My Hairloom

{My great-grandmother Estella is the young beauty sitting on the far right, next to her father…}

Stuck in a drawer in an unlikely place—my parents’ garage—a treasure was found this summer…

Not a treasure that would speak to everyone, but it spoke to me.

Finding a bag of vintage linens in a garage drawer, I excitedly brought it into the house to show my mother…she smiled, then went quietly out into the garage herself…

“You missed the best prize of all!”, she said joyfully when she returned to the house…a bag, just a plastic bag, of something unrecognizable in her hand…

{the hair still shines beautifully, and looks like it might have just been uncoiled from the buns she wore before it was cut}

“It’s Estella’s hair”, she said…two long, curly ponytails…carefully cut and carefully kept for many, many years…

It’s a strange thing to see and touch something so personal, so tangible, from a great-grandmother long gone…and I couldn’t have been more thrilled when Mom gave it to me…almost immediately, I knew what I would do with those lovely locks.

Safely tucked up in my closet is a box that was filled with small family treasures—the same box that Matilda’s pipe was saved in…

…in there were two velvet ribbons—one a deep burgundy, one a bright fuschia—and both were wrapped up together with a hand-written note…

“Wore my hair parted in middle with bangs and two buns on each ear (like in my High School basketball picture).  These velvet ribbons, sometimes a black one—I wore across the front of head and pinned under each bun of hair.  Of course, my hair was thick and long and blond.

                                                 Mother--

                                                       Estella V. Stapley”

Now, not only did have I have the notes and the ribbon, but the very basketball picture Estella mentioned in the note—the project was fixed in my mind…

{A smiling Estella sits on the ground in front on the left—see her velvet ribbon in her hair?  About 1913} 

It’s been many months, and life’s been busy, but visions of my project were never far away…

{this was tricky—as I didn’t want to use glue on any of it—just pins.  The burgundy ribbon on the bottom, the fuschia throughout, and copies of the note and pictures…}

As I placed things where I wanted them in the framed shadowbox this weekend, thoughts kept running through my mind about Estella…when—and why--did she cut her beautiful hair, I wondered…

Marrying her childhood sweetheart right after high school, motherhood was quick to follow…the long, beautiful hair might have been a nuisance when caring for her babes…

{Estella, about 1930}

Or maybe, as she grew a little older, she thought, “A woman my age shouldn’t have hair this long”…

{the finished project under glass…things never photograph well under glass, but it sure looks pretty all framed up…}

I have a feeling this may have been the reason, as I felt that very same thing just this summer…

My hair had grown…LONG.  Longer than I think it’s ever been.  I really loved it.  But, 50 was coming closer and closer…should a woman my age have (gray!) hair that long?, I wondered…

 

 

 

 

{not my best picture day, but I had to capture the moment just before it was cut…}

…and so I made a decision, and off I went to the salon.  Before my friend made the first cut, I let her know I wanted to save it—thoughts of Estella’s saved hair in my mind—so she put it in a long ponytail, and off it came.  Done.

I’ve regretted it just a bit since then, and it’s growing once more…I don’t think I’ll let it get that long again, though…I am a 50-year-old-woman after all…

I’ll save the hair, and maybe my granddaughters or great-granddaughters will find it in a drawer someday and be happy to have something that was once such a physical, tangible part of me…

…if they’re anything like me, I think they will.

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: Estella Vance Stapley,hair