Hair and texture

[melannen]

I'm writing about a religious order where not caring for one's hair is a matter of devotion. For people with straight, fine hair (which happens to describe the founder of the Order) this means that if they wish, they are allowed to rinse it with water, comb it every few days, and have a very simple trim, every couple months or less; the ideal, imitating their founder, is for it to hang in lank, oily clumps around the face and shoulders.

Would it be reasonable and not-offensive for members of the order who have hair that is too coarse, kinky or curly for this to happen to generally wear shortish, freeform dreadlocks, as the equivalent? And if not, what should their hair be like?

(The story is set in a semi-cyberpunk future and modern cultural markers don't necessarily apply, except of course for how they do, because the author and [presumably]readers are part of a modern culture.

(Also, does anyone have links to any general guides to writing about people with different hair textures? I feel like I've read at least one, but I couldn't find it today.)

Comments

[devilc]

Q: In this culture of yours, is there a reason that people who have coarse textured, kinky, or very curly hair can't cut it short?

Also, those who combed their hair only a few times a week would have elf-locks, and then there's also the Polish Plait.

[melannen]

It's the "matching the founder" thing, mostly. Mostly I didn't want to have the people with the "right" kind of hair wear it longer and everybody else have to cut theirs short, because that has unfortunate implications, at least to me. (And it's fanfic, so I don't get to pick the founder's hairstyle.) But I couldn't think of an alternative that had no possible unfortunate implications, because hair's so political.

(Also, I've gone through periods of combing shoulder-length hair only a few times a week, and just finger-smoothing it on the off-days, and it takes a lot longer than that to start to mat. Though, of course, it depends on texture.)