WEBVTT - Hair on Fire, Part 2 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:07.200 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:14.920 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:15.800 name is Robert. 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.360 Lamb and I am Joe McCormick, and we're back with 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:22.599 part two in our discussion of burning hair. This topic 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:26.200 was inspired by a personal experience for me. I actually 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:28.800 singed a bunch of hair off my arm while grilling 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:30.720 at a family get together for the Fourth of July. 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:32.839 Not the first time I've done that while grilling for 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:36.519 a crowd, and it got me thinking about what happens 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:40.240 when hair burns. So in the last episode, we talked 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:44.560 about the distinctive and sometimes overpowering smell of burning hair, 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:47.559 which seems to be mostly due to the presence of 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:50.920 sulfur compounds that are formed and released when hair burns, 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:55.000 a chief one being sulfur dioxide, which is released when 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:58.680 the keratin of hair is decomposed by fire. Sulfur dioxide 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:01.640 is also a major part of the characteristic smell of 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.120 a burning matchhead. We also ended up talking about a 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:09.560 couple of studies of hair catching on fire in space ships, 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:13.680 specifically addressing the question of whether human hair is a 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:18.600 fire hazard in environments with higher levels of oxygen than 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:21.800 Earth's atmosphere, and the answer seems to be yes. In 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:25.720 oxygen rich environments where things catch fire more easily because 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:29.119 there's more oxygen, human hair can be a potent fuel 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:32.800 source and fire can spread quickly over it. So these 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:36.360 papers ended up talking about strategies to mitigate that risk 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:41.160 in future spacecraft and space habitation environments that might be 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.320 using elevated levels of oxygen. And then finally we talked 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.920 about stories of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century English 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:52.320 pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, who famously was 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:55.840 said to put burning slow matches under his hat, and 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:58.240 he's drawn with like these slow matches and it kind 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:02.320 of fuses, sticking out alongside his hair. In some evolved 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.120 versions of this legend, maybe he's said to have the 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:08.640 burning slow matches in his hair or in his beard, 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:12.600 And we discussed where these stories come from, how historically 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:16.200 plausible they are, including considerations of the danger of catching 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:19.240 one's own hair or beard on fire in general. 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:22.520 In case you don't listen to that episode, don't try 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:25.400 any of this at home. Don't set out to do 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:28.320 anything flammable with your beard or. 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:31.400 Hair now, kind of Continuing on that theme, I ended 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.360 up pursuing a research trail where I didn't turn up 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:36.480 quite as much as I expected to, but I at 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:39.160 least want to report what I did come across. So 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:45.040 I had a vague idea from somewhere that the powdered 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:48.480 wigs that were popular in parts of Western Europe, especially 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:51.799 in the eighteenth century, were prone to catching on fire. 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.760 My impression here may have been formed by seeing older 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:59.320 illustrations of this, or like cartoons from the period that 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:03.440 show people with elaborate hair wigs and headdresses catching on 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:08.040 fire due to a candle placed underneath them or something. Ultimately, 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:10.480 I found less about this than I expected to, and 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:12.880 I can't tell if it was actually any more common 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:16.320 than regular instances of people catching their hair on fire, 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:19.560 which of course does happen occasionally here and there. But 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:21.800 just to get into what it did come across, I 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:25.519 found mentioned in a post on the British Library's Untold 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:27.959 Lives blog, and I may have mentioned this on the 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:30.880 show before, but generally I think the British Libraries have 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:34.359 some great blogs and archives about history and some interesting 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:39.160 documents in their collections. This post was by Julia Armfield 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:44.160 from August twenty thirteen, and it's a short post concerning 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.840 how the elaborate wigs that had been so popular among 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.240 the wealthy during the Georgian era, which was about seventeen 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:55.320 fourteen to eighteen thirty seven, these