hair: all articles

From pre-historic bog-people to ‘big hair’; virgin martyrs to dresses spun from lost souls, to the hairy Devil himself, the author of ‘The Beast to the Blonde’ takes us on a final grand tour of openDemocracy’s virtual museum.

With the scent of soup and Blue Magic, memories of hairstyles, tears and Saturday afternoons at Doris’ salon come flooding back. A veteran of black hair fashion remembers.

openDemocracy presents an exclusive advance audio preview of ‘Lycanthropy’, Patrick Wolf’s debut album. Click below to listen.

In the original Chinese, and also translated especially for openDemocracy by Ho Chee Lick, a poem by one of China’s finest women poets, Lew Poo Chan.

Specially commissioned for openDemocracy’s ‘hair’ theme, the second of two new poems - the first on shaving; now, long hair.

Hair as political protest, or global fashion? Photographer and one-time Skinhead, Gavin Watson tells it how it is - in pictures and words.

Holy, profane, or just a good old fashioned number one cut? Shaving, with its multiple readings and ramifications, still has the power to make some people’s hackles rise. A young writer takes us on a guided tour of the long, and of course, the short of it.

Specially commissioned for openDemocracy’s ‘Hair’ theme, a new poem by a young writer to watch.

An ancient association between hexes and hair resurfaces in the immaculate prose of this chapter from a new novel by a young London writer.

Does global beauty exist? Susan Ossman seeks an answer in the salons of Casablanca, Cairo and Paris.

New and ancient poetry and images will be added to this space over the coming weeks and months. In the latest issue, we go to China.

On the margins of civilisation and in the mists of evolution lurk hairy barbarians, furry primates and wild men. But why the fascination? Is it about getting back to our roots, or a fear of the beast within?

New and ancient poetry and images will be added to this space over the coming weeks and months, starting with Yosano Akiko’s Hair in Sweet Disorder.

Iconic, mythic and symbolic. The stuff of disputes, dreams and fascination. Hair has the power to draw crowds and capture the imagination. Here, we start to look at how, and why.

What is it? Where does it come from? And where can it take us? Hair gets the full treatment in this first instalment of Objects & Projects. First up: the science.

The legendary Warren Peas encounters Shalom, Arefat, and a massage parlour on a trip through unholy lands.