Dec 16, 2002
Why Bolivian Women Sell Hair
Traditionally in Bolivian Quechua/Aymara cultures, women wear their hair parted in the middle in two
long braids at the back of their head. This has a symbolic as well as an aesthetic value (it’s a long anthropological explanation, don’t ask me to go into it now). When women live out in the country and dress like this, they are called campesinas. When they move to the city, but still retain original dress, they are called cholas or cholitas – urban indigenous population. When cholitas move up the social scale, they generally get rid of certain aspects of their rural behaviour or appearance – and the first to go is generally the hair, because it’s such an obvious symbol. However, when returning to the countryside, to visit relatives, or on certain festivals and fiestas, women will often need to have two long braids again, for reasons of status or respect or tradition – or simply aesthetics. How do they do this?
Answer: when you get your hair cut off, if you can afford it, you can keep it, take it to a special person and get it made into trencitas – little braids – which consist of hair about 5-6″ long, radiating out from a central woollen or thread core. The entire braid is about a foot and a half long, maybe two feet, and you have two of them. These can be plaited into the hair on your head seamlessly, so you can’t see the join.
Sometimes when women are poor, they sell their hair – they stand in the market, brushing it out, showing how long and strong it is, and then they will cut it off for a small amount. When they can afford it, as soon as they can afford it, they will buy some trencitas – either polyester fake ones (very cheap) or made from someone else’s hair, which they will braid onto their existing mane until their hair grows back. So there’s a constant cycle of hair in the lower class urbanised indigenous popluation in Bolivia.
When I was over there, I got my hair cut quite radically (from mid-back length to a short bob, just under my ear) and I kept the hair and got it made into my own trencitas, which I still have, hanging on a hook in my wardrobe. Whenever I want two long plaits, I just have to braid them in and hey presto – long hair Meg (well, longer hair Meg).
