CHEEPPU-COMBpart 1
Dearfriends, Yesterday,I purchased iddali batter in a 5”x3”x3‘’ reusable plastic container from theshop. The price was more due to the beautiful container. Aftertaking out the batter my wife said, it could be used to keep all the combs shereceived during navaratri.I agreed yes. At that time itself I thought to write about combs. Somepeople use brushes for combing hair. But majority still use combs. Barbers stilluse combs for hair dressing and fine finishing using scissors. For hair dyingcomb is used either by the person himself or by the barber. Combis used to keep our hairs in the head in a convenient desired manner (to theextent possible). The act of doing so is called combing. Afterbath, during dressing combing is done. Parents comb their small children .Combinggives appearance to face. Different types of combing can give different looks. Aperson who has changed the style of combing is normally told of it when seen byothers. I recollect the old type of combing and hair dressing done for men inthe film Kalapani (actorMohanlal) Recentlyin an advertisement of Doublehorse roast rava, I saw the same lady appearing for Double horsePalada, with a different hair style in the TV, which made her look younger. Thecombing may go off while walking or travelling. A small dressing comb is keptby men in their pants and women in their handbag. In addition women may carry asmall mirror also in their hand bag. Braiding is done after combing by women.Modern hair styles keep minimum hair braiding or no hair braiding by youngwomen. Practically braiding has disappeared with young women. Inthe night too combing would go off since we roll or shake hair while in thebed. Early morning when woke up, the hairs would not give the appearance. Asmall quantity of oil applied over the hair might help the hair in the combedposition. For this hair oils with fragrance are now available. Forcutting the hair also combing is done to keep the hairs in a position to makethe style. Humanhair grows more in the head of females than in males. The combed hair of thewomen adds to their beauty. Now many men also grow hair and tie in the end.Tuft is partial hair growing and tying. Afterbath fingers are first used as combs by women. In Tamilnadu generally womencomb hair in the evening also before lighting lamp. Manymembers have intimated me that my postings are very interesting for reading andwait for them Thisis in the context of few member’s discouraging responses. I request them tokindly delete my postings. Letme go more about combs. Sincerely, GopalaKrishnan 8-1-2012 Re posted on 23-10-21 after editing andupdating information. R. Gopalakrishnan 1. Reference to combing in Ramayana andMahabharatha. Thereis reference to Kaikeyi remaining in the crying room, without washing face and not combing and tying hair. Similarlyreference to women dressing and combing hairs while Hanuman visiting thegardens to locate Seetha. InMahabharatha, similarly Droupadi is taking a vow not to tie her hair, withoutapplying blood of Dussasana after she was humiliated by Duryodhana andDussasana after chess play (Dharma puthra pledged Droupadi and failed in the pay) Thereis reference to Radha getting humiliated at Krishna, when he appear before her,with uncombed andtittered hairs after spending time with other gopies. 2. Development of comb. Thecomb might had it’s origin from our own fingers. Now too we use fingers andpalm to set right fallen hairs in wind when we spend times in beach etc. Theearliest comb might have been made of wood. They might have lesser teeth andmore width between teeth. Now too combs made with wood are available in Chennaishops with lesser teeth and more width between teeth. It is mainly used toremove lice from hair. Thewords used in Malayalam for combing the hair are- muti cheekuka, muti kothuka, andmuti varuka. The last two being more used with women. The firstbeing used with males and children though all of them mean the same. 3. Comb design Thecombs I had seen in my boyhood days were with bigger teeth and more gap on oneside, with smaller teeth and lesser gap on other side for about 3-4” size and aholding area in the middle was used by women. It was made of plastic. Formen combs had separate design. It had length of about six inches. Half theportion had smaller and narrow teeth; half had larger teeth with more gapbetween teeth. Some combs appeared with a handle also. 4. Ayyae- Ithu pennugalutae cheep (Hey- Itis women’s comb) Graduallythe feeling of not using women’s comb by men developed. A male may remain evenun combed- but not use a comb used by a woman. Probably because of some brokenhairs sticking to it or due to peculiar smell developed on it. Evennow the comb with teeth on either side is considered exclusive for women. 5. Comb with smaller teeth alone. Agradual development was comb with handle for men with smaller teeth alone. The smaller size is more conveniently used aspocket comb by men. In this teeth is uniform and of same width. Many young menwould not go outside without a comb in the pant back pocket. Just like the kerchiefin the pant side pocket, the comb was kept in the back pocket. A few aretempted to comb the hair while waiting in bus stand, go to a bath room in arestaurant and return etc. 6. Healthy aspects of combing Justas many bacteria and tiny living beings like worms reside inside our body, tinyliving beings try to reside outside, especially in the hair and pubic regioncausing itching. If the hair is not washed and chikkal (sticking together)removed, the chances for the beings to reside are much more. Oneof the living being is called lice. Another is called Thaaran(dandruff). How dothey start living is still mystery. One day we feel itching in the hair, andvery well these beings could be found there. Thebeauty is even for the bald headed, where some tiny hairs only are there, for the grey haired too,there could be the lice and dandruff problems. Comparing to men, women have more problem. 7. Hair cutting Whereashair cutting is done for males for females hair cutting was not done (Exception- small children and widows). Thegrowing and abundant hair in female head was considered as beauty. Whena person started sanyasa; he may grow hair and beard. They are not touched bybarber. Natural falling of hair would be there I will continue in next part -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/810664937.393822.1634986177697%40mail.yahoo.com.
