My Hair and a Jog Down Memory Lane

I have plans to shampoo my hair today. Typically, I apply oil--not the American hot oil, but the Indian "cold" (room temp) oil--before I shampoo, because it is said that mass-produced shampoo has high soap-content that dries the scalp.

When applying oil ("Keokarpin") I remembered how in India girls used to be told, that to grow long, "black" hair, a definite sign of the fact that you are a female, you had, not only to apply oil regularly, but also comb through the hair strands.

There are Indian erotic temple sculptures where ample-bosomed and narrow-waisted female pose with implements in their hands--the all Indian comb.

To comb through the length and depth of your hair is, by default, a rite of passage into womanhood (the right kind of womanhood).

So, in response to my memory jog to time past, I picked up my hair brush after applying oil to my hair. Then, I put it down. Nope, I also remember the scientific discourse on the Indian female's conviction that combing hair frequently will make the hair fuller and better. Even then, scientists said the opposite was true: To subject the scalp to the rough teeth of a comb was to depredate the scalp and the hair roots embedded therein. The advise was to comb less frequently and use a comb lightly to untangle strands.

I recall that the popular voice of this anti-popular hair discourse was one Sravanti Mazumdar, a brand-ambassador for the body cream Boroline via radio. 

Mazumdar, a fashionable woman with short hair, would remind listeners in the "Jobakusum" hair oil radio advert, how not to engage in "excessive" combing.