BETWEEN US

To you, ladies, who follow modern fashions, do not marry a Bulgarian and do not go and live in Bulgaria! You wouldn't be able to style your hair to your liking there: women will be forbidden the right to have their hair cut.
It's arbitrary, you might say. Perhaps. But this particular Balkan people is one of the most attached to its traditions. Now, there, women have always worn two heavy braids of braided hair falling over their shoulders, and it is a form of patriotism for their husbands not to want this otherwise charming custom to disappear.
In our country too, peasant women used to wear braids, but since they hid them under caps, it was possible for them, when they needed money, to have them cut and sell them. There was even a veritable hair fair in Limoges every June. Women from Limousin, Auvergne, Quercy, Vendée, and even Brittany would come. Small linen shops were set up in this market. When a peasant woman came, the "cutter" would sit her down, weigh the braids, and, based on the fineness and color of the hair, offer a certain price, calculated by the gram. If they agreed, the merchant would act immediately, the braids would fall into the scales, and the poor girl would leave, her head shaved, but her purse a little heavier.
Each year, prices for this living harvest varied, and a fixed rate was established. The average, at that time, was 90 to 100 francs per kilogram. In Limoges, there is a case of a woman from Corrèze whose hair, along with that of her three daughters, brought her the sum, enormous for the time, of 4,770 francs. This family hair, it is true, weighed a total of 43 kilos.