Cutting Hair At Night

General Information about Item:

  • Mexican Superstition
  • Language: Spanish
  • Country of Origin: Mexico
  • Informant: Jennifer Lopez
  • Date Collected: 11-02-18

Informant Data:

  • Jennifer Lopez was born in Chicago but her parents originate from Mexico. She is currently studying Studio Arts modified with Digital Arts at Dartmouth College. Jennifer only speaks Spanish at home with her parents and siblings. Although Jennifer grew up in America, her parents made sure to instill the Mexican culture in her upbringing.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: In Mexican culture, long hair is seen as the standard for beauty. It considered highly valuable for women to keep their hair long as this signifies that they spend time on maintaining it and thus have “good hair”.
  • Social Context: In many Latin American countries, having short hair is deemed bad hair. This superstition essentially instills fear into people to discourage them from cutting their hair at night as they may not be able to see clearly how much they may be cutting away. This superstition is essentially told as a means to promote the western world’s standard of beauty.

Subgenre: bad luck superstitions

Item (translation)

If you cut your hair at night, it will not grow back.

Collector’s Name: Ama Kyerewaa

 

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