Welcome to the hair episode! Learn how to move your hair when you belly dance to a trance-inducing beat, try the “Khaliji Sideways Hair Sway”, and turn your next shower into a stress-relieving ritual.
DANCEABLE RITUAL: Cleansing Your Hair and Mind
 

Washing our hair is a chance to cleanse our minds and enjoy massaging and detangling our thoughts, even if it’s just a quick shower.

 

A paraphrased Buddhist proverb inspired this danceable ritual. It is, “Remember that when you cleanse your body you can also cleanse your mind.”

 

Next time you wash your hair, do more than just the regular mindless or preoccupied wash. Try washing your hair as a danceable ritual. This can mean doing a few dance moves while you do your regular routine or having a whole ritual for the duration of the shower.

 

If you want try a whole ritual, here are some ideas…

 

Make the whole process leading up to washing your hair a dance as well. Remove clothes artfully, turn the water on with soft hands, and step into the tub with a pointed toe and graceful arm. Thank the water with prayer hands, and raise them up as lotus hands beneath the water source. Smooth your hair. You can even do the “Dripping in Gold” move from show number 4!

 

Relax your face. Welcome the shampoo into your hand as a gift from above. As you put the bottle down, also release any thoughts that are not serving you. Let them wash away from you. Massage the shampoo into your hair with both hands. Dance to the music of the soap. As you rinse it out, do down mayas with the water running down your hips. Again, wash off whatever is not serving you. Release it. If you use conditioner, reach for it. Accept the gift of the conditioner. Release tension a third time as you set the bottle down. Untangle your thoughts while you untangle your hair, breathing in infinite space. When you are done, do wrist circles as your hand floats to turn the water off.

 

As you step out, take hold of your towel with 2 hands like it’s a veil. Throw it up and over yourself. Dry off your hair and body gently. Wrap yourself in the towel and take a beautiful bow, knowing you just danced with all of those doing hair washing rituals the world over. Ta da! It’s better if you have 10 minutes to take a danceable ritual shower, but even if you have just 3 minutes to shower, you can dance for part of it.

 

I lived in Asia for years, and was often in places where people bathe outdoors with their clothes on. Those are the perfect places to watch more mundane hair washing rituals. I like to reflect on the time young woman whipped her hair out of the water while bathing under a bridge in Bali. The women twisting and squeezing their long black hair in the river in Southern India beside the bathing town elephant Lakshmi. Standing on the Lao side of the Mekhong in my bathing garment washing my hair as long motor boats puttered by.

 

In addition to being in areas where people bath outside, festivals often offer a peek into the different ways we can wash our hair. Decades ago at a Rainbow Gathering, my mother in law remembers being so impressed with how carefully a woman washed another woman’s hair. They are still friends and that is their first memory together. At Burning Man, the Sweaty Betty camp is known for washing the hair of strangers. This is a big deal, because at Burning Man everyone brings all of the water they will use and is also responsible for disposing of gray water. And the Playa dust gets into everything. My friend Katie and I washed each others’ hair in bottled water over our evaporation pool at Burning Man, very deliberately making every drop count. So special.

 

But we don’t have to be in a foreign place to have a completely new and transportive experience. When we bring rituals into our home, we are part of something much bigger than a geographic location. And when we dance, we transcend words and time.

 
DANCEABLE SONG: Saharni Halaha