There was a very brief time when I had wool locks plaited into my hair. I spent a whole day installing them, but a week later, my home made dandelion and burdock ale exploded all over them, and I had to take them out. I just couldn't go through the agonising process of doing them again. It's much easier to just attach the wool locks to a hair band and wrap them around a ponytail. This look has been popular in the goth subculture for a long time, and I don't really know why. I guess it's just an easy way to add colour and texture to your hair. I've been dying my hair since I was 16, and had just about every colour possible. I was into alternative subculture as a teen, particularly goth and punk, and spent a few years of my early 20s being "emo" before sliding into a more "indie twee" look. I have found the need to assimilate into mainstream culture for the sake of work, and appear as normal as possible for the boss. They do tend to remark that I have a certain peculiar style. I usually dye my hair brown to start a new job and then gradually let my true self be revealed. Right now I have bright pink hair.
There is definitely a lot of pressure to conform in modern capitalist society. The pressure tends to increase during times of economic crisis. As the cost of living increases and wages are decreasing as they fail to keep up with inflation, the need to appear employable increases. Those who refuse to fit in can become an underclass of punks living in anarchist squats. Some people simply fail to fit in because they can't afford new clothes, and become scruffy looking.
Back in the Middle Ages a scruffy appearance could actually be a sign of spiritual dedication. Medieval ascetics refused to cut or brush their hair, wearing only rough clothing and abstaining from luxuries. Whereas voluntary poverty was praised among the wealthy class, many had no choice in the matter. The enforced poverty of the peasant, combined with a lack of healthcare, could result in a neglected appearance. Here is a very old picture of some European peasants with basic clothing and unkempt, matted hair.
William Shakespeare talked about matted locks of hair in his play Romeo and Juliet, referring to the Queen of Elphame: "She's the fairies' midwife, and she comes in shape no bigger than an agate stone... That plaits the manes of horses in the night and bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs, Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes." It was believed at the time, that if you discovered that some part of your hair had become tangled into a matted lock or "elflock" then you had been visited by the fairies. The brothers Grimm recorded the fact that in Germany, matted locks were believed to be created by an otherworldly woman called Frau Holle, who is herself depicted with elflocks. Her name is translated into English as Mother Hulda or Dame Holda. Besides creating matted locks, she was also held responsible for snow, and for punishing lazy children. There are theories that she was originally worshipped as a goddess.
The German name for elflocks was "weichselzopt", or "vistulaplait". It was believed that elflocks ensured good health, as diseases would be trapped within the matted hair, and therefore be unable to reach the body. For this reason, elflocks were encouraged, and especially popular among European peasants. According to M Marczewska, there were long held beliefs that illnesses were carried by evil spirits, which took residence inside elflocks. It was important not to untangle a matted lock, as this would release the evil spirit back into the air. It was also believed that by creating elflocks, disease would be drawn out of the body and into the hair. It was believed that if you cut off your elflocks, then the diseases would return to your body with a vengeance. Elflocks could be categorised by their shape, density, and length, to distinguish their medicinal purpose. One of the Brothers Grimm fairytales describes a girl who didn't comb her hair for a year, causing elflocks to form, within which she found golden coins as her reward.
Larry Wolff in his book Inventing Eastern Europe, describes the hair style as originating with the Scythians, a nomadic people from the central Eurasian steppes. By the early Middle Ages, the Scythians had been assimilated and absorbed by the Proto-Slavic people. Zygmunt Gloger in his Encyklopedia Staropolska describes 19th century men and women with matted locks in the Pinsk and Masovia regions. People would fashion elflocks using wax or liquids such as a mixture of wine and sugar, or herb infused water. The most common herb to use was Vinca major, followed by Lycopodium clavatum, and moss. Washing sections of hair in this herb infused water would cause the hair to matt into the desirable elflocks. One of the Polish names for a person with elflocks is "wieszczi" which meant a bard or folk poet with prophetic abilities.
During the Age of Enlightenment, there was widespread xenophobia against Eastern Europeans, and their matted locks were described as a contagious disease. Polish traders were feared in Victorian England as carriers of this disease. It was also believed that simply wearing Polish clothes could cause a person to grow elflocks. 19th century physicians chastised peasants for believing in the medicinal benefits of elflocks, and forcibly cut them off. In Western Galicia, people with elflocks were forbidden entry into certain buildings, such as schools and offices. In the areas of Poland which were occupied by the Russian Empire, young men with elflocks were exempt from military service. The Polish word for elflock, "koltun", is now used to denote an uneducated person with an old-fashioned mindset.
Magical elflocks quickly became unfashionable, as symbols of barbarism and paganism. They remained outside of Europe, in Asia. Hindu holy men continued to treat their matted locks as sacred. The sanskrit name for them is "jaṭā". In South Asia, matted locks are reserved almost exclusively for holy people. According to the Hymn of the Longhaired Sage, matted locks express spiritual significance. They give the wearer the strength and ability to traverse the otherworlds. Buddhists are also known to wear matted locks as a symbol of non-attachment. In various cultures, spiritual men or women, sometimes known as shamans, also wear matted locks.
Elflocks are not part of mainstream culture where I live, but they are part of subcultures, and I often see at least one full head of matted locks among punks, goths, and pagans. I tried it myself for a while, paying someone to crochet my locks, determined that I would never brush my hair again. Less than a year later, I cut my elflocks off and returned to a more conventional hairstyle. The concept of culture, national identity, and conformity, is inherently political. The cultural erasure of marginalised groups, and forced assimilation, is a process of colonisation. This "soft power" of cultural influence is a method of control, to keep a workforce obedient and productive. This is why any perceived rebellion is taken as a threat to the dominant system. The magic of hair is that it can be a powerful message to the state, in a subtle act of resistance.
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Thank you for sharing your thoughts )O(