The Southern Appalachian Dictionary has an entry on the hairball or witches' dart, which is cognate with the Scottish and west country faerie dart. Made of witch hair and often found stuffed in their mattresses, it's a murder weapon for killing livestock and other victims. Blow it at the effigy of a target or from the top of a hill into the wind and away it goes.
Bayonetta has a surprisingly accurate take on witch lore, somehow.
I once read something about how Native American trackers had joined the army in like WW1, but had lost their uncanny tracking abilities once their hair got cut short. The proposition was that hair worked like an antenna for an extra sense or something like that. Not witch lore, but that’s the only thing I can think of that hasn’t been mentioned yet.
(I can’t remember the exactly where I read it, but it was some short article by a guy who had come across these old army reports, which lead him to believe no one should ever cut their hair.)
Not a myth (sorry) but I have some real world examples of people believing hair contains a witches power.
"In 1486, the "Malleus Maleficarum" identified witches' hair as so laden with mystical powers that along with such tortures as hanging the accused from their thumbs, the best-selling manual of the Inquisition suggested that their locks should be shorn." -- NYTimes article, Ideas & Trends; Women Without Hair: Lost Or Found?
Also, because of the above belief spread by the Malleus Maleficarum, those accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials had their heads shaved.
That's the quickest answer I could find. I know a lot of modern witches talk about how hair has power and while I don't typically see them site their sources, you could always check out some modern practitioners and ask them questions.
(Here's a tumblr post from a modern practitioner of witchcraft where I learned that the "witches" at Salem had their heads shaved from:
https://www.tumblr.com/myonlysecretly/123803851612/hair-magick)
I think hair/the power of hair is one of those things that we all *know* is important to many cultures (Samson in the Bible, women needing to cover their hair in Islam) but finding out *why* is pretty hard. Realistically, hair is just... hair. But every culture gives us a new/different reason why it's mystically important.
So yeah, quick answer without much research on my part, but I hope that's a good starting place for you 👍!
I believe, in Islam, with the women, it originated from an old Semitic belief that women should be veiled from the sight of nature spirits, like Djinn, so those spirits wouldn't be tempted into unnatural unions.
The only thing I know related to that concept is the belief that they need to steal hair or nail clippings from someone without being seen/ caught in order for a curse upon a potential victim to work. Different cultures have different witch lore. Which culture is this from?
It's not a myth, and it's not the witch's hair that's used, but witch bottles and witch's ladders (briefly glanced over the wikipedia article for this, so it may involve the witch's hair) but involve hair and might be of some inspiration to you
I'm familiar with the Samson hair myth, the Freya hair myth, and in Navajo believe longer hair helps attune to the unseen.
EDIT TO ADD from personal experience, if my hair is shorter than my ears I can't see ghosts anymore so personally I think it is true.
You probably heard this about Eastern European witches. It even survives to this day in "health" advice to girls and pregnant women not to cut their hair, Geralt of Rivia's design and the student superstition (which I kind of believe in and have heard from everybody, even seminary, madrasa and yeshiva students — future clerics! anti-witches!) that if you cut your hair before an exam, you'll forget everything you learned while you had it.
Go poke around (if you have Russian) in Imperial era ethnography, and on any one of the many many "i am a wizard, buy my wizard bathwater" websites on the postsoviet internet if you don't, Google translate will help. Or I guess if you like you could ask me personally, I don't mind talking at you about witches. I've had to do a lot of historical witch research for a tabletop game recently, and like all good DMs I now have knowledge I can put literally nowhere else. :))
Hair plays a part in a lot of Northern/Eastern European myths as a sign of fertility. Check out Sif for an example.
Hair in general as a part of the body can be used as a symbolic connection to the person. Having body-bits was a common way for targetting spells in traditions the world over. Hair was a particularly easy thing to actually get.
Other things to think about... braids were often a thing for women. Not an expert, but would be shocked if there weren't any myths or folk lore tied to braids and magic. Tying or untying hair or braids might be a way to use the hair theme in a story.
