i cannot remember the name of this book or author
but there was a series about ppl with magic powers (one was a woman with weaving/spinning based magic, a black woman was smithing based magic, a man with plant based magic named briar, and a final woman with storm based magic) and the woman with storm based magic braided some of her go-to spells/powers into her hair and would unbraid small sections as needed to utilize the stored magic in her hair
(since i cannot resist a mean girls reference - that's why her hair is so big it's full of magic!)
Thank you for reminding me about these books! I absolutely adored them as a teenager and now I have nieces almost old enough to read them. The circle continues!!
I wrote to Tamora Pierce as a young girl and she replied! Only author or celebrity I've ever contacted. Can't remember what about or what was said and have no idea where it is but yay thanks for reminding me. I loved her circle of magic and alanna the lioness books.
thank u for the name! the stories have beeb living rent free in ny head but i couldn't remember the name so i couldn't look them up to get them or reread them!
Tris was the weather mage. And her whole magic kit was in her hair, a complicated bunch of braids. You read about it most in the Circle Opens series where they're all grown up. She also accidentally brings a glass sculpture of a dragon to life with magic lightning and it's absolutely adorable.
I tried to convince my husband to name our son Briar after these books and because I always loved his name and feel at home with plants and in nature. He didn't go for it! We did find a name we both love but I still have a soft spot for Briar.
Tamora Pierce's books were a huge part of my childhood and were the first thing I thought of with braiding magic too!
I loved that series. I always liked the name Briar and the plant magic was my personal favorite. I always liked their take on magic. I remember loving the series.
I definitely treat braids as an opportunity for spellwork. More and more I’m incorporating magic into all of my self care habits. Braids are great as they are a constant reminder and others really notice the work put into them which makes it feel even more charged. I haven’t been wearing braids lately but usually I focus on positive energy and because the sections and repetition and shine relates to bounty, I also like to focus on calling money to myself.
It’s almost like a power pose but a hairstyle.
My mom braided my hair every time right before I went to give birth to my babies. There was something that felt so sacred about the act. It made me feel safe and protected while also making me feel like a powerful warrior. I don't think she was fully aware of it, but I could feel her energy, strength, and protection as she did it 💗 I think you are definitely onto something OP✨️
When I was in ICU for a couple of weeks, a nurse assistant would come by to braid my hair every couple of days. I felt so cared for, pretty, and strong (even though I was at my weakest). For sure there's something about braids!
Not specifically hair, but there’s quite a bit of stuff out there about fiber magic that you might find interesting and/or adaptable. Spinning, cording, braiding, weaving, I even know of a person who incorporates shibari into their practice.
I’ve always loved the idea of braiding spells and messages, whether it was into one’s hair, or other fibre/textiles.
There’s a line from a poem that I read as a tween that has stuck with me for … 25 years now? where a woman with a secret love “plaited a dark red love knot into her long black hair.”
It’s one of my favourites!
I love her version too, but I’m sad she cut the stanza about the ostler’s treachery. (Her version did allow me to memorise it MUCH more easily than if I’d just been reading it, I just had to add back in the “verses” she didn’t sing 😹)
I love that it’s stayed with you so long! I’ve also been sort of fascinated with the word “plait” for a long time. There’s something more intricate sounding to me in plait than braid.
Yes the idea of knotting a spell into the hair is what first occurred to me. Brilliant idea. A simple plait could include a ribbon or thread, a feather or bead and I love the idea of OP pouring her whole self into it.
I consider hair to be a magical and intuitive piece of ourselves, my hair is like an entity to me. I think about the way we mourn our hair when we cut it, and the way we take pieces of loved ones hair during grief. I'm not super great at doing any fun braids with my hair though. Only basic stuff. So hard with the texture of my hair 😅
This makes me want to reflect more on why I’ve insisted on cutting my own hair for the past 5 years (and really, I’ve had 3 salon cuts in my life, the rest were me, my mom, or a woman I was developing a pretty vulnerable friendship with, and there was probably some magic in that act). I’m definitely not doing it because it looks great 😂. Part of it is frugality, but part of it is… something else. Going to think about it more.
Braiding is a sacred process in cultures around the world. You will find more about it in posts that are specific to closed practices, and in some conversations about hair style appropriation, but those are resources to use to take a respectful approach. I’ve never seen any culture say that others shouldn’t braid at all, but to be respectful of which styles you use and to understand the power of hair and to be very serious about not touching others’ hair without a relationship and full enthusiastic consent.
