What Hair Care Means to Women Around the World - INDIA

INDIA

The next time a Bollywood actress invites you over for a girls’ night, take a big whiff of the kitchen. Smell that? It’s fresh flowers and coconut. They’re staples in the DIY hair masks that most Indian women are cooking up from a young age, says model Natasha Ramachandran, who is from Pune. “Indian women are gifted with thick, healthy hair. In order to keep our scalps hydrated and nourished, we use coconut- and almond-oil masks. My mother, my grandmother, my aunt, my sisters — we all grew up doing it.” Model Rasika Navare, also originally from Pune, massages coconut oil through the length of her hair once a week as well; sometimes she switches in organic argan or rose hip oil. “Hair is one of the most important aspects of beauty in Indian culture,” she says. “People around the world love thick, long Indian hair...and we know it.”

Indian women have had deep ties to their hair for centuries. A lot of their practices stem from the Hindu religion (practiced by about 85 percent of the country), and many begin at birth. Some Hindu families will ceremoniously shave the heads of their children — a tradition called chuda-karana — in order to clear them of impurities and start fresh. The sacrifice of hair is key in the Hindu religion, and many make pilgrimages to temples to offer their hair — cut from the scalp — in exchange for a blessing or as a sign of devotion.

Braids are common for very devout Hindu women, and usually only widows leave their hair down. Unbound hair is associated with “loose” women (yikes). Young Hindu girls traditionally wear two pigtail braids and then transition into womanhood with a single long braid.

But times are changing, and in 2018 these strict Hindu practices aren’t as common. Unless a woman is from a very traditional orthodox family, a single braid or updo isn’t necessary, and she can wear that famous thick, dark Indian hair in whatever way she pleases — and that includes Westernized styles like bobs and colors like...purple. But travel to rural India and you’ll likely still see that long, glossy braid down the back of a Hindu woman. And then there’s the beautiful Indian vegetation. Imagine flowers in every vivid tropical color of the spectrum — violet dahlias! Rich marigolds! Delicate pink lilies! It’s a literal garden of hair accessories, and women take advantage of the sweet smells and brilliant colors to add flair to their hairstyles for special occasions. And to imbue them with special meaning. Many women in Tamil Nadu, in southern India, fasten a string of jasmine to their hair as a symbol of good fortune. Did we mention their hair must smell incredible? I think we did.

​A version of this article originally appeared in the March 2018 issue of Allure.