Vanessa Hua: Shedding Hair for the New Year

Vanessa Hua and her hair stylist face some decisions rooted in Lunar New Year tradition.

The other day, the hair stylist urged me to cut off four or five inches, but I refused. “Just a trim!” I insisted.

I felt strange staring at myself in the mirror and at the hair that cascaded to my waist. It was the first time in three years that I’d gotten my hair cut—something I used to do every few months, and always in the weeks before Lunar New Year.

The pandemic interrupted traditions for me and millions around the world who celebrate the holiday.

I skipped the haircut in 2021, along with my twin sons. Even as salons and barber shops reopened, we held out—maybe out of laziness, a low-maintenance style to the extreme. It also gave us a perverse sense of pride, a tangible goal we progressed toward, millimeter by millimeter. One son vowed to wait until children his age became eligible for the vaccine. That didn’t happen until later that year.

But as the Lunar New Year approached, tradition called to me. The origins of the ritual are murky. One explanation is that the word for hair, “fa”, is homonym for part of the phrase, “fa cai” which means “getting rich.” Cut your hair, and you cut away your good fortune. In another version, your hair is a stand-in for your longevity—you don’t want to cut either short. And yet another involves a pun that the Han people invoked, to rebel against Manchu rulers during the Qing dynasty.

So often, as an American-born daughter of immigrants, I’ve wondered if I’m being authentic. If I’m getting tradition “right.” The various explanations remind me that no one really knows the truth. There’s no single way of being Chinese. I can follow—or reject—tradition as I please.

After the stylist finished, she handed me a mirror to examine her handiwork. Hair grows about six inches a year and by reckoning. she’d trimmed off the hardest months of 2020. She cut it straight across, a blunt I asked her to soften. I leaned back in the chair and shed an inch more.

With a Perspective, I’m Vanessa Hua

Vanessa Hua is a writer and novelist.