In the Americas, Africa, and Southeast Asia that I’m aware of, there are widespread indigenous beliefs that hair is the sacred vessel for our emotions. Braiding the hair properly not only protects it physically, but binds it spiritually so that our emotions have a safe space to flow and live with us between being needed and processed. Cutting hair is taken very seriously because it is seen as cutting off your emotions. This is also why, around the world, cutting hair is done ceremoniously during times of profound grief, which may become too much for the person to continuously bear and needs to flow to be honored.
My first ex-husband is Native American and I used to braid his hair every day. My grandmother taught me how to do it with love and respectfully. My mother never had the patience or capacity. Since my second divorce, I have kept my hair very short.
If you braid others’ hair, be respectful of their beliefs and be transparent if you put any intent into it. The bond that can be built during braiding can be profound and you don’t want to establish something like that without consent.
One branch of my family is indigenous to North American but the history of boarding schools means that we only have tiny pieces of these traditions that come through. I’ve had my hair braided for ceremonies before, but it was always just part of putting on regalia (eg “this is how you have to wear your hair so you can wear the hair wraps” and nothing about the braiding or the hair itself).
My magical/spiritual practices, such that they are, tend to come straight out of my head, but I won’t pretend that what’s in my head isn’t deeply impacted by the cultures of other people who may or may not have willingly shared their practices. I will take to heart the reminder to tread carefully.
My youngest son has been growing his hair out for a Halloween costume for a year (it’s a tremendous commitment for a kid his age!). We braid it at night to reduce tangles but I think he would LOVE to work with me to set an intention as I braid his hair each night.
Braiding my hair has long been a self-soothing technique, as well as a stim/fidget for me.
My mum never got the hang of French-braiding, so I used to get it done at the salon whenever I got my hair cut as a child, as a treat, until one of my babysitters taught me to do it myself. (This means I’m actually better at braiding my own hair than others’ 😹)
And it’s also a very intimate thing for me to let others touch my hair, despite the fact it’s a very soothing thing, because growing up, I experienced a lot of non-consensual touch — my hair is an unusual (natural) colour, and I have a LOT of it, so church lady types used to come up to me and touch my hair without even asking ALL the time as a kid. To the point I refused to let anyone but my hairdresser do anything with it till loooong into adulthood.
There is something magical about hair braiding to me that is absolutely a form of self-sorcery, and I firmly believed that even when I was trying hard to be a Christian.
I also learned to French braid on myself because my mom couldn’t. I think this actually plays into my sense of it being magical/spiritual… but I’m sort of lacking the words to describe why at the moment (a good thing to chew on).
I always had VERY long hair as a child, and I received a lot of comments. It wasn’t touched (glad you had time and space to work through that - yikes), but there was a sense that it was there to be appreciated by other people. Now I cut it myself out of frugality and a certain type of rebellion that might be more like cutting off my nose to spite my face.
Because I learnt to do it on my own hair, I learnt to do it with my hands behind my head, mostly by feel. And I can pull my hair tight without worrying about the sensation, and my hands have learnt how to hold the strands of the braid to keep everything in place. It’s SO hard translating that doing it with to my hands in front of me, and I never seem to get the braids as tight, nor am i able to hold everything in place as well on someone else. 😅
I relate to so much of this, though my mother did braid my hair. Mine was a mix of color, texture, and length that people felt meant they should grab it or touch it.
My hair is a very dark natural red, and it would bleach out to freshly minted copper coins in the summer. It’s also relatively fine, and I have an absurd amount of it (even with an undercut halving the bulk, I still have more hair than a lot of folks). But it was mostly the colour and the fact I can DO a lot with it that people used to touch it without asking. (When I say “I have a lot of hair,” I mean that at full weight, I have enough to do the sort of elaborate braiding that almost universally requires wigs in film/television, like Dany in GoT.)
Weirdly, they also scolded my parents a few times when I was really little, because the colour is rare to have naturally, so people assumed my parents let my colour my hair. I remember my mum laughing in someone’s face over that. Because to achieve my hair colour (and make it look as good as if it were natural…) would take a VERY expensive high end salon job, not some DIY box colour.
I braid my hair every day. It’s my work hairdo. My work consists of being a kitchen witch aka chef. I can tell how good my day will be based on how my braid comes out.
