Good morning!
I haven’t posted in a while, and it’s high time that I catch up! It has been a very busy few weeks, wrapping up with me not feeling well the past few days. But – one nice thing about getting sick is the reminder of how good it feels to feel good again.
When I came home from my East Coast trip, we immediately got into the year-end fundraising rush, getting out letters, phone calls, touching bases with TLC supporters. All I can say is this: I am so deeply touched by the willingness of the trich community to support the work that we do at TLC. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Then there was Thanksgiving, and then back to work, fleshing out next year’s important programs and setting up calendars to get them rolling. Somewhere in the midst of the past couple weeks I took a day trip up to the De Young Museum in San Francisco with a good friend to see the Treasures of King Tutankhamen exhibit, on loan from the Cairo Museum in Egypt.
Did you know that tweezers were a normal thing to put in tombs with the deceased? And that the upper classes normally removed lots of hair? In fact, it turns out that NO body hair was allowed in certain temples, so priests would shave themselves completely. Even removing eyelashes. Everything! Very interesting.
Also, when someone died, hair pulling was a sign of grief, and often the mourner would not take care of their hair for a time, marking them as being in grief.
These little bits of unverified info I got from doing a little research once I got home. Why did I look into hair pulling in Pharonic times? Like from 3000 BC to just after the time of Christ? Because of what I found at the Museum.
As I walked through the exhibit I marveled at the fine degree of craftmanship that went into so many of the pieces. What an amazing world view they held about death, and the whole process of helping the being continue in the ”After” life. I don’t understand it as I have never spent much time on Egyptian history, but suffice it to say that the body is prepared a very special way, and put in a tomb with all the physical items they will need in the afterlife. Also included in the tomb are many god and goddess figurines to grant safe passage.
As we got close to the end of the exhibit (there are like ten rooms of treasure!) I came across a large display case with about 5 items in it. Over to one side was an alabaster (white stone) brick, just a bit bigger than what a normal brick nowadays would be, with a little figurine of some deity (god) standing upright on one end. At the deity’s feet, there were heiroglyphs. And on the case was the translation. I copied the whole thing down as I was deeply fascinated. This is what it said about the brick.
Magical Brick of Tuthmosis IV Dynasty 18 reign of Tuthmosis IV 1400-1390 BC
An image atop a magical brick was placed in wall niches of Burial Chambers to ward off dangers from North, South, East, or West. This northern example warned:
“You who come to pull [my hair] I will not allow you to pull [my hair].
I copied the text off the case exactly as it was written. I don’t know why the “my hair” was in brackets, unless the translators were not sure of the wording, but I still found this absolutely intriguing. So when I got home, I started doing a little research, and found that hair played an incredibly important role in early Egyptian society.
I have alwayed felt there was an archetypal aspect to the behavior, as it has wended its way through so many cultures in so many ways, and often signified great mourning or loss.
My guess is it is a biological marker for the expression of loss, grief, disconnection, some type of processing adjunct for the nervous system in overwhelm. And that this natural wiring can get stuck in a “hic-up” with the result being full-blown trich. Now don’t ask me exactly what I mean, it’s not that clear to me, either! But I am writing more about this and other musings, in a larger book I am working on.
Well, I have to get ready for work, but I wanted to post this morning! I’d love to know what anyone thinks about this topic.
Much love, Christina
2 Comments
I have heard about the connection between hair and grief before. (Maybe reading up for a Trich presentation?, I’m not sure.) But what is more interesting to me is the grief part. I use homeopathy and my constitutional remedy is one closely associated to deep grief. This fits with my life history, and here I am also a puller. Interesting connections.
Love what you wrote here. Very interesting. English courts did the same thing. The queens had women pluck out every hair on their head and eyebrows. Then they would wear wigs. Wow. Good luck with your book. Sounds cool.