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EveryHairstyle

Style capital, India

Chennai

Long plaits with jasmine, the braided hair of Bharatanatyam dancers, and the kudumi of temple priests.

In Chennai the long, oiled plait decorated with jasmine is a daily sight, from schoolgirls with ribbons to women on their way to work. The city is also a centre of Bharatanatyam, the classical dance of Tamil Nadu, whose dancers wear a long braid fitted with jewelled ornaments. In Mylapore and other old temple quarters, some priests still wear the kudumi, the traditional tuft of hair.

The jadai and jasmine

The long plait, called jadai in Tamil, is worn with malli poo, jasmine strung into a strand and pinned around the top of the braid or along its length. Flower sellers near temples and markets sell it by the length, measured along the forearm. Brides wear a jadai covered with flowers or a jadanagam, a row of jewelled pieces, and the hair is often lengthened with a hairpiece. Oiling the hair with coconut oil is a weekly ritual in many homes.

Dancers and priests

Bharatanatyam dancers wear their hair in a long plait, often with a hairpiece, decorated with a jadanagam, jasmine and ornaments for the sun and moon on either side of the parting. Kalakshetra, the dance academy founded by Rukmini Devi Arundale in 1936, is in the city. The kudumi, a knot of hair kept while the rest of the head is shaved, was once common among Tamil men and is still kept by many temple priests.

Hairstyles of Chennai

BraidThe long jadai of Tamil women and dancersGajraJasmine strands worn on the plaitShikhaThe kudumi of Tamil temple priests

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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