elaborate wigs began to 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:59.200 fall out of fashion later on in that period and 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:01.600 going into the Victiman period, they sort of fill out 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:04.880 out of fashion after the French Revolution and then especially 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:08.560 after the eighteen thirties. According to the author, this was 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:13.320 in part because of changing social perceptions about wigs that 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:16.200 they came to be seen not just as fashion, but 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.680 in some cases as a kind of undesirable show of 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:24.520 vanity or as a deception. Which is funny because I 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.680 realized that even today there are like changes in how 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:30.520 you know, people are always like trying to affect their 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:33.680 outward appearance. There's like, you know, there's hair care and 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:38.240 cosmetics and stuff like that in every era, and for 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:42.119 some reason, you can look at someone trying to shape 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:43.920 their appearance in a certain way and just say, well, 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:47.080 that's just fashion, but with just a different kind of 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:50.159 emotional spin on it. You start to think of it 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:53.040 as they're trying to look unreal. They're trying to look away. 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:54.920 They're not supposed to. Now it's a deception. 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:58.920 Yeah, that's interesting to think about. I guess the stigma 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:03.000 against powdered wigs in particular has pretty much stuck. I think, yea. 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.599 You know, there's certainly there's nothing wrong with wearing a 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:07.120 wig or a hair piece. But if it is a 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:10.520 powdered wig or a hair piece like out of the 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:15.719 period piece, broadly speaking, like, there's a certain air that 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:18.760 comes with that. I guess there are probably some exceptions 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:21.440 in the fashion world and so forth. 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:23.880 Well, like why would wearing a wig be a deception? 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:26.800 But like wearing clothes that cover your skin is not 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:27.400 a deception. 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:29.680 I don't know, yeah, I mean, I guess on one level, 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.640 someone could make the argument, well, the hair supposedly grows 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:34.840 out of you. The hair is, of course, by its 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.719 very nature, something you put on you. But I don't know, yeah, 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:41.160 I mean, when you get down to it, why does 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:43.080 it matter one way or the other. Anyway? 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:47.400 This blog post mentions, in apart from changing social perceptions 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:52.599 of wigs, that there were that there were practical problems 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:55.800 presented by the wigs of the Georgian era. Including the 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:58.720 fact that some wigs were so huge and heavy that 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.400 they actually caused people wear, daring them to develop sores 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:06.440 on their scalps. Another thing is infestation by insects or 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:11.239 other unwanted gritters and parasites. Lice and fleas sometimes would 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:15.040 get into wigs, and that's also sometimes held up as 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:18.600 one reason for the popularity of wigs. Is that, well, 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:20.640 maybe the lice will get into the wig instead of 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:22.800 getting into your actual hair if you can cut your 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:25.600 hair short or shave it, and then you know, they 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:27.599 just get into the wig instead, But then you've got 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:31.080 lice in your wig. I've read in separate places about 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:35.560 mitigation strategies for this, including historical trends in wigs that 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.960 would include built in lice or flea traps that would 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:41.560 be some kind of container with like bait hidden inside 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.160 the hair. But also this British Library post mentions that 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:49.279 Georgian wigs would be flammable due to the presence of 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:53.960 palmades made in large part out of animal fats such 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:58.200 as hogs lard or mutton renderings. Of course, animal fat 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:01.080 can be quite combustible, and so if you're using that 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:03.520 as the base of a kind of hair styling material 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:07.719 or palmade that we would think of today to hold 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:10.760 the wig, and in its styling shape, you can imagine 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:13.240 there would be trouble, like you know, combine wigs gelled 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:15.760 up with animal fat and the use of candles as 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:19.240 a primary light source, and it just seems like it 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:22.440 would be a recipe for wig fires. But I wasn't 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:25.400 able to turn up a lot about this in like 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:29.160 history books or academic articles about the history of wigs. 