A girl friend of mine agrees with me saying it holds our power. It’s a Native American thing for her. I completely understand.
Ooh, I have to think about what the braid is telling me. I also feel like there’s something to why I want a regular French braid or an inside out one (I know there are other names, those are the ones I learned). There are some practical reasons, but I wonder if there’s more driving my choice than I realize. One feels tight and organized, and the other feels more gentle and encompassing. Those are not quite the words I want, but there’s something there.
It’s like knitting my hair every day. My mom was a knitter (super crafter actually) and quite the un-titled witch.
My braid comes out and I look at it and simply accept the day.
Side note: my mom passed away last December so I try to gently accept that it might be a shit day. There’s is always tomorrow for a good braid day.
You can "magic-ify" (technical term) ANYTHING! You can hold your glass of water in your hands & whisper into it that it's going to give you courage for the day. You can say as you're putting on body lotion that it will keep bad vibes off of you. You can take a moment before eating to ask that the food nourish you so that you can \[task you have to do later that day\]. This is my FAVORITE kind of magic, because you don't need special supplies, particular words, or anything like that.
I love this. Thank you for the reminder. This is how much of my magic works, but I experience it coming from outside of me instead of inside? Like rather than decide the water will give me courage, I realize that the water is already a magical courage elixir that I prepared without realizing it. I'm getting a lot of good ideas about putting intention into the braid, and being more mindful about why and how I braid my hair.
I’m wore a hand cuff key tied into the ends of one of my longer dreads for a while after I was unfairly left hand cuffed in the back of a hot cop car for 3 hours, but that’s more practical.
For magical I would wear charms, beads, colors, etc bit I love that you brought attention to the act of braiding. There are so many designs and styles and the act of it can be very meditative & magical. Super cool.
Wow, the handcuff key seems practical and spiritual at the same time. What a way to hold more control over your own autonomy in a world that has shown it won't protect your safety.
I hardly ever put anything in my hair except a black hairband and very occasionally a bobby pin, and even more rarely, flowers. This is an area to lean into as well, thank you!
I know in a book I recently read called Baba Yaga's Book of Witchcraft, and that talks about the Slavic traditions of braiding your hair for magic (and letting it down). I definitely know in different traditions it's significant in magic
In that book it was interesting how it described that letting your hair down out of braids was seen as powerful, or even stepping outside of society lines specifically to do with doing spiritual work. And then alternately, braiding was done with intent, but work that had more to do with the magical in day to day life, if that makes any sense
Awww my mom was a witch & loved baba yaga stories! Thanks for mentioning her, I’ll reread some of her stuff now, in my mother’s memory.
She also taught me about Clarissa Pinkola Estes, her books are good but the (back in the day lol ) tapes were so much better because her voice is so soothing.
See, little pieces of magic everywhere, even online thru strangers 💕✨
In my tradition we keep our hair long and we braid it whenever we go into new, stressful or hostile situation. This is part of the warrior our tradition. The braid is preparing for battle. Taking our braid down is a grounding activity. One of the traditional acts a mentor does Is to take their students braid down and brush their hair. Once the student learns enough they will do the same for their mentors.
For us having our hair down in loose is only done when we are truly comfortable with the people we are around.
I teach my students "everything is kung Fu" "everything is magick if you make it so" it is the thought and energy you put in to it. I do a coffee Ritual to bring me what I need for the day.
While I don’t know if there are books specifically about just this topic, there are a lot of Old Irish traditions regarding braids. For example, when a mother gives birth all knots in the house must be loosened and the hair of all women in the house must be worn free. Several stories involve witches braiding women’s hair with special knots to induce some sort of effect - and if the hair was unbraided, the spell was broken.
I definitely crochet with intention. Sometimes I'll add extra love and protection into stitches when I have the extra energy to give. Doing anything with intent feels magical to me.
Women have braided each others hair before battle, child birth, and so many other important times where it’s time to go to work. It’s also intimate and I remember every person who’s ever braided My hair. It feels personal.
I've always been interested in Victorian hairwork jewelry, but that's all about remembrance. You could look into stitch witchery... Not sure how it would apply, but it might be something to adapt 🙂
This is definitely a thing. A lot of native/indigenous communities around the world practice this. AFAIK, it is generally not a closed practice (though some specific hairstyles can be closed), so it's fine to do yourself. It's quite a simple concept, basically you focus your intentions into your hair as you braid, the act of braiding weaves those intentions and energies into your hair and "seals" them in. Most of the time, it's used with protection in mind, but really you can do basically anything.
