HIDE NOR HARE (KRISHNA)

I was watching a film ("Coco avec Chanel") the other day. Chanel cuts her hair dramatically at one point, and someone says something to her along the lines of, "Ooh, watch out!: When a woman changes her hair, she changes her life." There's a lot of truth to that (though I don't think it's strictly limited to the fairer sex). Lately I've been doing a lot of thinking about doing something along these lines, though a little more subtle, about half the area: 

...From materialdearth.blogspot.com. When I was in India, I would see all these gorgeous women in their elegantly draped sarees with shaved heads, and thought every time how remarkable it looked. When I got back from India, I was emotionally devastated for about nine months, trying to reconcile my experience with my normal life. It took me a very long time to come out of that; just recently, to be honest. There was a period there when I thought very seriously about just going and applying to a Buddhist nunnery in a small town in Nepal, shaving my head, taking a vow of silence, renouncing creature comforts and the material world. While I've come to realize I don't want to take it to that extreme (just yet, anyway), there's a part of me that feels very at home with the idea. 

   Across cultures, head-shaving is an act of contrition, of sacrifice. I know it's a little bit of a trend at the moment, this hairstyle-- Alice Dellal, ya ya ya-- but I think, to me, it would have a meaning, something personal, a symbol of moving forward by giving something up, and acknowledging that in a tangible way. Perhaps I just want a pseudo-philosophical excuse to do something rash. Either way, I'm going for it.