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:32.160 I did find another blog post. This one was on 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:35.880 a history blog called all Things Georgian by an author 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:39.280 named Sarah Murden that managed to dig up a handful 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:43.840 of eighteenth century newspaper reports from England and Scotland of 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:47.880 young women's wigs or headdresses catching on fire from a 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:51.120 candle or in one case I think, from a fireplace, 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:54.239 and in a couple of cases leading to their deaths. 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.800 But again I did not find convincing evidence that this 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:01.840 was actually a like really common currents or anything. So, 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:05.120 you know, with candles everywhere and large smeared masses of 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.600 hair bobbing around all over the place, it does seem 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.200 plausible that this would happen a lot, But apart from 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:12.040 a few reports here and there. I'm not sure it 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:15.720 actually did. Historians of wigs and hair, if you're aware 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:16.960 of something I'm not right in. 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:20.679 Yeah, it is often weird to look back on times 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:23.800 when candles were your main form of elimination. There were 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:27.960 a lot more open fires and less in the way 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:31.240 of fire safety, And on one level, you just kind 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:33.640 of think, well, why wasn't everything on fire all the time? 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:38.559 And certainly fire was a huge threat. But yeah, I 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:41.160 don't know. Maybe part of it is we sometimes don't 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:45.600 give our ancestors enough credit for not catching everything on fire. 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.640 I don't know, we think of them as the way 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:50.960 we might think of our own children if they're in 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:52.480 the presence of an open flame. 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:56.199 Well, I guess sometimes when we think about a historical 0:08:56.280 --> 0:09:01.280 activity or apparatus that came with certain hazards, we imagine 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:05.959 the prevalence, but without the accustomedness that would accompany prevalence. 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:08.040 I mean, a world with lots of candles also had 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.240 people who were used to handling candles. 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:24.520 Yes, exactly. Now, at this point in the episode, we're 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:27.400 going to get a little bit into hair of fire 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:30.960 and flaming beards and so forth, and mythology and folklore 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:33.480 and literature, and I have to admit this is an 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:35.760 area where I thought we were going to have more 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:40.200 to draw from. And certainly, you know, we probably left 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:43.480 some things off. And certainly, as always right in and 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.000 let us know if you have some great examples to 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:49.760 bring to mind. But generally I was thinking, Okay, hair 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:53.160 can burn, and it's reasonable to assume that every fire 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.240 bearing culture would have some experience with this that they 0:09:56.360 --> 0:10:02.440 might further craft into various myths and legends, jokes, you know, 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.000 terms of phrase and so forth. Right, I mean, you 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.040 have fire, hair can catch on fire. Maybe it doesn't 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:10.280 happen that often, but if it happens once, it's memorable. 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:13.760 And therefore you might have some traditions. You might have 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:18.200 some magical creatures, You might have some gods and goddesses 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:22.160 that have flaming hair. And while this is true, we 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:26.160 do have some examples to discuss, we didn't. I wasn't 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:28.240 able to find as many examples as I was expecting. 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:30.720 I was expecting it to be just a long list 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:35.760 of creatures and entities, but there's actually a lot of 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:38.520 like bleed over into other categories that makes it difficult. 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:42.000 You know, like just characters with red hair or characters 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.120 who have some sort of a halo or an ara. 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:47.960 But then it's kind of left to exactly what languages 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:50.760 used as to whether you would call this flaming hair. 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:53.480 Yeah, I think there are a lot of examples that 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:57.440 are arguable or edge cases, but I also was expecting 0:10:57.480 --> 0:10:59.880 there just to be a lot more defined with the 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:02.120 was just like, here's a figure with fire for hair. 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.880 Maybe because I'm used to Hades from the Disney movie. 