Shaving heads in the name of social justice

Lou Ann Merkle intends to be shorn of something precious, something that helps define her as a woman: her hair.

She's not doing it as a fashion statement, or because she's ill.

Merkle plans to have her head shaved to protest the killing of young black men by white police officers. She and friend Sylvia Metzler will surrender their locks as a highlight of a Martin Luther King's Birthday march that organizers say will bring 10,000 people to Center City.

In doing so, the two will embrace a symbol of grievance and mourning that stretches through societies and cultures back to the Old Testament. Now it's being undertaken by a pair of older white women who say they are weary of seeing black and brown people die in the nation's streets.

"It's a reminder to me that I have a responsibility," Merkle said. "If you want justice, you have to take an action."

Merkle, 61, is a sculptor, teacher, and caregiver. Metzler is a 77-year-old great-grandmother, a nurse-practitioner who moved to Kensington to treat poor people.

"They're both women who, to live, to breathe, they must act," said Carol Finkle, 72, a friend. "No matter who else joins or sees, they plant the seed in the hope that it will grow."

So far, joiners have been elusive. The women's plea for others to accompany them under the clippers on Monday has brought encouragement but no takers. The head-shaving will take place during a rally near Independence Hall, at the march's end point.

"It says, in such a powerful way, one that words can never convey, how deep this pain is in our community," said the Rev. Mark Tyler of Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, a leader of the MLK D.A.R.E. coalition organizing the march. "It gives me chills when I think about it."

In this country, scholars say, a woman's hair and hairstyle are an important attribute - a sign of fashion, a projection of self, a lure to potential mates.

Some models and celebrities go bald in an edgy bid for style. Two Indianapolis Colts cheerleaders shaved their heads to raise money for cancer research. Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron, and Sigourney Weaver have shed their hair for movie roles.

For the typical woman, though, being bald can be uncomfortable, emotionally and physically - last week it was 18 degrees outside. And it can shock friends and family, making them worry about health concerns.

Merkle and Metzler know what it's like.

A month ago, news broke of the Senate report on CIA torture, which found that detainees were subjected to far worse treatment than had been known. To Metzler, the findings seemed like one more affront, piled upon the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in Staten Island, N.Y.

Metzler tossed and turned all night, then awoke at 5 a.m. with one thought: "I'm going to shave my head."

She asked 30 friends to join her. Only Merkle answered yes.

"It went right to my heart," Merkle said. "I thought, I have to do this. I'm upset with sitting here and reading story after story of black men being killed in the street with no one being prosecuted. And I was deeply troubled by the information in the Senate report."

Shaving her head, she thought, would force her to surrender something beautiful and comforting, in its place creating a visual signal of distress and disagreement.

On Dec. 11, the two walked into Rosalinda's Beauty Salon on North Howard Street. Other customers stepped aside so the women could go first. The pair held hands as the clippers whirred.

"I'm just an ordinary person," Merkle said. "When I wake up in the morning and I don't have a head of hair, I'm uncomfortable - but Eric Garner's wife and children are more uncomfortable than I'll ever be."

Their hair has grown back into buzz cuts. But not for long.

Organizers see Monday's march as an alternative, a more muscular vision of King's legacy on what traditionally has been a day of community and school projects. The Day of Service will go on as scheduled.

The impetus for MLK D.A.R.E - short for "MLK Day of Action, Resistance, and Empowerment" - springs from the "Black Lives Matter" protests in Philadelphia last month.

Organizers say they're marching for justice, jobs, and education. Specifically, they want an end to "stop and frisk" police practices and creation of a powerful oversight board; a raise to $15 an hour as the minimum wage; and a fully funded, democratically run school system.

The protest begins at 1:30 p.m. outside the School District office at 440 N. Broad St. Marchers will trek south to City Hall, then east to Sixth and Market Streets. Merkle and Metzler will be shorn on a stage there.

Among different peoples, head shaving can be a sign of mourning, bravery or protest, a symbolic gesture that others are forced to see and acknowledge.

"It demonstrates, to oneself and others, that the individual is willing to take action," said Jason Del Gandio, who studies public advocacy at Temple University.

In the Old Testament, head-shaving could be a sign of changing status, said Bruce Wells, a Bible scholar at St. Joseph's University. A captive war bride might shave her head in mourning for her lost family, a parent to grieve the loss of a child.

In 2003, the Quaker activist Lillian Willoughby, then 88 and in a wheelchair, shaved her head near the Liberty Bell to oppose the Iraq war.

More than three dozen people in Hong Kong shaved their heads in September as part of the massive Occupy Central protests. A group of women did the same in West Virginia to protest surface mining.

"I've had so many say, 'I wish I could do it, but I can't,' " Metzler said. "A woman's hair is so symbolic."