Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Panankula pole mudi!!!!

Any true blue mallu girl will be able to vouch for having had to oil her hair (plaits or monkey crop or whatever) with that magical anointment- coconut oil.
Its the secret of our CURLY locks, you see.

I have had my share of Ammammas and Moothammas running after me with the coconut oil, with threats/brandishments.

It was said to make our hair 'panankula pole' Like the flower of a species of palm....

Cousins spread across were chased with the oil, in the effort to make their hair like a panankula. I for one, am glad that I resisted all efforts to make mine as lush.

For on one of our road trips to Kannur, I saw the famed Panankula in full bloom.




a close up


Now you tell me if you want hair like this!

11 comments:

Praveen said...

Just as I read your post, I googled to check for Panankula, and voila- your page is listed no.1

Long tresses are beautiful, may be this tree is a wrong example :D

Jayashree said...

Ha...ha....I've always wondered the same thing.....

Scattered Thoughts... said...

so how close are your hair to this :P

Scattered Thoughts... said...

so how close are your hair to this :P

Smitha said...

LOL! I was wondering while reading your post about what flower was this exactly :)

WhatsInAName said...

lol
That reminds me of me running behind my girls with oil every sunday. I dare not show this post to them :p

Just Like That said...

Praven: I agree long tresses are lovely, just that this panankula made me laugh at the memory of those long-ago days. If this pic had been shown to us then, the aunties'd never have heard the end of it! :-D

Jayashree: :-)

ST: You forgot- I didn't oil my hair all that often ;-)so while I bemoan the fact that my tresses are nowhere as nice as I'd like them to be, they're NOT like this panankula either :-P Thank God for small mercies! :-D

Smitha: It was the first time I'd seen the flower too, actually :-)

WIAN: LOLOL YOu better not if you want to have peace. And yeah, that oil thingie is a part of growing up....:-) I'd actually love it now if I could sit at someone's feet and they'd massage oil into my head.

D said...

LOL! No! But you know what, I'd been looking for the name of this tree since forever and there I have it!

Mama - Mia said...

hahahaha!

this was such a brilliant post! my hair is like that!! WO the oil! ;)

cheers!

aMus said...

hahaha....

this is how my hair used to look... my grandma worked hard for it...

sher khan said...

fell off laughing!!!! but yeah i also oiled my hair in the hope that it would at least touch my bum!