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:10.000 Yeah, yeah, this is a great example to bring up. Yeah, 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:12.559 the Greek god Hades in the nineteen ninety seven Hercules 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:17.080 movie flaming blue hair, voiced by James Woods. He's not 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:22.360 actually a fire related deity in Greek mythology. This was 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:25.920 just a visual choice by Disney that actually, I guess 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:28.959 the exact alchemy of this is they're they're dragging in 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:34.480 elements often associated generally with the Christian devil, you know, 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:37.720 fire and so forth, and creating this kind of like 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:42.079 Haiti Satan combo for their their main villain and making 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:45.440 like a very distinct visual choice on how to present him. 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:48.680 Yeah, it's like a combination so you associate the Christian 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:52.480 the Christian Satan with the lake of fire. I guess. 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:55.959 So there's your fire element, but then you you've got 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:58.640 to have it like cold, sort of more like you 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:02.200 would get in Dante's Lower levels of Hell, or like 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:05.160 you would get I think more often in Greek depictions 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:07.160 of the underworld is just kind of like a cold, 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:10.679 dark place. So they make the fire blue, which ironically 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:12.640 is actually the hottest color of flame. 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:18.040 Right, So yeah, that's that's a that's a fun example 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:20.400 to bring up. I mean, there's so many pop culture 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:21.840 examples of this, and I think that's one of the 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:25.960 confusing things, is you. I mean, I would assume anyway 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:29.920 that okay, we have characters like Captain Marvel and and 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:33.800 and so forth from Marvel comics, and and they have 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:36.720 like flaming hair at times, then this is perhaps just 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:40.040 a more modern example of a longer health tradition. And 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:42.440 then we're gonna have all these other examples and in 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:46.680 all these different belief systems. But yeah, I found that 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:50.040 you have certainly have no shortage of things like fire 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:55.560 elementals in modern fiction and sci fi and fantasy, all 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:59.080 sorts of creatures and spirits with flaming hair and flaming beards, 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:01.920 but they're just these seem there's just seemed to be 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:04.559 less of them when you actually look into folklore and 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:05.560 mythology and legend. 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:08.400 As far as the recent pop culture examples go. You 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:11.160 brought up one in the notes that I didn't think of, 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:13.120 which is the one from the Wall the movie. 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:17.040 Oh yeah, yeah, this is the animated Pink Floyd movie, 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:20.240 and uh, I believe it's Pink's wife and it is 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:23.800 depicted later on as this kind of like monstrous cannibal 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.959 creature with flaming hair, hair of literal fire. 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:29.360 I've seen this movie, I mean a long time ago. 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:31.359 I think I was in high school. But I completely 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:34.800 forgot about this. The main thing I remember is warning 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:36.920 for a gross thing about the scene where he shaves 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:37.680 his nipple off. 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:41.880 Oh yeah, I forgot about that. How could you. I 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:44.559 mainly just remember the hammers like marching around, I. 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:46.920 Guess, yeah, yeah, the fascist imagery. 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:48.960 Yeah yeah, it's been a long time since I've seen 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:50.040 I think I saw it when I was a kid, 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:53.360 and you know, on TV parts of it. Anyway, Ultimately, 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.520 the examples of like fire elemental beings are too numerous 0:13:56.559 --> 0:13:59.319 to mention, but I was reminded of that there's one 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:01.079 in the Dark Crystal. So I picked up my copy 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:04.840 of The Dark Crystal Bestiaria, and there's a description of 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:07.880 these things called the Firelings. And I believe these pop 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:13.800 up in some of the like Dark Crystal Expanded Universe material, 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:15.880 I guess, you know, in comic books and so forth. 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:17.360 And I think maybe they were going to be a 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:22.120 part of a possible film project that never came to fruition. 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:26.240 But these are supposed to be direct descendants of Gelfling 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.560 exiles who live in the superheated core of the planet Thraw, 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.640 And they're depicted as Gelfling like beings, but they have 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:37.440 hair of fire. And even then, I found like a 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:41.320 couple of different images that kind of portray different ideas 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:43.080 of this. Like in one of them, you can see 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:46.800 the Gelfling, or in this case, the filing has hair 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:49.640 that is literal fire, and the others they just look 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:54.080 like fiery, golden beings. And it's kind of left up 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:58.200 to your interpretation if their hair is just actual physical hair, 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:01.600 or if it is like the the chemical emergence, you know, 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:06.640 this this pyrotechnic experience of fire. I don't know. 