Hair

Mostly hair in dreams links with the way you are thinking, your self image and attitudes. In some dreams it can connect with sexual attraction or even what sexual characteristics you are displaying. Therefore changing the style of your hair would show you changing the way you see yourself, or how you want others to see you, a change of mind and even life style.

We sometimes use our hair and the way we style it to show what group or social class we identify with. So a hair style could link with a social group or status – business; hippie; middle class; smart and motivated; laid back; Goff’s; punk; artistic etc.

Example: I was watching a man do a stage act. It started with him looking directly toward me and gradually taking on the character of a hippie person. His hair was in a pony tail at the back and he became less well groomed. Then he shook his hair loose from the pony tail and went through amazing changes in which the whole styling and colour of his hair altered and changed the way he looked, and even his sex. For instance his hair became shoulder length, red, beautifully styled in a full waved perm of shining hair. As this he was a beautiful female. At another moment he turned profile and the hair styled backwards into a mane of wavy hair. TC

This dream shows how the hair depicts character and mental attitude, even gender.

Many orders of different religions shave off their hair as a sign of renouncing material life, sexuality included. The loss of Samson’s hair took his physical and spiritual strength, so some psychiatrists say that cropped hair represents sexual restraints, the denying of sexual feelings.

Hair can also represent your thoughts and intellectual life. Or it can symbolise the spiritualisation of sexual feelings. That is, the development of sexuality into sympathy, fraternal love, protectiveness, union with God. Hair-splitting is an example of the association of hair with intellectuality.

Baldness: Ageing; feeling obsolete; lack of thought; maleness.

Beard: This depends on the age of the person and the situation in the dream. For instance stubble on a teenage boy suggests he is moving into manhood. But a beard can also suggest carelessness – as when someone hasn’t shaved; a mask if someone uses it to hide their youth; or a way of life that does not conform, or like a backwoodsman. Sometimes the link is with a war veteran, suggesting a long exposure to conflict and extreme living conditions.

Brushing hair: Clarifying or bringing order to attitudes or thoughts. Getting rid of emotional or relationship tangles or tangled ideas.

Changing hair style: Changing the way you see yourself, your self image. Perhaps also changing attitudes and a change of mind.

Chest hair: Masculinity, virility. If it is on a woman, it suggests her expressing masculine qualities.

Colour of hair: In everyday life we unconsciously gather a lot of information from someone’s hair colour. For instance racial background is one immediate thing we see. But hair colour might well link with someone we know – our father, or mother, or someone close to us. If that is not the link it can suggest attitudes – light-headed for instance; dark thoughts; fiery temperament with red hair, or age and perhaps wisdom with grey or silver hair.

If the hair is artificially coloured this shows the person or yourself trying to be something you are not at your ‘roots’. But this might also show an attempt to stand out, to be different to those around you to gain attention or change your self image.

Combing hair: See: Comb.

Cutting off beard: Making a change; feeling more certain about your manhood; or uncertainty about manhood, depending on dream. It can also suggest a fuller meeting or self expression, and uncovering of who you are. In some cultures it might suggest leaving behind traditional religious beliefs.

Cutting hair right off: This depends on what hair is cut off. If it is wild and unkempt, then it would show a real change and a more disciplined way of thinking and acting. If the hair style suggested some sort of social, religious or cult affiliation, then it would show a move away from that. In general it shows cutting back on what you think or dream, like clearing out a cupboard of all the things no longer needed. It can also show denial of sensual, sexual and physical drives, as with a monk, or acceptance of age or baldness.

Dark hair: The thoughts and ideas that move you yet are largely unconscious. Might show ‘dark’ thoughts or attitudes. But it can also suggest racial dispositions, such as Latin passions or responses, or the black cultural way of being. As mentioned above, it can also link with someone you know.

Dishevelled hair Mental confusion, personal carelessness about how you appear to others. It might also be an indication that you are ruled by crazy thoughts and ideas.

Fair hair: Awareness; ‘light headed’. Might link with racial types such as Scandinavian stock, or indicate a coolheaded person. Being blonde is also for many women and men a statement of wanting to be attractive, or wanting to attract attention and not be one of the crowd.

Genital or armpit: Sexuality. Your natural or instinctive feelings and drives. See: Pubic hair below.

Hair on chest of female, even child: The male side of the woman; might be parents desire for a boy generated male characteristics.

Long matted: Not caring about social image or self; drop out.

Long hair: Freedom; permissiveness; girlhood with woman.

Plaited or pony tail: Girlhood; socialised or disciplined thoughts and feelings.

Pubic hair: Some dreams mentioning pubic hair do so in a way that suggests it as a glimpse of what lies beneath – or at least a glimpse of whatever pleasure or emotions, perhaps even fear or pain, are generated by the experience of or thoughts/fantasies of sex. When the pubic hair is missing it is about the revealing of the sex or gender. Of course, today, the appearance or absence of hair could refer to the latest fashions in sexual display.

Another possibility of the lack of pubic hair is that your sexual feelings, needs and power are being made conscious, or are brought to awareness, or are on display.

In connection with teenagers it shows the emergence of their sexual life and all that will bring.

Pulling hair out of mouth: This expresses deep discomfort about what you have taken in, and can mean things like lies you have been told as a child that are now choking you and you are getting rid of.

Tight style: Discipline; self restraint.

Very long beard: Sense of eternal or long life.

White beard: Wisdom or experience gained through long life, and perhaps an awareness of life beyond the senses.

Wig: False attitudes or thoughts; an assumed social front.

Woman’s dreams – Armpit or leg hair: Social expression of sexuality or physicality.

Idioms: harebrained; hair of the dog; get in your hair; got you by the short hairs; keep your hair on; hair raising; have us by the short hairs; let one’s hair down; make you hair curl/stand on end; didn’t turn a hair; put hairs on your chest; tear one’s hair out; split hairs, without turning a hair. See: Shampoo.

Useful questions:

What is being expressed by the hair style or things done to the hair?

Is the hair coloured, if so what impression do I have of it?

Is this different in any way to my own hair style – is so what do the differences suggest?