Published on 12, July, 2020
Covering ones head and or hair has been something humans have done for a very long time and seems to be about much more than warmth. I remember my Mum always weraing a headscarf, Princess Anne style, when I was a child, my Nan would never go out without a hat, I remember watching her fiddling about with her hat pins, and being convinced that she had had holes in the back of her head to stick the pins in and was wiggling the pins about trying to find them.
In medieval times people rarely went out with thier heads uncovered, loose hair was a sign of being unmarried and hair ups were something you did when married.
People still get in dreadful flaps about things like hijabs, let alone veils and covered faces, and yet this has been one of the longest commonly observed customs in human history accross cultures and countries.
Do you alwways wear a hat or head covering? What sort and why?
I'm always hatless, I'd like to be on better terms with hats, I actually look quite good in hats, but my hair disagrees, I'm sure it has invisible arms that reach up and push off any head covering. Me and my boss used to go to a large dept store of a lunch time to play with the hats as we both found it stress busting.
I come from Poland, I confirm in our culture head scarfs were used for long time. They still are in more traditional families, usually by older women. The purpose of covering hair was modesty and staying loyal to the husband (by tradition woman after marrying the man got her long hair shortened and covered when going outside) so the other men know - this lady is not “free”.. now it’s not practiced by young people, but I remember getting a beautiful scarf (from my Ukrainian relative) and as long as I wore it in Ukraine in the orthodox Christian church, it was good. When I used it in Poland, I was called names. In orthodox Christian church by the way women still cover their heads. Head covers of any sort don’t disturb me. In many cultures they are really beautiful. I was in Pakistan and there I covered my head to show my respect to the local culture. The dresses and scarfs I got there were stunning. I covered my head with a pleasure and it even gave me some sort of more privacy - if I sensed someone staring at me, I just covered myself more. It’s interesting topic, I discussed it with my mom long time ago.
HMO, I didn't know that, I thought it was just someone wearing a baseball cap back to front.
One of the things I found interesting was in medieval southern Italy which was a real melting pot of cultures, was that European women chose to wear veils and cover their hair, which caused a lot of controvercy among men and particularly the church. Women would have scarves and veirls torn from their heads by disaproving men. I wondered if women adopted this fashion because they liked the anonimity covering thier heads and faces gave them, keeping away the make gaze. Which conversely seemed to make the men more insistent on looking at women in the street.
In the western European church it seems that one uncovers ones head, I wonder why the difference?
I look at some of the wonderful scarves and hijabs used by women and wish I knew how to use them too. If, the Goddess forbid, I ever have to have chemo, I think I'd far rather wear a hijab than a woolley hat, a wig.
Robert, when in history are you talking about? Would you like it to be fashionable for men to wear hats that aren't woolly or basebll caps again?