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:11.080 I'm tempted to speculate that a lot of this modern 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:16.360 hair as fire imagery and cartoons and stuff specifically comes 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:21.080 from physical and visual similarities between hair and fire that emerge, 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:26.880 especially when they're being depicted in human drawing. That you know, 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:30.240 the ways that you sort of represent say hair blowing 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:32.640 in the wind, or hair flowing in a like a 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:37.040 still painting or photo or still painting or drawing can 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:40.600 very much resemble the kind of wisps of a fire, 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:45.000 but oriented in the opposite direction. Often. Yeah, I don't know, 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:47.600 and that's not a fully formed thought, but something almost 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:51.120 makes me think that it's something about like modern drawing 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:55.240 and animation traditions that give rise to seeing these things 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:58.600 as visually similar and then inviting the mind to make 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:01.520 a connection where it's not just that hair looks like fire, 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:04.000 but you have a character with fire fore hair. 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:07.120 Yeah, yeah, I was definitely thinking a bit about like 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:12.120 how hair appears when it is say, caught by the wind, 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:15.360 or if one is underwater and you have like footage 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:17.400 of someone with long hair and the hair is floating 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:20.120 and so forth, And if that has anything to do 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:21.840 with I mean that, you know, you could sort of 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:25.960 link it to the to the history of underwater the 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:28.120 underwater moving picture, which of course isn't going to go 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:32.480 back that far, and you could perhaps, I guess, arguably 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:35.920 enhance comparisons that would be made in general, because of 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:38.600 course there are always going to be comparisons made between 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:43.480 you know, reddish hair and fire. You can factor in 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:49.000 things like you know, length and texture as well. But 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:51.760 we you know, at the end of the day, we 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:55.480 do have at least a few examples of creatures and 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:58.560 entities that I feel like are close enough that we 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:01.600 can say, okay, we can quibble about the details, but 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.560 these creatures kind of sound like they have fire for hair. 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:05.960 Okay, what'd you come up with? 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:09.080 Now? A couple of these are from South America. One 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:12.680 is called the Kuma Conga, and this is a disembodied 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:16.720 head spirit of Brazilian folklore that I was reading about 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:21.240 in The Werewolf in between Indians and Whites. This is 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:25.240 by Mark Harris, and this was published in t PTE, 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:29.800 Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America. 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:34.080 And in this article, Harris describes this entity as entailing 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:36.280 aspects of what we might think of as a werewolf, 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:40.520 you know, in Western folklore especially as well as sightings 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:45.439 of balls or wheels of fire. So that's another thing 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:47.600 I saw several examples of. It's like you have sort 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:50.000 of like fire entities, kind of will of the wisp 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.480 sort of entities, and it depends on how far you 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.960 push that from being like a mere strange light to 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:01.679 being a flaming entity or a flaming head or something 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:04.960 with physiology to it. Now, another one that I've run 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:09.320 across was the Kurapura. I've seen descriptions of this spirit 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:14.280 from Tupequar knee traditions of Brazil, entailing a beard of fire, 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:17.600 though Carol Rose doesn't mention this. In her entry on 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:20.840 the creature in the book Spirits, Fairies, Leprechaus and Goblins 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:24.760 and Encyclopedia, she describes it as a bright, red faced 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:28.320 gnome with cloven hoofs, as well as a shaggy creature 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:31.800 with backward turned feet. It's kind of a forest guardian 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:36.360 of game. Then there's also an Afro Brazilian tradition of 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:40.560 the Kurapira that casts everything more as a will of 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:42.920 the wisp that leads people off track in the forest, 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:47.640 but maybe sort of bribe with offerings. But I've seen 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:50.639 some more recent articles that mention either red hair or 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:55.240 hair of fire. So I can't completely dispute that idea, 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:58.000 but again, it seems like we often run into this 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:00.919 territory of there's probably some linguistic drift in some of 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:05.399 these descriptions, you know, especially when you're dealing with multiple translations, 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.959 So hard for me to tell any way exactly like 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.800 what the tradition actually is. Are we dealing with creatures 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:15.720 that are thought to have hair of fire or does 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:18.879 that just sort of get added on somewhere in the chain. 