## The Witch’s Hair: A Powerful Symbol Throughout History and Pop Culture
Winifred Sanderson’s crimson bird’s-nest bouffant in *Hocus Pocus*, Marie Laveau’s waist-grazing braids in *American Horror Story: Coven*, Nancy Downs’s rebellious jet black bob in *The Craft*, and Cher’s electrifying curls in *The Witches of Eastwick* – these iconic hairstyles are not just fashion choices; they are integral parts of these characters’ magical identities. A witch is defined by her hair, it’s her essence, a story woven into every strand.
Few witches have enchanted the public quite like the Owens sisters in 1998’s *Practical Magic*. Gillian (Nicole Kidman) and Sally (Sandra Bullock) sport lustrous, otherworldly manes that steal the scene. Their hair is so shiny, thick, and mesmerizing that it leaves viewers wondering how they could look that good. While stylist Rodolfo Valentin’s magic touch certainly played a role, the Owens sisters’ carefree tresses go deeper than mere onscreen hair and makeup.
“[Hair] is how you know a witch when you see her in ancient stories or images from the early modern period – their wild, flowing locks,” says Elizabeth Ann Pollard, professor of history at San Diego State University, who specializes in depictions of witches over time. “There is a great deal of writing that describes in vivid detail the imagining of what a witch might look like. She will wear dark clothing or nothing at all. She has bare feet. Her hair is flying wildly all over the place. She will be pale. Her fingernails are disgusting and scraggly. Her teeth are nasty.” For witches across historical texts and now pop culture, hair is never just hair. It is a tool of seduction, a symbol of inner chaos or control, a conduit of power, sexuality, and freedom.
You can learn so much from a witch’s hair alone. Look at Suki Ridgemont (Michelle Pfeiffer) in *The Witches of Eastwick*, transforming from demure to dangerous as her hair grows bigger and wilder. Or Samantha Stephens (*Bewitched*) with her tidy ’60s housewife bob, a stark contrast to her mother Endora’s towering red beehive and electric blue eyeshadow as she tries to coax her daughter back to witchcraft.
“Witches are the projections of the fears and the longings of any given time and place,” says Pollard. The way witches look reflects those same fears, a physical manifestation of our anxieties. *The Witches of Eastwick*, released during the height of the satanic panic, features devil-worshipping women who have strayed from the righteous path, reflecting the anxieties of a time when people were genuinely afraid of devil-worshipping cults.
The ’90s brought *The Craft* and its witches, clad in thick eyeliner, black lipstick, and box-dyed hair. At a time of growing youth rebellion, with goths and grunge music dominating the scene, these witches wear their defiance on their bodies, an unapologetic revolt against societal norms. As their powers grow, their looks become more intense; hair becomes a literal and metaphorical extension of their power.
Despite the prevalence of witches in pop culture, not all depictions are created equal. “There is a real problem with how white and European depictions of witches tend to be in modern pop culture, often neglecting the complex picture from the past,” says Pollard, citing examples like Tituba from Salem or Medea from Colchis in modern Georgia on the Black Sea.
“You very rarely see black witches,” adds Aramide Tinubu, TV critic for Variety. “We very rarely get a spotlight as witches, and when you do it is often as small side characters. I think of Bonnie Bennett in *The Vampire Diaries*, and even then…she is a beautiful woman, and they have her hair looking crazy because there were no black hair or makeup artists on set.” In the case of *American Horror Story*’s Marie Laveau (Angela Bassett), while captivating, her character can sometimes border on caricature. In real life, Laveau was a herbalist, midwife, and Voodou practitioner in New Orleans, and Tituba was an enslaved Native American woman, not a Black Voodou practitioner as she is often wrongfully depicted.
It’s important to remember that witches are not just fictitious, conical-hat-wearing characters. Many were real people who faced real consequences due to their perceived power, and hair was thought to be the root of these powers. In 1486, the best-selling manual of the Inquisition, *Malleus Maleficarum*, identified witches’ hair as being so full of magical powers that it must be cut as a safety measure (along with torture, ideally). Anyone suspected of witchcraft would have their head shaved in hopes it would render them powerless and more willing to confess.
“[Witches] have existed throughout history, and they do exist today,” says Pollard. Whether as rootworkers, spiritual community leaders, Wiccans, or hoodoo practitioners, witch is a term often used broadly to explain the unexplainable.
“*Practical Magic* was a happy medium,” says Tinubu, “something different than the *Hocus Pocus* kind of cloaked-up witches or *The Craft*’s very dark and chaotic witches.” Now we have *The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina*, *Mayfair Witches*, *Discovery of Witches*, and, of course, the long-awaited *Wicked* movie all swirling around the zeitgeist.
In the quaint New England town where *Practical Magic* is set, witches aren’t swathed in darkness like in *The Craft* nor are they campy like in *Hocus Pocus*. Gillian and Sally love slamming margaritas and wear slinky low-rise skirts. They hail from a long line of powerful witches, yet they are not immune to picking the wrong men (and sometimes killing them). They love a casual claw clip. Witches: They really are just like us.
