on full moon in your zodiac month boosts fortune.
Sample numerology haircut formulas:
- Birth Number 8 – Cut every month on the 24th (2 + 4 = 6)
- Wedding Date 10-2-98 – Cut every 2 months on the 4th (1 + 0 + 2 + 9 + 8 = 20; 2 + 0 = 2)
- Birthday 12-3-1990 – Cut 1.203 inches each cut (1 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 9 + 9 + 0 = 25; 2 + 5 = 7)
What are lunar haircuts?
Lunar haircuts follow the moon’s phases to enhance hair strength and growth. Key beliefs:
- Full moon adds shine, thickness, and fast growth.
- New moon cuts slow growth and increase shedding.
- Waxing moon between new and full promotes moderate growth.
- Waning moon between full and new moon worsens hair condition.
- Cutting on a waxing moon in your astrological sun sign month boosts results.
Recommended lunar haircut schedule:
| Moon Phase | Benefits |
|---|---|
| Full | Improved luster, health |
| Waxing | Gradual growth |
| Waning | Slows shedding |
| New | Resting period |
What superstitions are related to hair styling and care?
Beyond cutting, there are many beliefs about risks and taboos related to handling and arranging hair:
- Wet hair: Going out with a wet head leads to blindness, arthritis pain, or other illness through vulnerability to spirits or environmental factors.
- Nighttime brushing: Brushing hair after dark invites ghosts to tangle it or is an invitation for death.
- Loose strands: Keeping lost hairs in your home allows their essence to linger and spirits to manipulate them.
- Disposal: Hair clippings require ritual burning, burial, or folding to prevent misuse by hidden forces.
- Head coverings: Women’s hair carries sacred purpose and requires shielding in some faiths. Unveiling it draws danger.
- Public touching: Letting strangers touch your hair permits them to curse you. Only lovers should touch your hair.
What superstitions relate to hair color or loss?
Hair color and loss have extensive superstitious meaning:
- Graying: Each gray strand predicts coming misfortunes. Plucking grays only brings more.
- Red hair: Associated with magic, fire, passion, unpredictability, and danger.
- White/blonde: Indicates vulnerability, openness, purity, and angelic qualities.
- Black: Symbolizes power, authority, and elegance. Thought to provide protection.
- Baldness: Signals loss of strength, vitality, masculinity, or in Chinese belief, loss of chi energy.
- Hair loss: Thought to foreshadow diminished luck or mark poor health. Sometimes blamed on demonic attack.
What are some superstitions related to historical hair theft?
Hair theft refers to the historical practice of taking someone’s hair without consent to use it in rituals, spells, or witchcraft. Hair was seen as a powerful artifact linked to the victim’s spirit.
Key hair theft superstitions:
- Witches could control victims by possessing their hair.
- Powerful curses could be placed using stolen locks of hair.
- Birds could construct spirit-possessed nests with human hair that compelled attraction.
- Seduction magic employed ill-gotten hair to bind lovers.
- Placing hair in tombs and monuments facilitated eternal spiritual connection.
High value hair included:
- First cuttings from childhood
- Pubic hair
- Hair from nobility or clergy
- Hair cut during rituals
- Hair gathered from hairbrushes or combs
Famous examples include relics of saints, kings, and venerated figures.
What are modern examples of hair superstitions?
While less prevalent today, hair superstitions still influence behaviors:
- Keeping first baby locks: Saved as memento out of tradition, not ritual protection.
- Avoiding haircuts on Tuesday the 13th: Fear of bad luck remains.
- Cutting child’s hair after 1st birthday: Seen as a milestone, not a guard from evil spirits.
- Hiding hair loss: Vanity and social shame drives cover-ups more than superstition.
- Discreet hair disposal: Habit from old beliefs about misuse, not true spiritual concern.
Modern hair phenomena with spiritual associations:
- Locks of Love donation: Seen as selfless ritual of growth and renewal.
- Head shaving: Removes bad energy or marks a rite of passage.
- Radical coloring: Signals reinvention, empowerment.
Conclusion
Hair superstitions reveal the deep cultural and spiritual significance historically imbued in hair’s role as a source of identity, status, and mystical power. While the prevalence of these beliefs has faded over time, harmless habits, like saving first clippings, endure as tradition. For many today, hair superstitions persist simply as intriguing folklore rather than absolute taboo. Still, a magical sense of hair’s personal and cosmic importance remains in modern practices seeking luck, healing, or renewal through restyling our tresses.