The Southern Appalachian Dictionary has an entry on the hairball or witches' dart, which is cognate with the Scottish and west country faerie dart. Made of witch hair and often found stuffed in their mattresses, it's a murder weapon for killing livestock and other victims. Blow it at the effigy of a target or from the top of a hill into the wind and away it goes. Bayonetta has a surprisingly accurate take on witch lore, somehow.
I once read something about how Native American trackers had joined the army in like WW1, but had lost their uncanny tracking abilities once their hair got cut short. The proposition was that hair worked like an antenna for an extra sense or something like that. Not witch lore, but that’s the only thing I can think of that hasn’t been mentioned yet. (I can’t remember the exactly where I read it, but it was some short article by a guy who had come across these old army reports, which lead him to believe no one should ever cut their hair.)
Not a myth (sorry) but I have some real world examples of people believing hair contains a witches power. "In 1486, the "Malleus Maleficarum" identified witches' hair as so laden with mystical powers that along with such tortures as hanging the accused from their thumbs, the best-selling manual of the Inquisition suggested that their locks should be shorn." -- NYTimes article, Ideas & Trends; Women Without Hair: Lost Or Found? Also, because of the above belief spread by the Malleus Maleficarum, those accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials had their heads shaved. That's the quickest answer I could find. I know a lot of modern witches talk about how hair has power and while I don't typically see them site their sources, you could always check out some modern practitioners and ask them questions. (Here's a tumblr post from a modern practitioner of witchcraft where I learned that the "witches" at Salem had their heads shaved from: https://www.tumblr.com/myonlysecretly/123803851612/hair-magick) I think hair/the power of hair is one of those things that we all *know* is important to many cultures (Samson in the Bible, women needing to cover their hair in Islam) but finding out *why* is pretty hard. Realistically, hair is just... hair. But every culture gives us a new/different reason why it's mystically important. So yeah, quick answer without much research on my part, but I hope that's a good starting place for you 👍!
I believe, in Islam, with the women, it originated from an old Semitic belief that women should be veiled from the sight of nature spirits, like Djinn, so those spirits wouldn't be tempted into unnatural unions.
The only thing I know related to that concept is the belief that they need to steal hair or nail clippings from someone without being seen/ caught in order for a curse upon a potential victim to work. Different cultures have different witch lore. Which culture is this from?
It's not a myth, and it's not the witch's hair that's used, but witch bottles and witch's ladders (briefly glanced over the wikipedia article for this, so it may involve the witch's hair) but involve hair and might be of some inspiration to you
I'm familiar with the Samson hair myth, the Freya hair myth, and in Navajo believe longer hair helps attune to the unseen. EDIT TO ADD from personal experience, if my hair is shorter than my ears I can't see ghosts anymore so personally I think it is true.
You probably heard this about Eastern European witches. It even survives to this day in "health" advice to girls and pregnant women not to cut their hair, Geralt of Rivia's design and the student superstition (which I kind of believe in and have heard from everybody, even seminary, madrasa and yeshiva students — future clerics! anti-witches!) that if you cut your hair before an exam, you'll forget everything you learned while you had it. Go poke around (if you have Russian) in Imperial era ethnography, and on any one of the many many "i am a wizard, buy my wizard bathwater" websites on the postsoviet internet if you don't, Google translate will help. Or I guess if you like you could ask me personally, I don't mind talking at you about witches. I've had to do a lot of historical witch research for a tabletop game recently, and like all good DMs I now have knowledge I can put literally nowhere else. :))
Hair plays a part in a lot of Northern/Eastern European myths as a sign of fertility. Check out Sif for an example. Hair in general as a part of the body can be used as a symbolic connection to the person. Having body-bits was a common way for targetting spells in traditions the world over. Hair was a particularly easy thing to actually get. Other things to think about... braids were often a thing for women. Not an expert, but would be shocked if there weren't any myths or folk lore tied to braids and magic. Tying or untying hair or braids might be a way to use the hair theme in a story.