Our family went home from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan for the summer holidays every year. What I did as a child during those months was dodge the various women in the family who wanted to douse my hair in coconut or mustard oil and tie it up in tight braids. The oil was smelly, the braids hurt and all I really wanted to do was go outside and play with my cousins.
“What do you do to make your hair long?” one of my cousins asked me when I refused yet again to have my hair oiled and braided.
I shrugged. I was 8. I didn’t really care about what my hair looked like.
“Well, I can tell you how to make it longer,” she said with all the authority that came from not just being older than me, but also having an older sister, which of course made her infinitely cooler and more knowledgeable in all matters girlie.
The secret – according to her – was to braid your hair really tightly before you went to bed. You also had to make sure that you wrapped a piece of ribbon around the tip, because when you woke up in the morning, the hair sticking out under the ribbon would be the length your hair had grown during the night.
But hair doesn’t grow that way, I argued. I told her about what I had learnt in science class: that hair grows from the root, not from the tip. Besides, I added, it sounded a lot like the extra hair sticking out was not new growth, but simply hair released by the ribbon during the course of the night.
My cousin tossed her mane haughtily and told me that with an attitude like mine, I would never have hair as long – or beautiful – as hers.
Turns out she was right.
Twenty-five years later, she is the proud owner of hair that goes down to her waist, while I struggle to grow mine past my shoulder.
Whether you chalk it up to my disregard of questionable – but apparently effective – desi hair-growing techniques or my obsession with change (I hardly give my locks a chance to grow out before I get them. cut again), the stunted growth has recently become a cause of serious concern for me.
Luckily, desi lore is filled with a hundred ways to grow one’s hair.
So here are some tips for ladies in the market for lovely locks:
Massage your scalp with warm mustard oil at night and wash in the morning.
Work coconut oil into the entire length of your hair and leave it in for several hours before washing.
An hour before washing your hair, apply a hair mask of beaten egg whites, with yogurt and honey.
If you’re desperate enough, onion juice and potato juice are supposed to be hair superfoods. Onion juice goes on the hair itself and potato juice on the scalp.
And if you’re really brave: two parts olive oil mixed with one part cayenne pepper powder is supposed to stimulate growth immensely.
Remember: growing your hair the desi way requires a trip to the grocery store, plenty of time – and nose plugs for the people in your vicinity.
The writer is an honest-to-goodness desi living in Dubai
