The hair-quotes thread!

[SwordWomanRiona]

I thought it might be interesting and fun if we shared (and commented) those hair-quotes that we encounter in books and highlight -Do admit it, fellow LHC's, you highlight them :D. Personally, I love it when anyone speaks about (long) hair in a book!

So, I'll begin (if the quote isn't all about hair, the 'hair-info' can be set in italics, how about that?):

"She [Morgause] was a tall, sturdy girl, just beginning to lengthen and ripen into womanhood. Her thick hair was reddish like Igraine's own (...)"

"She found her carven horn comb, and began to pull it through her hair, sitting on a bench and working her comb patiently through the tangles. (...) Igraine braided her hair, clasped it on top of her head with a gold clasp (...)"

(Marion Zimmer Bradley - [I]The Mists of Avalon, Book 1, chapter 1)

Morgause and Igraine's red hair is also gorgeous in the series, imo :).

[Freckled.Thing]

I think this thread is a great idea! I'm going to post a few quotes from Crown Duel, by Sherwood Smith. This is the book that has made me want long hair ever since I was a little kid.

"With a sigh of relief I untucked the end of my braid and let it roll down my back behind me. Perching on a camp stool, I shut my eyes and sat in silence as Oria patiently fingered the long braid braid apart and then brushed it out until it lay in a shining cloak down nearly to my knees."

"'A shame you have to put it up again' she said, smiling.'It's so pretty--the color of autmn leaves.'"

"My fingers worked quickly from old habit as I braided it up again, wrapped it twice around my head, and tucked the end in."


The same author wrote another book in which the protagonist has long hair too, called Coronets and Steel. I'm sure I could find plenty of other awesome quotes too, but I'm at college now and most of my books are still at home.

[luxepiggy]

"She wore her hair in a large complicated bun that seemed like it might, with a little breeze, unravel into a heap of voluptuous curls (it never did)" - Entre Nous by Debra Ollivier

I love the visual I get when I read that line . . . it sounds like the coolest updo ever (^(oo)^)

[Long_Curls]

Have to love this one for the longhairs:

"My concern today is not with the length of a person's hair but with his conduct."
Richard Nixon.

"Did you just call my hair furry?"
Myself with short hair talking to a clueless hairdresser.

Some good ones here:

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/hair.html

[Freckled.Thing]

"She wore her hair in a large complicated bun that seemed like it might, with a little breeze, unravel into a heap of voluptuous curls (it never did)" - Entre Nous by Debra Ollivier

I love the visual I get when I read that line . . . it sounds like the coolest updo ever (^(oo)^)

Wow, this is fantastic. Thanks for sharing. :D

[Becky9679]

Two spring to mind:

"I don't advise a haircut, man. All hairdressers are in the employment of the government. Hairs are your aerials. They pick up signals from the cosmos and transmit them directly into the brain. This is the reason bald-headed men are uptight." - Danny from the film 'Withnail and I.

The other is the poem 'I Love My Love' by Helen Adam, I literally cannot pick a favourite quote from it as the entire thing is incredible so instead I'm going to link to the whole poem (I would reproduce it here but I'm not entirely sure about copyright issues).

Anyway, here it is: 'I Love My Love' (http://faculty.pittstate.edu/~knichols/lizzie.html#helen)

[Yozhik]

I love to read about hair in books. :heart:

Often, though, I shudder because of how the heroines treat their hair (ex. in Diana Gabaldon's time-traveling series, there's a scene where the heroine is sitting in front of a mirror brushing her hair so vigorously it crackles :scared:).

One poem I thought of isn't so much about hair as about a comb, but I think the imagery is great.

Excerpt from Gwendolyn Brooks' "Sadie and Maud"

"Maud went to college.
Sadie stayed home.
Sadie scraped life
With a fine toothed comb.

She didn't leave a tangle in
Her comb found every strand.
Sadie was one of the livingest chicks
In all the land."

[SwordWomanRiona]

Those are lovely, keep them coming!! :D


I think this thread is a great idea! I'm going to post a few quotes from Crown Duel, by Sherwood Smith. This is the book that has made me want long hair ever since I was a little kid.