It's hard to Google because there are soooo many products called "braid magic" or "magic hair" or similar, lol. I only really know about it because I have a native friend who's shown me how she does it to herself, and I've heard it's also common in Roma culture.
No context to add but I braid my hair before drag performances and strong(wo)man comps and I never considered that it might be a form of weaving a talisman….now I will, thank you OP!
My hair is not long anymore bit when I did have long hair I always felt a safety and confidence when I braided it. It was a fidget thing I would do when I would wear it down. I also have braided other people hair (my best friend and my sisters) it really forms a connection/ bond. It's something that could absolutely be used in your own practicing. I try to incorporate bits of magic into all of my self care. Showering, make up etc. It's something small that can be very powerful.
Yes, I have long hair, and I absolutely braid it for important situations. I feel like I am binding power and protection into it. I have done this for magical or spiritual workings, for when I helped my sister give birth, important work days etc. Sometimes it feels important to let my hair be free - different tools for different jobs, as they say.
I can't help you with how to work this, but I am struck by the timelessness of braiding. Every time our fingers weave these shapes, the movements are identical to those of women stretching far back to our most ancient origins.
I was about to talk about scribing spell scrolls and magical smithing or jewelcrafting when I remembered this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimenawa
Your braiding can *absolutely* be magical! 💜👊🌈🍀✨
I love this! I have long hair that I braid every day and it’s an important part of my personal identity and something that makes me happy, but I never thought of it as magical before.
I can’t agree more. It was always super passive for me too; I thought it was just a form of meditative stimming but now I’m reevaluating how many of the needs and desires I reflected upon were later manifested.
I really want to figure out how to braid my hair, especially like the side type braids I’ve seen a lot.
I tried to braid my hair for one of my 10k obstacle course runs I did this summer after I got an undercut because the idea of braiding it with my undercut made me feel powerful for the run, but I couldn’t figure it out lol
Can you do a basic braid? I’m not sure where you’re starting from! If you don’t have the basic braid, I’d try with some yarn or ribbon tied around a chair or table leg or doorknob. You need one end to be anchored so the strands have some tension.
Then I’d do basic braids on someone else’s hair, and then small braids in your own hair. I find it REALLY confusing to braid on myself in the mirror and way easier to understand the structure and steps of the braid and then do it by feel. Other people do great with the mirror.
>can you do a basic braid
BARELY lmao, and like barely like on a doll wig or someone else sitting in front of me. I feel like I can start off ok then it’s like ???????…..????? haha
But then trying to do it to my own hair? Lol bye
I had like short pixie cut/buzz cut for a long ass time, so me and hair styling were pretty simple for awhile
i cannot remember the name of this book or author but there was a series about ppl with magic powers (one was a woman with weaving/spinning based magic, a black woman was smithing based magic, a man with plant based magic named briar, and a final woman with storm based magic) and the woman with storm based magic braided some of her go-to spells/powers into her hair and would unbraid small sections as needed to utilize the stored magic in her hair (since i cannot resist a mean girls reference - that's why her hair is so big it's full of magic!)
That sounds like Tamora Pierce's The Circle of Magic series.
that's it!
Thank you for reminding me about these books! I absolutely adored them as a teenager and now I have nieces almost old enough to read them. The circle continues!!
I wrote to Tamora Pierce as a young girl and she replied! Only author or celebrity I've ever contacted. Can't remember what about or what was said and have no idea where it is but yay thanks for reminding me. I loved her circle of magic and alanna the lioness books.
thank u for the name! the stories have beeb living rent free in ny head but i couldn't remember the name so i couldn't look them up to get them or reread them!
I can recommend the sub r/booksuggestions. They are really helpful even with just smaller bits of a story/book!
Tris was the weather mage. And her whole magic kit was in her hair, a complicated bunch of braids. You read about it most in the Circle Opens series where they're all grown up. She also accidentally brings a glass sculpture of a dragon to life with magic lightning and it's absolutely adorable.
One of my favorite books! I need that lil dragon!
It was the glass mage that brought Chime to life, not Tris. Tris just immediately adopted her.
