Thursday, May 04, 2006

I am now the proud owner of two "knitted bathing caps" (kisui rosh update)

After all the songs and dances I've written here about head-coverings and what they represent, I finally found a couple of those knitted caps (recommended by some of my commenters) that I could live with. Some of you will probably be highly amused to know that, because my hair is short and because I'm not all that fond of having my ears covered when I'm indoors, I'm wearing both, er, caps as the knitted equivalent of roll-brimmed hats—I just roll them up until they clear my ears. Unfortunately, and much to my surprise, these caps are not "one size fits all." Not so surprising, thanks to Shifra's previous "report," is that I get a mild headache, just as Shifra described, from these caps (not to mention from my new baseball hat), especially from the cap that's roughly an inch longer and, therefore, has to be rolled up farther. On the plus side, the nice thing about these whatever-they're-calleds is that, because they're knit, they bear more than a passing resemblance to good old-fashioned kippot s'rugot ("knitted" [crocheted] yarmulkehs/skullcaps). That's about as close as I can get, in a woman's garment, to an identifiably-Jewish kisui rosh (head-covering).

For those of you who are wondering, I plan to wear these to synagogue (except on weekday mornings), to replace my kippot. But at work, I'll still be bareheaded, except when I'm off in a corner somewhere davvening Mincha (praying the Afternoon Service) in my baseball cap, because I'm still not ready to "represent." And why won't I be wearing these caps on weekday mornings, you ask? The answer is they're so long that I can't figure out how to put on tefillin when I'm wearing one—since it's not permissible to wear anything behind the head tefillah ("shel rosh") and the skin, I'd have to roll up one of those caps so far that it would practically fall off. Well, I can't say that Mark/PsychoToddler didn't warn me. :)

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12 Comments:

Blogger Maya Resnikoff said...

If it helps- I just lift parts of scarves or whatnot that are under my tfillin as I put them on so that they're over the tfillin instead- rather like a black-hatter's hat. Maybe that would work? It takes a moment of fiddling, but it works...

Fri May 05, 12:20:00 AM 2006  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

Debka_notion, I wasn't entirely kidding when I described my new kisuyei (?) rosh as knitted bathing caps--they're as tight as a second skin. I couldn't possibly fit anything under either one of them.

Here's a question for the women among my readers who cover their heads: Is it just me, with my thin hair, or does a sheitel/wig, hat, scarf, and/or snood flatten your hair like a pancake? Is there anything one can do about that?

Fri May 05, 01:00:00 AM 2006  
Blogger Ezzie said...

It flattens my wife's hair somewhat.

Why don't you try tichels, if you don't like the ears being covered? (And I'm not just saying that because my wife sells them. :) )

Fri May 05, 03:10:00 PM 2006  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

Ezzie, evidently, I need an update. When I first came to New York over 30 years ago and was introduced to the tichel (not to mention chalav yisrael and glatt kosher--kemach yashan and bishul yisrael entered into my vocabulary much later), the tichel was a scarf with the front two or three inches padded to lie flat. It was tied in the back of the head and *absolutely* covered the ears. How would you describe the current generation of tichlach?

Fri May 05, 06:02:00 PM 2006  
Blogger Maya Resnikoff said...

Tichel now refers to any scarf tied on your head- including on several occasions the long, maybe a foot wide ones that I often use on my hair, leaving about a foot of it showing at the bottom. They are often (but not always) tied so that the ears are not covered- and they can be as tight or loose as you'd like. They're often clipped with those kippah clips or with a couple bobby pins so that they stay on well. I pop the clips over my tfillin straps in the morning.

My hair is totally flat already, so I don't know about hair flattening. (Fine, fairly thin hair that's also just past waist length tends to be like that.)

Sun May 07, 11:05:00 PM 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Have you seen the book "Hide & Seek,Jewish Women and Hair Covering" by Lynne Shreiber? The description is - The traditional Jewish community has long been silent on the very personal yet also public matter of married women covering their hair with hats, scarves, and even wigs. "Hide and Seek" is the first book to discuss this topic, and includes legal and sociological perspectives of this observance, citing relevant texts and rabbinic discourse, as well as the history, tradition, and customs of Jewish communities from around the world.

Tue May 09, 02:51:00 PM 2006  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

Debka_notion, so, nowadays, a tichel is just a scarf of any kind? Thanks for the update.

Lillian, I haven't yet read "Hide & Seek,Jewish Women and Hair Covering," but I've heard of it. It sounds like an interesting book. Thanks for reminding me about it. I've put it on my "recommended reading" list.

Wed May 10, 12:24:00 AM 2006  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

By the way, I'm pleased to that I did manage to roll up the shorter one of my caps far enough to wear tefillin, though it was quite a trick.

Wed May 10, 12:47:00 AM 2006  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

That should have read, "I'm pleased to say . . ." Obviously, I'm up best my bedtime again.

Wed May 10, 12:50:00 AM 2006  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

"past," not best!

Okay, that's it. Goodnight, all.

Wed May 10, 12:51:00 AM 2006  
Blogger Ezzie said...

I'll try to find a pic on my blog...

Wed May 10, 01:00:00 AM 2006  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

Thanks, Ezzie.

Wed May 10, 09:35:00 AM 2006  

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