"With a sigh of relief I untucked the end of my braid and let it roll down my back behind me. Perching on a camp stool, I shut my eyes and sat in silence as Oria patiently fingered the long braid braid apart and then brushed it out until it lay in a shining cloak down nearly to my knees."

"'A shame you have to put it up again' she said, smiling.'It's so pretty--the color of autmn leaves.'"

"My fingers worked quickly from old habit as I braided it up again, wrapped it twice around my head, and tucked the end in."

"A shining cloak down nearly to my knees" ! :crush:


"She wore her hair in a large complicated bun that seemed like it might, with a little breeze, unravel into a heap of voluptuous curls (it never did)" - Entre Nous by Debra Ollivier

I love the visual I get when I read that line . . . it sounds like the coolest updo ever (^(oo)^)

I love it too! :)


Some good ones here:

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/hair.html

Not really hair-related, but I love the John Lennon quote. That's my ideal too.


The other is the poem 'I Love My Love' by Helen Adam, I literally cannot pick a favourite quote from it as the entire thing is incredible so instead I'm going to link to the whole poem (I would reproduce it here but I'm not entirely sure about copyright issues).

Anyway, here it is: 'I Love My Love' (http://faculty.pittstate.edu/~knichols/lizzie.html#helen)

Well, if we quote the book and the author, I think it would be fine...


I love to read about hair in books. :heart:

Often, though, I shudder because of how the heroines treat their hair (ex. in Diana Gabaldon's time-traveling series, there's a scene where the heroine is sitting in front of a mirror brushing her hair so vigorously it crackles :scared:).

Same here! In that quote about Igraine combing her hair, I was thinking 'What are you doing?! Shouldn't you finde-detangle when you find a snarl?!" :D

[moxamoll]

"Absently, she unpinned the braid wrapped around her head and began to unweave it, eyes sharp on the still figure of the man... He regarded her blandly, noting the set of her shoulders and the deceptively gentle motion of her hands as she braided her hair, and recalled her efficient during the fire-fight... She finished her braid, put a knot at the end, and flipped the length behind her shoulder, one slender hand coming to rest on her gun."

Agent of Change, Steve Miller and Sharon Lee

I love the whole Liaden novel series and Miri's hair makes repeated appearances. In one of the later books, he's giving her a hard time about being a mercenary with long hair and she's "well, my sergeant never told me to cut it!" LOL

[SwordWomanRiona]

I'm reading again through The Mists of Avalon, highlighting every single hair-quote :D, so here are a few new ones:

- "Morgause leaned her silky red head on Viviane's knee. The priestess held the little one with one arm while her free hand stroked the half-grown girl's long, silky hair."

[Marion Zimmer Bradley - The Mists of Avalon, Part 1, 1]

- I love it when Igraine's hair is mentioned, it looks like my dream hair: "curling red hair" [Part 1, 2] , "shining copper curls" [Part 1, 4]. :crush:

- "her [Viviane's] hair hung down, soft and dark as the wool of a black sheep." [Part 1, 2]

- "Igraine set about putting on her other gown, finely spun wool with embroidery at hem and sleeve, and braiding her silk ribbon into her hair." [Part 1, 3].
I love this, seeing as I'm currently experimenting with ribbons :).

[PaganPriestess]

Have you guys read the Sword of Truth series? I love how they describe the Mother Confessor's hair. My husband always says he thinks my hair is like hers. Unless it's in a braid - then he thinks I look rather Mord Sith LOL

This one isn't totally about hair, but seeing as how I have a fair-haired little girl, it's one of my favorites: James Mason, (from his 1949 book) "The Cats in our Lives": "Books and cats and fair-haired little girls make the best furnishing for a room."

[PaganPriestess]

I've always loved this one too:
Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Khalil Gibran

[PaganPriestess]

"I've had enough, this is my prayer
That I'll die living just as free as my hair"

"Don't wanna change, and I don't wanna be ashamed
I'm the spirit of my hair, it's all the glory that I bare"

-Lady GaGa "Hair" (LOVE this song!)

[Audhumla]

I love"I will let my hair grow long for your sake"
or with more context:
"I made you rest on a royal bed, you reclined on a couch at my left hand, the princes of the earth kissed your feet. I will cause all the people of Uruk to weep over you and raise the dirge of the dead. The joyful people will stoop with sorrow; and when you have gone to the earth I will let my hair grow long for your sake, I will wander through the wilderness in the skin of a lion"
The Epic of Gilgamesh.

