Leg Hair

After the car accident where I broke my right leg, I had to wear a cast down my entire leg for a long time (I can’t really remember how long it was, but it was during summer and fall, and since I couldn’t run around like the other kids, it seemed like a very long time). When the cast came off (12 years old), my right leg was covered with long, dark hair. This was especially humorous because my left leg had barely any hair!

But no worries, my left leg quickly caught up. Ever since then, I have always had a lot of leg hair. For a while, it was something I tried to hide, because I was embarrassed by it. Later on, I didn’t really care as much, but it was always something I was conscious of.

Here at the Shalom center, the kids don’t have very much hair. All of their haircuts are very short, girls also, probably because it’s not easy to bathe (There are no showers. We, including myself, fill buckets of water from the nearby steam and then slowly pour it on our bodies with a cup. It would probably take several buckets and a lot of time to clean long hair this way).

The last time I cut my hair was in Mozambique. I told the barber to cut it shorter, but not very short. Unfortunately for me there is only one hair cut for African males (a generalization, but largely true), and he cut my hair extremely short, probably the shortest it’s ever been. At least I won’t need another haircut for a while!

But even with this shorter hair, the kids here love to touch my hair. And not only my head hair, but my arms and legs, too! They are fascinated by it. Any time I sit down, they come in around me and one will run their hands through my head hair, another will rub my arm, and if I’m wearing shorts, they will play with my leg hair, too. And not just the smallest kids do this- even the 15 year-old children do!

I know you are probably freaked out by this. At first, I was, too. It seemed really weird. But now I think it’s pretty funny. Here is something basic, that people really can’t control (maybe we can shave or wax, but hair still grows back! And when we lose it, it’s hard to get it back). And yet it was used as a way to connect with the kids. God knows I need ways to connect with these kids, as almost all of them don’t speak English, and I only speak a few words of Swahili!

The other day, an 11 year-old girl (who lived in Kenya, and therefore speaks English and often acts as a translator) told me she wants long leg hair like mine one day. I just laughed.