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:22.440 Or I think, especially the further back you go in history, 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:25.400 just to kind of blending of the concepts of light 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:29.320 and fire, that in many cases any light source that 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:33.040 didn't come from the sky or whatever could be described 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:34.040 as a fire. 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:36.679 Right right, Yeah, if you see a strange light in 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:40.000 the forest, for example, or in the sky, and it 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:43.919 is of sufficient luminosity, like it's very reasonable to say, oh, 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:45.439 there was some sort of fire out there, there was 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:47.359 some sort of Yeah, what else could it be? If 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.320 it's like above, if it's not the moon, if it's 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:52.840 not a you know, something that is obviously celestial, and 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:55.399 it's not something that is like a firefly, then you 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:58.560 might reasonably think in terms of candles and torches and 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:02.880 so forth. I also reminded of a fireball yo kai 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:05.200 from Japanese traditions. I think we may have talked about 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:08.600 this one before and name Ubagabi, and this is more 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:11.520 of a fireball, but with the face of an old man. 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:14.720 And I guess if it is an old man's face, 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:17.440 then you could say, well, the hair is fire, but 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:20.239 maybe not. Maybe that's adding too much on, you know. 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:25.760 I've also seen some ideas about Loki from Norse mythology 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:30.920 having hair of fire or flame hair. This I didn't 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:33.720 get a real strong feeling off of this either. Hair 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:37.040 with these two can get kind of complicated, and in general, 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:41.080 our sort of understanding of them are kind of, you know, 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:45.280 influenced by Marvel comics now, but you know, Thor sometimes 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:47.960 had red hair and a red beard, and Loki is 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:52.400 sometimes depicted with red hair, sometimes arguably resembling a flame. 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:55.560 And this is where I've seen various commentators, you know, 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:58.439 pointing out this idea that Loki may be connected to 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:02.520 the word Logi, which means flame, but is also the 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:07.280 name of one of the otin who personified fire. So 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:10.639 again I don't know there's that you could make a case. 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:14.159 I guess that sometimes Loki was perhaps a fire headed god, 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:18.280 but maybe not. Now one of the stronger cases I 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.280 came across is there's an Armenian warrior god by the 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:25.960 name of Vaughan, the Dragon Reaper, who apparently is more 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:31.000 traditionally described as having celestial fire for hair, a beard 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:34.880 of flames, and eyes like suns. So this one would 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:39.080 seem a stronger example. Though it is interesting here too 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:41.639 that we're getting into like celestial fire here in this 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:44.439 idea of like a holy flame that doesn't necessarily behave 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:47.080 like a real flame, and is also kind of like 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:50.800 a halo, kind of like a holy aura. But I 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:53.760 feel like this guy, you can make a stronger case 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:56.320 and say, Okay, this guy has has fire for hair. 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:01.679 So I was not initially familiar with the dragon Reaper, 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:05.760 but the Dragon Reaper apparently is like a that's a 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:09.359 translation of a traditional epithet. But that's it's amazing how 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:12.440 much that sounds like modern cool. It sounds like something 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:13.440 out of a video game. 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:15.960 Yeah, this is this is old school cool right here. 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:19.359 It makes me think I really need to get into 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:23.399 Armenian mythology more I really don't know much about about 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:26.360 Armenian myth and lore, but if this is any indication 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:29.960 that they have warriors with flaming hair that slay dragons, 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:32.240 then I want to know more about it. Now, there 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:36.719 are a lot of additional possible examples in Buddhist iconography 0:22:36.840 --> 0:22:41.199 and Hindu iconography where you have things like hair of 0:22:41.240 --> 0:22:45.719 fire going on. But also again sometimes it's maybe more 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:49.200