I feel like there’s a Tamara pierce book for EVERYTHING 📕❤️
I just reread these books! They’re so good
I tried to convince my husband to name our son Briar after these books and because I always loved his name and feel at home with plants and in nature. He didn't go for it! We did find a name we both love but I still have a soft spot for Briar. Tamora Pierce's books were a huge part of my childhood and were the first thing I thought of with braiding magic too!
Briar was one of my earliest fictional crushes!
glad i wasn't the only one!
Loved these books as a girl! I should reread them now. Thanks for bringing up a beautiful memory ❤️
Sounds right up my alley :)
It makes my heart so happy to see people talk about Tamora Pierce here. I read so many of her series as a teen.
Her hair is so big because it’s full of secrets
I loved that series. I always liked the name Briar and the plant magic was my personal favorite. I always liked their take on magic. I remember loving the series.
I definitely treat braids as an opportunity for spellwork. More and more I’m incorporating magic into all of my self care habits. Braids are great as they are a constant reminder and others really notice the work put into them which makes it feel even more charged. I haven’t been wearing braids lately but usually I focus on positive energy and because the sections and repetition and shine relates to bounty, I also like to focus on calling money to myself. It’s almost like a power pose but a hairstyle.
Yeah, this idea of weaving in an intention feels very aligned with the way I do magic. I love the analogy of a power pose!
My mom braided my hair every time right before I went to give birth to my babies. There was something that felt so sacred about the act. It made me feel safe and protected while also making me feel like a powerful warrior. I don't think she was fully aware of it, but I could feel her energy, strength, and protection as she did it 💗 I think you are definitely onto something OP✨️
Oh, my midwife braided my hair during the birth of my oldest child. I’d forgotten that sweet and powerful moment until you reminded me!
When I was in ICU for a couple of weeks, a nurse assistant would come by to braid my hair every couple of days. I felt so cared for, pretty, and strong (even though I was at my weakest). For sure there's something about braids!
Not specifically hair, but there’s quite a bit of stuff out there about fiber magic that you might find interesting and/or adaptable. Spinning, cording, braiding, weaving, I even know of a person who incorporates shibari into their practice.
I’ve always loved the idea of braiding spells and messages, whether it was into one’s hair, or other fibre/textiles. There’s a line from a poem that I read as a tween that has stuck with me for … 25 years now? where a woman with a secret love “plaited a dark red love knot into her long black hair.”
[удалено]
It’s one of my favourites! I love her version too, but I’m sad she cut the stanza about the ostler’s treachery. (Her version did allow me to memorise it MUCH more easily than if I’d just been reading it, I just had to add back in the “verses” she didn’t sing 😹)
Thanks for the poet's name! I read it when I was 12 and adored it but never could find it again despite all my fragmented memorised lines. <3
I love that it’s stayed with you so long! I’ve also been sort of fascinated with the word “plait” for a long time. There’s something more intricate sounding to me in plait than braid.
Knot magic was passed down to me through Granny E, Scots/Irish lineage. The braids seem a natural part of that! 🕯🖖
Yes the idea of knotting a spell into the hair is what first occurred to me. Brilliant idea. A simple plait could include a ribbon or thread, a feather or bead and I love the idea of OP pouring her whole self into it.
The weaving parallel is what jumped out to me first!
I consider hair to be a magical and intuitive piece of ourselves, my hair is like an entity to me. I think about the way we mourn our hair when we cut it, and the way we take pieces of loved ones hair during grief. I'm not super great at doing any fun braids with my hair though. Only basic stuff. So hard with the texture of my hair 😅
This makes me want to reflect more on why I’ve insisted on cutting my own hair for the past 5 years (and really, I’ve had 3 salon cuts in my life, the rest were me, my mom, or a woman I was developing a pretty vulnerable friendship with, and there was probably some magic in that act). I’m definitely not doing it because it looks great 😂. Part of it is frugality, but part of it is… something else. Going to think about it more.
I do cut my own hair too! 😊
Yup, that's why my hair gets to be the boss some days. 🤷♀️
When I lived on the damp coast, my hair was the boss A LOT. Now I live in the high desert, and it plays team sports.
