Don't Forget the Brunettes (Song)

See for the translation of the lyrics below

Lio, Les Brunes ne comptent pas pour des prunes, Video/music, 1986

In 1986, Lio (born in 1962) sang Les Brunes comptent pas pour des prunes (Don't Forget the Brunettes),(...) In this French hit, the singer and actress pokes fun at the legend of the beautiful blonde to rehabilitate brunettes. The clip, directed by Costa Kekemenis, shows her as a sexy and mischievous pin-up girl of the 1980s in a choreography inherited from Hollywood musicals in which all the girls in the chorus line are wearing the same blond wig. But Lio the brunette ends her clip wearing a blond wig under the hood hairdryer of a hairdressing saloon, winking at the viewers. No hard feelings...

Whether it is associated with the virginal purity of the madonnas of the Renaissance or the artificial seductiveness of vamps in the golden age of Hollywood, blond hair is a beautiful feature which makes a woman into an icon in the Western imagination.

Women on U.S.-Mexico border weave their hair together in giant solidarity braid as Trump gets inaugurated

photo by Sasha von Oldershausen

"We wanted something that referenced women directly, but that also sends a message about our common heritage and common backgrounds in a broader context,” Nicholson said. “It’s a symbol of collective strength.”

For many women, hair is a deeply symbolic and intimate extension of our being. From the moment our hair is long enough, it gets braided—by our mothers, grandmothers, and friends. It is part of a physical and figurative bond among women. The braid itself, made up of equal parts that weave into one another like arms in an embrace, constitutes something greater than the sum of its parts.

(...)

“It really marks this idea that, yes, we have our differences, but here are our similarities. And we’re binding those similarities in an act of solidarity.”

All the article here

#Politics #Symbolism #Femininity #Strength #Common #Protest

#Braid

#Press

#US

A cartoon about body hair

To look at it, click on it

ok, this one is about hair on the body …

A funny portrait of hair lovers. Seductions, disappointments, fantasies…

Film by Delphine Herman (animated drawing, 2D computer, without speaking) - Made in Belgium 

For adult audience

#Gender #Symbolism

#BodyHair

#Cartoon

Hair Story from Sally: A mourning ring

I once owned a mourning ring with plaited hair in the back. It was beautifully plaited, behind glass, in the inside of the ring, with a stone on the outside.
Sally, 70’s, Female, Jamaica
#Symbolism #Memory 
#Jewel

Hair Story from L.S.: Your hair is your own, you're not just a mother

When my daughter was born my hair fell out by the handful, as if all the strength and energy I had needed to create and carry her went away with her arrival. At first I wasn't bothered by it, but as my hair fell out more and more, I was almost frightened by my thinning hair and disappointed in my body for letting so much go. Eventually all my hair grew back. One day walking down the street I impulsively went into a salon and dyed it. I had never dyed my hair before, I was always "lucky" to be a natural blond. But somehow I felt compelled to dye my hair at that moment, as if to say to myself your hair is your own, you're not just a mother.

LS, Female, Jamaica and Philadelphia 

#Identity #Symbolism
#Blond #Dye

Hair Story from Valentine

During my travels, when I’m brushing my hair, I consciously put the loose strands somewhere in a specific spot or let them go with the wind, thinking: a bit of me will stay here. Today, I am all over the world.
Valentine, 40’s, Female, Belgium 

#Symbolism #PersonnalPart
#Loss

Hair Story from M.

At the age of 30, after 15 years of wearing my hair more or less short, I decided to let my hair grow really long. After an ugly transition, when my hair reached mid-length, I got sick. I had to take drugs that made me lose a lot of hair. My hair turned ugly again, so I cut it. 

Since then, the disease has stabilized but I never really cut my hair again. Although I like to change the way I look a lot, something is holding me back. It seems as if my long hair has become a symbol of my victory over the disease.
M., 40’s, Female, Belgium 

#Symbolism #SymbolVictory
#Loss #Long

Hair Story from Suzanne

When I was very young, my hair was thick, long and chestnut colored with waves that cascaded down my back. One day, when I was about ten years old, I sat at my mother's dressing mirror and cut it all off. I was/am always impatient and I wanted to be grown up...so thinking back, I cut my hair off so I could be older...and of course my mother would never cut my hair so....so there was a huge defiance in my act too. She wept when she found me. 

From then on I looked at my hair as a work in progress. Color, permanents, cutting, growing.
After my father died, I shaved my head and moved to Jamaica. It grew in silver, except for a patch of chestnut color along the very back of my head. A reminder perhaps of my
youth. Now, I am letting it grow long....but then maybe one day, I will take up a scissor and cut it all off.
Suzanne, 67, Female, US-Jamaica.
#Short #Long #GreyHair #SymbolEmotion 

Hair Story from X.

My dad whom I asked hair stories: "I not going to tell who is giving me white hair, do I?” 

X., 73, Male, Belgium 

#Symbolism #WhiteHair #SymbolTrouble 

Hair Story from Paul

I started to grow my locks in 2007, while I was in college. I locked my hair, pulled the locks out, locked my hair again, pulled the locks out again, to finally let them grow. Growing locks teaches me patience.
I wear lock for their beauty and as a symbol of strength. I have no intention to cut them. People often ask if they can touch them, also if they are real, I guess they suspect I’m wearing extensions. 

