China consists of a vast population and numerous cultures and traditional practices that dates back centuries. One of the innumerable practice is the Long-horn Miao Hair hat wearing.
In this Chinese tradition, women wear headdresses made from the hair of their dead relatives or ancestors. They keep strands of hair from dead relatives and weave it into spectacular headdresses.
Instead of throwing away their hair when they comb it, women who are part of China’s Long-horn Miao minority instead save the strands and add them to their collection of hair that allows them to create spectacular headdresses.
The hairpieces are brought out and worn on special occasions like weddings and feast days. The hairpiece is carefully woven around horn-shaped headdresses fitted to the heads of the young women and
girls.
The hairpiece is handed down from mother to daughter and is made of not just yarns and twines but hair from an ancestor which they allege dates back hundreds of years. To keep it well maintained by keeping it healthy and shiny with dye.
Originally women were not the only ones that upheld this tradition. The men used to wear it but gradually men dropped the tradition. The women continue to practice it and have added hair from not just their mothers but grandmothers and older generations all
knit together.
They consider the tradition of wearing hair as a way of honouring their ancestors. The women keep and collect strands of their while combing it and hand it over to their daughters when they marry.