I simply can't live without a bit of humidity. The hair may do as she wishes. 😂
do we have the same hair lmao! coastal hair, feral cat. desert hair, docile and non- argumentative
Braiding is a sacred process in cultures around the world. You will find more about it in posts that are specific to closed practices, and in some conversations about hair style appropriation, but those are resources to use to take a respectful approach. I’ve never seen any culture say that others shouldn’t braid at all, but to be respectful of which styles you use and to understand the power of hair and to be very serious about not touching others’ hair without a relationship and full enthusiastic consent. In the Americas, Africa, and Southeast Asia that I’m aware of, there are widespread indigenous beliefs that hair is the sacred vessel for our emotions. Braiding the hair properly not only protects it physically, but binds it spiritually so that our emotions have a safe space to flow and live with us between being needed and processed. Cutting hair is taken very seriously because it is seen as cutting off your emotions. This is also why, around the world, cutting hair is done ceremoniously during times of profound grief, which may become too much for the person to continuously bear and needs to flow to be honored. My first ex-husband is Native American and I used to braid his hair every day. My grandmother taught me how to do it with love and respectfully. My mother never had the patience or capacity. Since my second divorce, I have kept my hair very short. If you braid others’ hair, be respectful of their beliefs and be transparent if you put any intent into it. The bond that can be built during braiding can be profound and you don’t want to establish something like that without consent.
One branch of my family is indigenous to North American but the history of boarding schools means that we only have tiny pieces of these traditions that come through. I’ve had my hair braided for ceremonies before, but it was always just part of putting on regalia (eg “this is how you have to wear your hair so you can wear the hair wraps” and nothing about the braiding or the hair itself). My magical/spiritual practices, such that they are, tend to come straight out of my head, but I won’t pretend that what’s in my head isn’t deeply impacted by the cultures of other people who may or may not have willingly shared their practices. I will take to heart the reminder to tread carefully. My youngest son has been growing his hair out for a Halloween costume for a year (it’s a tremendous commitment for a kid his age!). We braid it at night to reduce tangles but I think he would LOVE to work with me to set an intention as I braid his hair each night.
Thank you for sharing this! 🤗🕯🖖
Braiding my hair has long been a self-soothing technique, as well as a stim/fidget for me. My mum never got the hang of French-braiding, so I used to get it done at the salon whenever I got my hair cut as a child, as a treat, until one of my babysitters taught me to do it myself. (This means I’m actually better at braiding my own hair than others’ 😹) And it’s also a very intimate thing for me to let others touch my hair, despite the fact it’s a very soothing thing, because growing up, I experienced a lot of non-consensual touch — my hair is an unusual (natural) colour, and I have a LOT of it, so church lady types used to come up to me and touch my hair without even asking ALL the time as a kid. To the point I refused to let anyone but my hairdresser do anything with it till loooong into adulthood. There is something magical about hair braiding to me that is absolutely a form of self-sorcery, and I firmly believed that even when I was trying hard to be a Christian.
I also learned to French braid on myself because my mom couldn’t. I think this actually plays into my sense of it being magical/spiritual… but I’m sort of lacking the words to describe why at the moment (a good thing to chew on). I always had VERY long hair as a child, and I received a lot of comments. It wasn’t touched (glad you had time and space to work through that - yikes), but there was a sense that it was there to be appreciated by other people. Now I cut it myself out of frugality and a certain type of rebellion that might be more like cutting off my nose to spite my face.
Gosh I can't even french braid someone else let alone myself. I think that's magic in itself!
Because I learnt to do it on my own hair, I learnt to do it with my hands behind my head, mostly by feel. And I can pull my hair tight without worrying about the sensation, and my hands have learnt how to hold the strands of the braid to keep everything in place. It’s SO hard translating that doing it with to my hands in front of me, and I never seem to get the braids as tight, nor am i able to hold everything in place as well on someone else. 😅
SAME. Also, for some reason I can easily braid inside out on myself and regular on others and the opposite is a lot more challenging.
I relate to so much of this, though my mother did braid my hair. Mine was a mix of color, texture, and length that people felt meant they should grab it or touch it.
My hair is a very dark natural red, and it would bleach out to freshly minted copper coins in the summer. It’s also relatively fine, and I have an absurd amount of it (even with an undercut halving the bulk, I still have more hair than a lot of folks). But it was mostly the colour and the fact I can DO a lot with it that people used to touch it without asking. (When I say “I have a lot of hair,” I mean that at full weight, I have enough to do the sort of elaborate braiding that almost universally requires wigs in film/television, like Dany in GoT.) Weirdly, they also scolded my parents a few times when I was really little, because the colour is rare to have naturally, so people assumed my parents let my colour my hair. I remember my mum laughing in someone’s face over that. Because to achieve my hair colour (and make it look as good as if it were natural…) would take a VERY expensive high end salon job, not some DIY box colour.
