While various investigations haven’t been able to pinpoint the truth just yet, instances of this mysterious ‘hair-chopper’ on the prowl seem to have caused mass hysteria across India.”. And they’re likely to believe in something like this.She lists the 2001 Monkeyman incident as something that was born out of this group hysteria. It’s contributing to this phenomeno,” she says. It’s mostly done by people who have sound minds but have malicious intent. As many as 90 such bizarre cases have been reported China Disposable Pillow Cover suppliers across the country since June. Instead, they would rather believe a rumour instead of being rational.”Priyanka opines that in the case of braid-chopping, the victims have been women, who have been under constant domestic stress.Here in the city, one instance speaks about a woman, who was reportedly combing her tresses, when she experienced a headache.
Adds Kinjal, “People will never want to find out what’s actually happening. After a spate of such instances in the Northern part of the country, Mumbai has seen three different braid-chopping cases now. Also known as collective or group hysteria, it occurs when a large number of people, thanks to fear or rumours, experience a collective illusion.”Counselling psychologist Kinjal Pandya explains that in a country like India, when it comes to creating this mass hysteria, fear is the main ingredient.Imagine waking up one fine morning to a chunk of your hair, ruthlessly chopped off, and lying on the floor.“We all have a way of identifying what other people are going through and believe what they believe,” offers Priyanka Mahajan, psychiatrist at Masina Hospital, as an explanation.
It would seem like this phenomenon is spreading through the country, with women from states like Gujarat and Rajasthan too reporting cases of their hair being cut off with them being unaware of it.In the latter incident, residents of Delhi had complained of a monkey-like man, who allegedly terrorised, bit and scratched people before eventually disappearing. “This case isn’t about the mentally disturbed. When it spreads like it has now, we call it mass hysteria. After a subsequent blackout, she woke up to realise her hair had been cut.
She says, “Most times, these women are in a state of dissociation. These are mostly women from lower income backgrounds, with minds that are more malleable. “When you take part in unnatural or frenzied actions due to a press from your subconscious, it’s called hysteria. The rumours ended up being so close to the truth, that two men in the capital even died as they tried to escape the creature. “In our society, fear is very much a part of our social fabric.”Consultant psychiatrist Dr Hozefa Bhinderawala adds that more than superstition, such cases can be blamed on to people with malicious intent. What these women are doing is chopping off their own hair — consciously or subconsciously unaware of it — perhaps in their sleep