For a long time, women of all ages and all classes in Russia and in the Moscow state knew one and only hairstyle - a braid. Girls decorated their braids with ribbons or braids, women covered them with a warrior. However, the braid was not just a hairstyle.
Two are better than one
Before marriage, girls wore one braid. At a bachelorette party, girlfriends, with howling and crying, probably due to envy, twisted one braid into two. It was two braids that were worn by married women in Russia. They were placed as a crown on the head or tied with a ribbon to make it easier to put on the headdress. From the moment the woman married, no one, except her husband, naturally saw her braids again. It is interesting that the old maidens were strictly forbidden to weave one braid into two, they were also forbidden to wear a kokoshnik.
Vitality
For little girls, so-called three-beam braids were braided, which symbolized the trinity. The scythe was located strictly in the direction of the spine, since, according to our ancestors, it served to fill a person through the ridge with vital forces. It is no coincidence that when women got married, two braids were braided: one braid fed her life, and the other - future offspring.
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We read on the spit
The braid wasn't just a haircut. She could tell a lot about her owner. So, if a girl wore one braid, then she was in "active search".
Is there a ribbon in the braid? A maiden of marriageable age, and all potential candidates must urgently send matchmakers. If two ribbons appeared in the braid, and they were woven not from the beginning of the braid, but from its middle, then “dry the oars”, or, as they say, who did not have time, he was late: the girl had a groom. And not just the one who makes eyes and plays at exchanges, but the official one, because the ribbons also meant the blessing received from the parents for marriage.
Sacred ritual
Combing the hair was like a sacred ritual, because during the procedure one could touch the vital energy of a person. Apparently, in order to restore the vitality that was lost during the day, it was necessary to run a comb through the hair at least forty times. For babies, only parents could comb their hair, and then the person himself did this daily procedure. Interestingly, the girl could only allow her chosen one or her husband to unravel her braid and comb her hair.
Symbol of honor
For women, the braid was the same symbol of honor as for men - a beard. To pull the braid meant to insult the girl, let alone cut her hair. Once, in a rage, one master cut off a thin pigtail for his maid, and then calmed his indignant peasants, and even paid a fine. By the way, those who dared to tear off, for example, a woman's headdress, were also punished with serious fines. Only the fines, it seems, did not go to improve the victim's morale, but to the state treasury.
Change the life
The fact that cutting hair radically changes life seems to be well known in the old days. Hence the sign that has survived to this day that it is extremely undesirable for pregnant women to cut their hair. Voluntarily, and sometimes with reverent trepidation, only women who were in a state of severe mental shock, for example, during the monastic tonsure, allowed to cut off their braids. Hair in Ancient Russia did not have the habit of cutting at all, and this custom has been preserved in modern men's monasteries.
Women's tricks
A braid as thick as a hand was considered the standard of female beauty in Russia. Healthy and shiny hair could tell better than words of flattering matchmakers about a future wife. Unfortunately, not all beauties could boast of thick long braids. Of course, they did not even hear about building up in Russia. So the young ladies resorted to deception - they weaved hair from ponytails into their pigtails. And what to do, everyone wants to get married!