Freaky Friday: Counting Down 5 Surprising Beauty Superstitions

Take care of your mirrors and check the calendar before cutting your hair

Black cats crossing your path, salt spills, and walking under a ladder — there are lots of superstitions that give even the “little stitious” among us pause. A surprising number of them involve scissors, mirrors, and when you can cut hair, so beauty pros need to beware. One of the biggest superstitions of them all is Friday the 13th being a bad day to do just about anything — and since the first Friday the 13th of 2023 is already at hand, here’s what you need to know to make up for the ominous first month.

Plucking grey hair makes more grow back

Going grey is a part of life, but one that most people try to avoid. While it’s less of a superstition and more of a common misconception, plucking the grey hairs from your head won’t make more sprout up. More grey hairs show up naturally as you age, which seems to be the root of the misunderstanding. Plucking grey hairs can damage the follicle though, which keeps hair from growing back at all. 

Check which day you’re getting a haircut

Do you have a hair appointment coming up? Better double-check the day if you want to ward off bad luck. Across societies and cultures, certain days of the week are thought to bring ill omens if you get your hair cut on them. A Thai superstition says that Wednesday is a bad day for haircuts, while some cultures believe Sunday is unlucky.

Playing with your shears is a no-no

Do you enjoy idly toying with your shears, opening and closing them to hear that satisfying “snikt” sound? Yeah, you might want to stop that. Leaving scissors open or closing them unnecessarily is considered unlucky in Egypt. Playing with scissors is said to start squabbles, which isn’t a huge leap considering scissors are specifically made to sever things.

Acorns will keep you looking youthful

The great philosophers’ troupe Alphaville once wrote a ballad about the desire to remain forever young, though it would be far less dramatic if they knew that the secret to eternal youth and beauty was to carry acorns in your pocket. It’s an odd one, but people in rural areas of England, specifically in Sussex, once believed that acorns would bless them with youth and beauty, even as they grew older. The belief is documented in The Encyclopedia of Superstitions and has roots all the way back to Druidic rituals. 

Mirrors facing each other is bad luck

There are all sorts of superstitions about mirrors, but two mirrors facing each other might raise the most red flags in a salon. Rows of mirrors on each side of the room? That miiiiight open a supernatural portal. Or, at the very least, it’s bad for Feng Shui. Did you pass a hand mirror to a client so they can check out their haircut? Make sure they’re careful where they’re pointing that thing.

There are too many superstitions to keep track of, so your best bet is to keep your head down and hope the bad vibes go easy on you. If you want to eliminate any bad energy, maybe try carrying around acorns this year. You might not stay young forever, but you could make friends with a squirrel — and at the end of the day, isn’t enchanting woodland creatures what beauty is really about?