[Snippety]

Lovely thread ! I haven't time just now to find specific quotes, but some things spring to mind. Firstly the Anne of Green Gables series by L M Montgomery. There are some lovely descriptions of hair and I used to really envy Anne's when I was a girl. Also Tolkien with the mentions of "bright hair flowing" has been very inspirational to me. I love the mentions of hair in Storm Constantine's Wraeththu series, especially the descriptions of Ulaume and Cobweb, who has hair that "moves about him like smoke".

My favourite cautionary tale about hair is F Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" which should be read before contemplating a drastic chop ! ;)

[Nae]

From The Wreck of the Hesperus by Longfellow.

"At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach,
A fisherman stood aghast,
To see the form of a maiden fair,
Lashed close to a drifting mast.

The salt sea was frozen on her breast,
The salt tears in her eyes;
And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed,
On the billows fall and rise."

This is the saddest hair quote I know. Some context, the little girl's father, the captain, lashed her to the mast so she wouldn't be lost at sea during a storm. The ship went down.

[allnight avenue]

Perfect, this reminds me of the most romantic hair quote EVER. Or at least I think so. Long quote, but worth it to get the full picture:

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

IV

And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
But he loved the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's red-lipped daughter,
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—

V

"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."

VI

He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
(Oh, sweet, black waves in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the West.

from Alfred Noyes' "The Highwayman"

I've had this poem stuck in my head for weeks and wanted to post it here!

[Yozhik]

Beautiful! I've always liked that poem.

Does anyone know what a "love-knot"? I looked it up years ago trying to get an idea. Just a ribbon?

Also, I was reading this charming book called The Little White Horse tonight, and was struck by this passage:

"She was slim and graceful as a willow wand, tiny as a fairy's child, with a beautiful milk-white skin faintly tinged with rose. Her smooth straight hair was pale gold, and was wound round her head in a great plait like a crown."

[tinywife]

Found this little gem on the internet, with no listed source:

"Your hair is your antennae to the Universe! The longer the length, the better the reception."

[allnight avenue]

Yozhik, a Google search revealed that a love-knot is a certain Celtic knot, but it looks really complicated and I'd be less than willing to try to get my hair into one! But I do imagine she was weaving a ribbon into some kind of bun or braid. Or maybe Noyes just made it up...what did he know about girls' hair?? :P

[PaganPriestess]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teq2m0BN-Wo

I've always loved Loreena McKennitt's version of "The Highwayman". If you've never heard it, it is incredible. Love the poem, and love it even more as a song!

[Yozhik]

Thanks for finding that out, allnight avenue. I can't imagine how one of those would work in the hair.

I bet you're right. Who knows how well the author understood female coiffure. :p

[Olga-Freya]

One day I was looking for information about my nickname, which I chose quite by accident, and found the book "Freya of the Seven Isles" by Joseph Conrad. Here is what it says about heroine's hair:

"She could - Jasper told me once with a touchingly imbecile exultation - sit on her hair. I dare say, I dare say. It was not for me to behold these wonders; I was content to admire the neat and becoming way she used to do it up so as not to conceal the good shape of her head. And this wealth of hair was so glossy that when the screens of the west verandah were down, making a pleasant twilight there, or in the shade of the grove of fruit-trees near the house, it seemed to give out a golden light of its own."

[PaganPriestess]

Has anyone read the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books to their kids (or as children)? I always loved the description of her hair. Other than not being at knee-length, you can confirm with my 3 year old that I am pretty like her:

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has brown sparkly eyes and brown hair which she keeps very long, almost to her knees, so the children can comb it. She usually wears it on top of her head in a knot, unless someone has been combing it and then she has braids, or long wet curls, or long hair just hanging and with a jewelled crown or flowers on top.

One day I saw her digging in her garden wearing the jewelled crown and with her hair billowing down her back. She waved gaily and said, I promised Betsy (Betsy is one of her children friends) that I would not touch this hair until she came home from school," and she went on with her digging. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's skin is a goldy brown and she has a warm, spicy, sugar-cooky smell that is very comforting to children who are sad about something. Her clothes are all brown and never look crisp and pressed because they are used for dress-up. She wears felt hats which the children poke and twist into witches' and pirates' hats and she does not mind at all. Sunday mornings she takes one of the hats off the closet shelf, gives it a few thumps, pulls it firmly down fore and aft and wears it to church. She wears very high heels all the time and is glad to let the little girls borrow her shoes.

