I recently came across a woman who was exclaiming that she had just "made her hair" after her boyfriend pulled her hair-band off. I have never really heard of this phrase before, hence the question: does it mean the same as "do my hair"? How common an expression is it?
1
-
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is impossible to answer. The words are not a well-known set-phrase, it seems to come from a one-off utterance by one person in one setting, it could have ben a mishearing, etc, etc There's too much unknown here to give a reliable answer and is unlikely to help anyone else as a reference.– MitchJan 5, 2019 at 14:12
Add a comment
|
3 Answers
To "make" one's hair basically means to prepare and style it in a way one sees as favorable or normal. I'd say it's far more common for women to say it (never heard a man say it) because of the simple fact that their hair tends to be longer and require more time and effort to shape it as desired (so in your example, the woman might have been referring to having to gather her hair together into a pony-tail and twist the hair-band back around and in place). Men with long hair might have to do the same, but I doubt they'd use the phrase "make my hair" because of how it's more commonly said by women, and thus has a feminine association.
-
2Is this primarily a British expression? I don't think I've ever heard it in American English. I assume the meaning is about the same as what Americans would call having your hair done (?).– DrewMay 29, 2016 at 1:56
-
1Good point - I'm American and when I read the question I thought it sounded odd that it wasn't "do my hair," but "make" and "do" kind of have the same sense to them anyways...– NickMay 29, 2016 at 2:48
-
-
I am an Indian and here we have a tendency to use literal translations of words and phrases from our own local language into English. In Hindi we use the term ’bal banana' which translates into 'hair making' or 'making my hair'. I guess the woman also translated her own local language into English.
I think the same as the Indian person. In German you can say: “Haare machen” thus it could be a transfer from the person ‘s mother tongue.
