Lock of hair

• A primitive belief maintains that owning a lock of hair from another’s head gives one power over that individual, in the same manner that owning a piece of clothing or image of an individual grants the owner such powers.
• During antiquity, Roman girls who were about to be married offered locks of hair to Jove (Jupiter) in his forest god aspect, Virbius (Virbio).
• An ancient and worldwide (eg. China, Egypt, Thailand, Albania, Ukraine, India, Israel, etc) pre-adolescent custom was to shave children's heads but leave a lock of hair (sometimes several locks) remaining on their heads. Upon reaching adulthood the lock of hair was usually cut off (see rites of passage).
• The scalplock was a lock of hair kept throughout a man's life. Like the childhood locks mentioned above, the scalplock was also a worldwide phenomenon, particularly noted amongst eastern woodland Indians (see Iroquois, Huron, Mahican, Mohawk) in north America (see also scalping and mohawk hairstyle).
• Sviatoslav I of Kiev was reported to have worn a scalp lock by Leo the Deacon, a Byzantine historian . Later Ukrainian Cossacks (Zaporozhians) sported scalplocks called oseledets or khokhol. In India this custom remains active but usually only amongst orthodox Hindus. See sikha.
• In Mark Twain's travel book 'The Innocents Abroad', he describes Moroccan men sporting scalp locks.