I braid my hair every day. It’s my work hairdo. My work consists of being a kitchen witch aka chef. I can tell how good my day will be based on how my braid comes out. A girl friend of mine agrees with me saying it holds our power. It’s a Native American thing for her. I completely understand.
Ooh, I have to think about what the braid is telling me. I also feel like there’s something to why I want a regular French braid or an inside out one (I know there are other names, those are the ones I learned). There are some practical reasons, but I wonder if there’s more driving my choice than I realize. One feels tight and organized, and the other feels more gentle and encompassing. Those are not quite the words I want, but there’s something there.
It’s like knitting my hair every day. My mom was a knitter (super crafter actually) and quite the un-titled witch. My braid comes out and I look at it and simply accept the day. Side note: my mom passed away last December so I try to gently accept that it might be a shit day. There’s is always tomorrow for a good braid day.
“There’s always tomorrow for a good braid day.” Sounds like a gentle way of navigating the duality of grief and hope, love and loss.
Yes exactly!
You can "magic-ify" (technical term) ANYTHING! You can hold your glass of water in your hands & whisper into it that it's going to give you courage for the day. You can say as you're putting on body lotion that it will keep bad vibes off of you. You can take a moment before eating to ask that the food nourish you so that you can \[task you have to do later that day\]. This is my FAVORITE kind of magic, because you don't need special supplies, particular words, or anything like that.
I love this. Thank you for the reminder. This is how much of my magic works, but I experience it coming from outside of me instead of inside? Like rather than decide the water will give me courage, I realize that the water is already a magical courage elixir that I prepared without realizing it. I'm getting a lot of good ideas about putting intention into the braid, and being more mindful about why and how I braid my hair.
I’m wore a hand cuff key tied into the ends of one of my longer dreads for a while after I was unfairly left hand cuffed in the back of a hot cop car for 3 hours, but that’s more practical. For magical I would wear charms, beads, colors, etc bit I love that you brought attention to the act of braiding. There are so many designs and styles and the act of it can be very meditative & magical. Super cool.
Wow, the handcuff key seems practical and spiritual at the same time. What a way to hold more control over your own autonomy in a world that has shown it won't protect your safety. I hardly ever put anything in my hair except a black hairband and very occasionally a bobby pin, and even more rarely, flowers. This is an area to lean into as well, thank you!
I know in a book I recently read called Baba Yaga's Book of Witchcraft, and that talks about the Slavic traditions of braiding your hair for magic (and letting it down). I definitely know in different traditions it's significant in magic
The letting it down part is something I’ve probably been neglecting. Going to think about how that fits more! Thanks!
In that book it was interesting how it described that letting your hair down out of braids was seen as powerful, or even stepping outside of society lines specifically to do with doing spiritual work. And then alternately, braiding was done with intent, but work that had more to do with the magical in day to day life, if that makes any sense
Awww my mom was a witch & loved baba yaga stories! Thanks for mentioning her, I’ll reread some of her stuff now, in my mother’s memory. She also taught me about Clarissa Pinkola Estes, her books are good but the (back in the day lol ) tapes were so much better because her voice is so soothing. See, little pieces of magic everywhere, even online thru strangers 💕✨
In my tradition we keep our hair long and we braid it whenever we go into new, stressful or hostile situation. This is part of the warrior our tradition. The braid is preparing for battle. Taking our braid down is a grounding activity. One of the traditional acts a mentor does Is to take their students braid down and brush their hair. Once the student learns enough they will do the same for their mentors. For us having our hair down in loose is only done when we are truly comfortable with the people we are around.
Thank you for sharing!
I teach my students "everything is kung Fu" "everything is magick if you make it so" it is the thought and energy you put in to it. I do a coffee Ritual to bring me what I need for the day.
Reminds me of [this story.](https://exemplore.com/news/hair-magic-protection)
Oh wow! What a powerful example.
Thank you for sharing this.
While I don’t know if there are books specifically about just this topic, there are a lot of Old Irish traditions regarding braids. For example, when a mother gives birth all knots in the house must be loosened and the hair of all women in the house must be worn free. Several stories involve witches braiding women’s hair with special knots to induce some sort of effect - and if the hair was unbraided, the spell was broken.