[freckles]

The thing I always think of when I think of long hair in literature is Porphyria's Lover (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porphyria%27s_Lover#Full_text).
Warning to those of you who aren't familiar with this poem: creepy. Really creepy.

In fact, it's a wonder I want long hair at all considering how terrified I was of Robert Browning as a child, and how much I associate long hair with this poem. I was once told by a substitute teacher that if I didn't do my homework, the ghost of Robert Browning would appear to me at night and kill me :)

[WaitingSoLong]

I had thought myself well read until now!

I enjoyed reading all the interpretations of Porphyria's Lover, and listening to The Highwayman!

Such macabre literature!

[SwordWomanRiona]

Lovely thread ! I haven't time just now to find specific quotes, but some things spring to mind. Firstly the Anne of Green Gables series by L M Montgomery. There are some lovely descriptions of hair and I used to really envy Anne's when I was a girl. Also Tolkien with the mentions of "bright hair flowing" has been very inspirational to me. I love the mentions of hair in Storm Constantine's Wraeththu series, especially the descriptions of Ulaume and Cobweb, who has hair that "moves about him like smoke".

My favourite cautionary tale about hair is F Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" which should be read before contemplating a drastic chop ! ;)

Yes, Tolkien has a lot of lovely hair-quotes! And I always loved Anne's red hair, I couldn't understand why she hated it so much *Ah, stupid patriarchal prejudices...*

[QMacrocarpa]

Today I ran across this poem in a collection by Mary Alice Walton (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14871), published in 1910. I can't say it all resonates with me, but I thought it interesting.

My First Gray Hair.

One day amid brown tresses there gleamed a silvery thread,
Life pages, past and present I wonderingly then read.
I saw a blithsome maiden, a child serenely fair,
A woman heavey laden now lifts her first gray hair.

CHORUS.
O silvery strand, thou soft kiss of time,
The beauties of youth are now past, are now past.
For evening of life are pleasures unknown,
'Tis love, only love, that will last, that will last.

Upon the shadowy threshold the small gray strand did lay,
And told the old, old story of ever changing day;
Within the mystic portals of life's near ending stream
I stood and pondered vaguely, if death were but a dream.

I viewed the snow-white message and thought of bygone years,
The hopes, the waging conflicts, joys mingled oft' with tears.
Tell me, thou thing of pearl hue, what will the future greet?
Will paths be strewn with roses, or thistles tear my feet?

A whisper floated near me in accents sweet and low,
"My child, what'er thy portion, if tares for thee will grow,
Thy soul keep pure and stainless, a crown thy brow shall wear,
'Twill shine with whitest tresses, that once was nut-brown hair."

[PaganPriestess]

Today I ran across this poem in a collection by Mary Alice Walton (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14871), published in 1910. I can't say it all resonates with me, but I thought it interesting.

My First Gray Hair.

One day amid brown tresses there gleamed a silvery thread,
Life pages, past and present I wonderingly then read.
I saw a blithsome maiden, a child serenely fair,
A woman heavey laden now lifts her first gray hair.

CHORUS.
O silvery strand, thou soft kiss of time,
The beauties of youth are now past, are now past.
For evening of life are pleasures unknown,
'Tis love, only love, that will last, that will last.

Upon the shadowy threshold the small gray strand did lay,
And told the old, old story of ever changing day;
Within the mystic portals of life's near ending stream
I stood and pondered vaguely, if death were but a dream.

I viewed the snow-white message and thought of bygone years,
The hopes, the waging conflicts, joys mingled oft' with tears.
Tell me, thou thing of pearl hue, what will the future greet?
Will paths be strewn with roses, or thistles tear my feet?

A whisper floated near me in accents sweet and low,
"My child, what'er thy portion, if tares for thee will grow,
Thy soul keep pure and stainless, a crown thy brow shall wear,
'Twill shine with whitest tresses, that once was nut-brown hair."

Oh my. How much I love that! Beautiful, and exactly how I feel about my few grays.