Draupadi Hairstyle

Leaving hair loose, cascading down one's back is the in fashion for young girls of today. Every movie, every soap opera, every visual advertisement shows girls/women with  hair undone flowing down the back to different levels. It does not matter what activity the woman is involved in - cooking, attending a patient, playing with a baby, riding a two wheeler, running towards a lover or away from a villain - her long hair streams behind her like a flag and in some cases like a long banner. It does not matter whether the girl is a school-going child, an adolescent or adult the hair is always let down and it is only the "aunties" (an epithet for older women) who put up their hair in a knot usually a tight knot with not a tendril escaping from the demure coiffure. Oh! yes even widows are depicted with their hair in a knot preferably at the nape!

In the earlier days before the 1990s, it was considered inauspicious for women to let their hair loose. When young it was braided into two pigtails and tied up in a loop with a ribbon at the end of it, as one entered adolescence in most South Indian states, the twin pigtails were replaced by a single plait though Maharashtrians continued to spot two plaits even when they were older (Remember Lata Mangeshkar). Of course these plaits exhibited a lot of ingenuity - braided to resemble the kewra leaf, four stranded plaits, the French plait and of course the quintessential flowers being braided in for special occasions. 

Hair was never to be left loose since it was associated with Draupadi's vow in Mahabharatha. While Draupadi was being dragged by Dushasana to the court, where Yudhistra had lost her in the game of dice, her hair got undone and she vowed that she would not comb her hair and dress it only after  Dushasana's death when she could anoint it with his blood. Due to this tale in most South Indians it is considered inauspicious to leave the hair loose. Even after a head bath mothers used to dry the hair quickly using fragrant incense fumes and tie a small knot at the end of the hair.

When I first started my career as a lecturer in a missionary college, my Head of the Department warned me that if "your hair grows below your shoulder you have to knot it up". There was a reason for this rule - not only does long hair interfere with one's work, it is also uncomfortable in the hot tropical weather. Loose cascading hairstyle for a cook may result in contamination of food with hair, which would definitely be unhygienic as well as unappetizing.   Long hair left loose can also pose a risk as happened to my friend's daughter. She had gone to the Puja Pandal and during  Aarti her hair caught fire and not only did she lose a lot of hair but it was also considered a very bad omen and the family had to perform several rituals to appease the malignant spirits!

It is not to suggest that the elaborate coiffures of the past have to be followed but definitely there is a need to style one's hair according to one's task requirement. I am not against "letting one's hair down" to relax but that should be restricted to parties and other social events. Women should learn to be sensible and not follow fashion blindly.