It's common culture among the Igbo's in the South Eastern part of Nigeria to have their hair cut off /shaved after the death of a close relative as a sign of respect while mourning. You find widow's cutting their hair for their late husbands and ladies/girls shaving their heads for their dead relatives etc.
While men/boys shave in some cases, they do not feel the pain like the women who spend years grooming and caring for their hair.
I in particular had an experience when my grandfather died. We all know no one is hundred percent perfect. Asides the fact that I have very pronounced superb physical attributes and ''assets'' ( O yea, I love and will praise myself), my hair was one of my few liabilities. It always took ages to grow, was always chopped at the front and sides etc.
I was in secondary school say JSS 2 or so when my grandpa died and in walked my parents with a barber. Oh how I cried , sad that my grandpa had passed but obviously crying more for my lost hair, devastated at the length of time it would take to grow again.
It took me weeks to adjust to not having hair coupled with having to explain to everyone ( I attended a super bubbly unity school#FGGC Owerri) why I paraded about in a gorimakpa (Shaved hair). Years later luckily, after a prayer (wasn't sure it was a prayer point though, but God says cast all your care), God turned around my hair captivity . That was then, little me still under my parents, I had no say. Resisting would be a sign of stubbornness so I obliged my parents against my wish.
Fast-forward years later, a very close friend of mine who is still single is faced with this dilemma. She recently lost her dad and Munachi ( not real name) has vehemently refused to shave her hair. Now the difference here is that Muna is totally an independent full grown woman, unmarried and has been tagged evil by family members for refusing to shave her hair in honour of her late father while mourning. Muna isn't your typically drop dead gorgeous lady and she often acknowledges the fact she has some 'diminished physical attributes '(ok, I learnt it from Davido and his baby mama saga) except for her long luscious hair which gives her the attention she doesn't get in other areas . Now relatives want them shaved in honour of her dad already dead and buried. How dare they ask for her most prized asset she affirmed while narrating her ordeal. You'd think its a minor issue but she has been ostracized by her family because of this which would make a stranger wonder if she was responsible for her father's death.
Isn't shaving the head in honour of a dead person rather archaic and what should Muna do in this case?
Photo credit/Chika Ike
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