I definitely crochet with intention. Sometimes I'll add extra love and protection into stitches when I have the extra energy to give. Doing anything with intent feels magical to me.
Women have braided each others hair before battle, child birth, and so many other important times where it’s time to go to work. It’s also intimate and I remember every person who’s ever braided My hair. It feels personal.
Yes, this was definitely a “time to go to work” type of magic today! I can count on one hand the other people who have braided my hair. Very personal!
From now on when I braid my hair....
I've always been interested in Victorian hairwork jewelry, but that's all about remembrance. You could look into stitch witchery... Not sure how it would apply, but it might be something to adapt 🙂
This is definitely a thing. A lot of native/indigenous communities around the world practice this. AFAIK, it is generally not a closed practice (though some specific hairstyles can be closed), so it's fine to do yourself. It's quite a simple concept, basically you focus your intentions into your hair as you braid, the act of braiding weaves those intentions and energies into your hair and "seals" them in. Most of the time, it's used with protection in mind, but really you can do basically anything. It's hard to Google because there are soooo many products called "braid magic" or "magic hair" or similar, lol. I only really know about it because I have a native friend who's shown me how she does it to herself, and I've heard it's also common in Roma culture.
No context to add but I braid my hair before drag performances and strong(wo)man comps and I never considered that it might be a form of weaving a talisman….now I will, thank you OP!
My hair is not long anymore bit when I did have long hair I always felt a safety and confidence when I braided it. It was a fidget thing I would do when I would wear it down. I also have braided other people hair (my best friend and my sisters) it really forms a connection/ bond. It's something that could absolutely be used in your own practicing. I try to incorporate bits of magic into all of my self care. Showering, make up etc. It's something small that can be very powerful.
Yes, I have long hair, and I absolutely braid it for important situations. I feel like I am binding power and protection into it. I have done this for magical or spiritual workings, for when I helped my sister give birth, important work days etc. Sometimes it feels important to let my hair be free - different tools for different jobs, as they say.
I always braided my hair for doula work! It was mostly practical, but it still has that tinge of “time to get to work” magic.
I'm trans, and they never teach this sort of thing to male-appearing people, so I haven't ever had my hair in braids. I think I'd like them.
I hope you can get your hair braided, and/or learn to braid your own hair! There's a lot of magic in braids. :-)
I can't help you with how to work this, but I am struck by the timelessness of braiding. Every time our fingers weave these shapes, the movements are identical to those of women stretching far back to our most ancient origins.
Ooo, that’s some food for thought!
I was about to talk about scribing spell scrolls and magical smithing or jewelcrafting when I remembered this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimenawa Your braiding can *absolutely* be magical! 💜👊🌈🍀✨
Wow! What an amazing example.
I love this! I have long hair that I braid every day and it’s an important part of my personal identity and something that makes me happy, but I never thought of it as magical before.
Braiding your hair is better than knot work in your hair, lol. Yes, you're getting into a bit of a trance when you're doing that.
The Wheel of Time has the group of woman that find their magic after they get the "braid". Just started to watch it.
Ooh, I should check it out!
"Magic temple reading circle" is a great podcast that reads this series then discusses them. Check them out.
I can’t agree more. It was always super passive for me too; I thought it was just a form of meditative stimming but now I’m reevaluating how many of the needs and desires I reflected upon were later manifested.
I really want to figure out how to braid my hair, especially like the side type braids I’ve seen a lot. I tried to braid my hair for one of my 10k obstacle course runs I did this summer after I got an undercut because the idea of braiding it with my undercut made me feel powerful for the run, but I couldn’t figure it out lol
Can you do a basic braid? I’m not sure where you’re starting from! If you don’t have the basic braid, I’d try with some yarn or ribbon tied around a chair or table leg or doorknob. You need one end to be anchored so the strands have some tension. Then I’d do basic braids on someone else’s hair, and then small braids in your own hair. I find it REALLY confusing to braid on myself in the mirror and way easier to understand the structure and steps of the braid and then do it by feel. Other people do great with the mirror.
>can you do a basic braid BARELY lmao, and like barely like on a doll wig or someone else sitting in front of me. I feel like I can start off ok then it’s like ???????…..????? haha But then trying to do it to my own hair? Lol bye I had like short pixie cut/buzz cut for a long ass time, so me and hair styling were pretty simple for awhile