Paul, Male, Jamaica 

#Symbolism #SymbolStrengh 
#Dreadlock #Extension

Hair Story from C.

One day my boyfriend decided to cut his dreadlocks. I had always known him with them. Suddenly he seemed so fragile to me ...
C., 40, Female, Belgium
#Symbol #Strengh 
#Dreadlocks

Hair Story from Ingrid

My kids think its creepy that I cut off a little curl from their babyhair and tied it with a little string and keep it, just as my mum did with us. Also my mother used to have a tiny ladies purse crocheted out of human hair from some ancestor in the 19th century. We value hair in Europe just like in other cultures but why I do not know! Maybe it contains something of the soul of the person it belonged to.

Ingrid, Female, 50's, UK

#Culture #Symbolism #Memory #Personnal

Hair Story from Hans

Just after I was born, at a Christian hospital, the nuns showed me to my mom, saying "don't worry, he is not a redhead, he is not a redhead!" My mom looked at me and told the nuns, happy and proud, "but no, he is a redhead, and that's great!"
At that time, popular and narrow minded belief saw red hair as a connection to the devil.

Hans, 47, Male, Belgium
#Religion #Symbolism #SymbolNegative
#Red 

Hair Story from Maja

5th April 2009 For someone whose long, thick curly hair has been a part of her identity for two decades, knowing that I was about to lose it was a big thing. A few weeks before chemo started I went to talk to a wig specialist to see if he could make a wig out of my own hair. I liked the idea of still having my hair, but being able to take it off at night so it wouldn't get all tangled and knotty. Best of both worlds! However, I was discouraged by the price and the time it would take to make it (a couple of months). Also, the wig-man told me that wigs made of natural hair are more difficult to maintain, especially if they are as long as mine. He suggested that I cut my hair before the chemo starts, plait it and store it in thin paper. This

Hair Story from David

I grew up in the 70s when Bob Marley and the Rastafarian movement was in ascendancy. Dreadlocks represented power, rebellion and a absolute cool that only a reggae star performer could conjure up. But alas, genes worked against me and I started losing my hair in my 20s, rapidly! I remember rubbing my hand across the top of my head and seeing at least ten strands of hair left deserted on the palm of my hand. The demise continued and today I am left with a Hippocratic Wreath which is a fancy way of saying you have hair only on the sides and back of your head. I still have not totally got over not having dreads. Sometimes, I dream of having dreads and I wake up happy!

David, 50’s, Male, Jamaica 

#Symbolism #SymbolPower #SymbolRebellion #Dreadlock #Loss 

Hair Story from Alkan

In Japanese anime, supernatural and horror films, hair — long, black, flowing hair, and even the bangs and fringes of shorter hair — allures, conceals, and deceives. It can literally shade or partially mask a face, simultaneously enticing and foreboding, suggestive of hidden power, danger, or eroticism. Hair tossed dreamily in the wind; or submerged in deep black water, winding, flowing and knotting. Hair can indeed be seen to articulate a whole sub-language within cinema and literature, life and dreams. In my own dreams, hair has always been acutely significant in similar ways: intimately entangling, silky soft to touch (and needless to say — the hair is usually attached to a girl). It is thickly plaited with bewitching, haunting images. The mysterious qualities of hair seem infinitely entwined with dreamlike resonances.

Alkan, 42, Male, Australia

#Symbolism

Hair Story by Cyrandea

My hair was locked when I was about 4 years old. I cut it when I was 6 and then it has been growing since then. I grow my hair now and then with natural products. People always ask me how do I take care of it! “Does it pull your head” and a lot more. My hair symbolizes my religion. I am a Rastafari Christian. I am a vegetarian because we believe in levity. I love my hair so much.

Cyrandea, Female, Jamaica

#Religion

Hair Story: #BlackIsBeauty #NaturalIsBeauty

I always hated my natural hair and struggled with insecurities. What made it worse was my dark skin… I processed my hair thinking that it would make me feel better but it only caused me hate what I’d become. I started to feed myself with black beautiful women, So I would feel the same. Now I’ve been natural for 2 years and I love it. It has made me a beautiful young lady and I profess it in my art pieces. Now I am an African Queen, using my natural hair as a symbol of natural beauty. People ever compliment me on the fact that I am natural and how I haven’t adjusted my skin tone. #BlackIsBeauty #NaturalIsBeauty

K., 16, Female, Jamaica 

#NaturalHair #HeritageAfrica

#BlackIsBeauty #NaturalIsBeauty

Hair Story: My hair symbolizes my beauty

My hair symbolizes my beauty. It shows of my strength & womanist features in every way possible.

X., Female

#Symbolisme #HairIsBeauty #Womanist

Hair Story by Natalie: My hair says about my heritage & ethnicity

Before going to high school I always wanted to relax my hair at my mums disapproval. My mum eventually went on vacation and my aunt relaxed my hair without my mum’s approval but to my delight. After 2 years of relaxed hair & realising my hair wasn’t growing at the rate I expected, I decided to go back natural. I am no longer insecure about the texture & length of my hair. I am confident in what it says about my heritage & ethnicity.

Natalie, 22, Female, Jamaica

#Heritage #Ethnicity

#NaturalHair #Confidence