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 really don't get it. Why is covering one's head a mark of respect in a church, temple, etc? Why in most religions or cultures is it mainly the women required to cover their head? If there is a God, he made women with hair on their heads, not hats or scarves - Why wouldn't he want to see their lovely hair? I respect all faiths and beliefs, but I just don't understand this one.
Also, it's apparently polite for a man to take off a hat when going indoors???
I don't like hats much, they make my head itch and when it's windy they blow off (and I wouldn't want to stick hat pins in my head like women did years ago)
I'm ok wearing a soft scarf or woolly hat in cold weather to keep my ears warm though.
I don't understand it either Pixie, I supect women covering thier hair in the sight of god is more about human men not seeing it and admiring it and even, shock horror, thinking about SEX! I suspect that if god had made women with hats instead of hair humans would have invented hair to hide the sexually alluring hoats, lol.
I remember watching Downton Abbey and they were having lunch, visiting ladies kept thier hats on and resident ladies didn't, I dont remember if there were any men at this lunch and if they wore hats?
I think who removes a hat to whom is a class thing, a lower class individual removes his hat to a male of a higher class.
Why do men raise thier hats to women?
Why do men romove their hats when a funeral procession passes them?
As modern Christianity came relatively late to much of Africa do those who keep their head coverings in place when in church, of a protestant persausion rather than a catholic one? I've no idea of the Coptic church's position on head wear, but they're more north African I think?
What about veils, how do poeple feel about veils? In Britain it seems that only brides wear veils, and sometimes widows at a husbands funeral. What not at other times?
I think healthy hair is a sign of overall health, but I agree it's largely a cultural imposition. I quite like the idea of a veil, I have a very mobile face and my thoughts show almost instantly, so people not being able to see me is appealing. But I also get this tendency to want to disapear which is why I think I almost became anorexic. I think the need to disapear is partly because of people, or rather male people, shouting at me in the street or passing comments about me as they walk past.
I wonder if in cultures where they having whats called a walking marriage, if men cover they're faces?
Ha ha Cat, I love the idea of people having hats which they cover with hair!
Why is hair on a woman's head related to sex? I believe that women who always wear head coverings for religious/cultural reasons only show their hair to other women or their husband, but I can't see how head hair is sexy myself. But then apparently when women wore long skirts the sight of an ankle could arouse some, so maybe it's just that people are programmed to want what they can't have/see?
Veils are odd in my opinion. Again, why cover one's face? The bridal one seems to imply the groom hasn't met the bride before the wedding and he's going to pull back the veil after the ceremony and see her for the first time (surprise! You might think I'm a bit ugly, but you're stuck with me now, ha ha!)