May 30, 2006

The Traditional Hair Photo

In my family, we take what we call hair photos. Four women will be standing on the staircase at my mother’s house, and someone will yell, "Hey, everyone lean your heads over the rail and we can take a hair photo!" I think the tradition started because we have lots of different hair colours in the family – and lots of long, beautiful hair.

Last weekend, the back of my brother-in-law’s pickup truck seemed a perfect opportunity for a hair photo. In the interest of breaking gender stereotypes and being an equal opportunity hair blogger, I made two of the males at camp get into the hair photo. Neither ever combs or brushes his hair – and neither has had a haircut in over two years -- but both have gorgeous curls.

From left to right: Sailor Boy, Red-haired Niece, Schoolteacher Niece, and Shaggy Hair Boy.

hair photo

26 comments:

Kathryn said...

Love it! Now pray advise me, Jo(e). TeenWonder is similarly averse to the cutting of hair, but unlike Shaggy Hair Boy or Sailor Boy his grows not so much down as out...with the result that he seems to be in a permanent state of electrocution. Hints/tips/fellow feeling much appreciated. I begin to feel guilty when seen out with him ;-)

jo(e) said...

Kathryn: Sailor Boy's hair looked like that for the first few months. And the boys with the straight hair -- well, they end up looking like they badly need haircuts. Especially because the rule amongst teenage boys seems to be that you can wash it, but you can't brush it.

When Shaggy Hair Boy first started growing his hair long, I kept saying to my daughter (privately, of course): "But it looks like he needs a haircut!" She kept saying, "Just be patient. Eventually it will get to the stage where it looks intentional." And she was right ....

RageyOne said...

Nice photo!

Rev Dr Mom said...

Hair, beautiful hair! Especially love the red.

Yeah, the Kid has that straight hair--he's tried to grow it out long a couple of times, but given up just when it's ALMOST there.

Jenevieve said...

Wow! What do you feed those kids?!? Everyone has such gorgeous shiny hair!

KLee said...

I would kill for Sailor Boy's hair. :)

Heidi the Hick said...

That is one of my favourite photos of all time. Over the tailgate of the truck-even better! Mind if I borrow this great idea?

jo(e) said...

Heidi: Well, of course, you will have to blog it ....

Anonymous said...

I seem to spend a good part of the day being jealous of you and your family, jo(e). And now it just got worse seeing the gorgeous hair in your family. So.envious.

nancy said...

That is such a fantastic photo!

Unknown said...

Oh my god - is it wrong of me to covet all that gorgeous hair?? Glad that your memorial weekend was great!

Liz Miller said...

Love, love, love the hair.

Anonymous said...

What a great picture. They have gorgeous hair. At first, I thought they were wigs sitting on a truck.

Jennifer (ponderosa) said...

What a fantastic photo. I envy each of them their hair!

BeachMama said...

Love the photo, and truly love Schoolteacher Nieces' hair. I am having an envious moment for sure.

Mona Buonanotte said...

It looks like a gorgeous shampoo commercial!

Jody said...

Between the camping nirvana and the hair, my jo(e) family lust fest just keeps growing.

Wilder makes noises about wanting long hair, and I keep saying it's okay, but then his little five-year old heart gives out in the face of hairdressers. I should just leave him at home this summer if that's what he wants.

Or wait to see what the style is, in another ten years. I suspect, though, that this lovely 1970s flashback amongst teenage boys will have passed. My uncle's son is graduating high school this year, and his shaggy-hair look (not nearly as gorgeous as the hair displayed here) is a perfect match for his own father's hair, 30 years ago. This tickles me, for some reason.

Thanks for sharing!

BrightStar (B*) said...

all of the colors in this photo are absolutely fantastic. beautifully composed.

But... I have to say that it saddens me just a bit to hear that the hair photos existed pre-blog. I thought they were taken just for the blog purposes!

halloweenlover said...

I want all of their hair! I'm so jealous! What a great photo!

undine said...

You weren't kidding about the hair--gorgeous!

L said...

Wow, that's an amazing pictures... I know it would be too much to ask, but maybe you could share some others (with older people of the family involved and maybe you... even if it's just women in the picture :)

The boys do have wonderful hair, though!!

Sarah Sometimes said...

this is a fabulous and funny picture. It is both jarring (in a good way) and whimsical.

jo(e) said...

Lillian: The hair photo from last year does include my mother and my older sister.

Perhaps some time I will have to dig out some of the older hair photos and scan them in ....

Anonymous said...

This is a very cool picture. I too did not notice they were real people in the truck at first. Hair is a wonderful thing (in the right places, haha).

Anonymous said...

Shaggy Hair Boy has inspired me to grow my hair out. I am a 14 year old boy who wants to be a little rebel. Long hair is so much fun. Shaggy Hair Boy is awesome.

Tyson said...

Ah...some people have all the luck. I'm a boy (man? 18) who aspires to having long hair, but alas and alack, I got my Dad's curly hair! It's not so tight it's in ringlets, but it is so tight that, even as it finally approaches the 5-6 inch mark (lifetime record for me) I begin to feel the first rumblings of misgivings. It's just started to finally grow down instead of out, but I fear the white 'fro above all else.

I don't really know why I posted. I guess I'm just jealous. Keep it up!