

Headscarves are fashionable. Especially on a bad hair day. I’ve been practicing wearing them. With my long hair, a bad hair day can crop up anytime, like in damp weather. Whenever I saw anyone wearing a scarf on her head it reminded me of the old kerchief that I wore when I was a kid to keep warm. The kerchief is also known as a babushka. My grandma wore a babushka and that’s because she didn’t know how to tie a scarf into something more. There were no ski hats, she had to wear it to keep warm. I remember the mountain ladies in Portugal. They all were wearing babushkas. It’s cold and damp where they live. Besides, the women were hardworking and didn’t have time to fiddle with the making of fancy headgear.

It takes some ingenuity to fancy up the scarves for your head. You can wear it flat, or with a big bow, or even like a turban if your scarf is long enough. I began learning how to create a stylish headscarf on a cruise ship a couple of years ago, but the one with a bow is a recent concoction. Besides hair scarves being fashionable they are conversation getters, you know, people want to know why you’re wearing the thing on your head, and you can easily meet new friends while satisfying
Sophisticated women don’t wear babushkas. In fact, they usually wear hats, like the heroine, Allie Baldwin, suffragette, in my historic romance book, The Unforgettable Miss Baldwin–Gilded Age Heiress—she wore jaunty hats like the British Fascinators or wide-brimmed hats to keep the sun off her face. She walked her Great Dane in Central Park, and loved spending time outdoors, the big hats were utilitarian. In writing this maybe I need to tell her about the headscarf. It would be a great way to tame her wild red locks..
Doing a little research, this is what I found:
“Since ancient times, across so many cultures and for myriad reasons, women have covered their hair — an act tied up in competing notions of freedom and oppression.” By Liana Aghajanian Dec 20, 2016,
But women also cover their head and hair to detract others from
Looking at them. A religious requirement which has nothing to do with freedom and/or oppression.
Thanks, Anne, now that you’ve reminded me, it would have been good to include that piece. I love wearing headscarves. The reason I wrote the blog was that I posted a selfie on Facebook, and one of my friends popped in and asked me if I was sick. She thought I was covering a hairless head. Remember, Anne, when we used to wear kerchiefs to keep warm? My friend is much younger and doesn’t remember the handy kerchief that has become a headscarf. Mountain women in Portugal wear kerchiefs, it’s cold in those mountains.