Our healing touch

“I’m the fourth generation of three sisters. I remember hearing the stories of how my great-grandmother and her sisters, young Italian immigrants, would dress each other’s hair each morning—brushing, braiding, pinning it up—before they started their day working in a factory sewing pockets on men’s workpants. As I grew up, I watched my mom and her sisters care for each other in close, affectionate ways. And with my own two sisters… we often find ourselves curled up on a couch, arms, legs overlapping, where just being together is the activity. It’s a comfort level achieved by quietly talking, laughing, playing with each other’s hair, being close to each other. “It’s the comfort you feel when you’re surrounded by those you trust and love—like with your sisters, or a mother and daughters, or very close cousins, or even best friends—the ones you can literally ‘let your hair down’ with. You don’t have to fill the spaces or explain yourself. You can just be together, and that, in and of itself, is healing. “Our healing touch is all about the hair. Hair is a symbol of our identity—who we are, how we see ourselves. Our hair differentiates us, but also connects us. Isn’t the first way we ‘date’ a photograph by the hairstyle? Hair is tactile, sensuous, and the touching and stroking of it can be comforting and healing. These women are connecting with each other in a quiet moment, attuned to each other, in harmony.” –Susan Lordi