![\"484px-Marianne_Stokes_Sweet_Dreams\"](\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/484px-Marianne_Stokes_Sweet_Dreams.jpg\")
<\/a>Sweet Dreams<\/em> by Marianne Stokes, 1875, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n In days of old, mothers (and, no doubt, grandmothers) attributed a bit of magic to the tousled tresses of sleepy little girls.<\/p>\n Sleeping Girl on a Wooden Bench<\/em> by Albert Anker (1831-1910) via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n What might have been poo-pooed as the work of pesky pillows was instead fancied as the work of fairies, who were said to visit during slumber to tease and tangle the tresses \u2026<\/p>\n Thus Your Fairy is Made of Most Beautiful Things<\/em> by Sophie Gengembre Anderson via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Hence, the term “fairy locks” or “elf locks,” referring to locks of hair tangled as if by sprites.<\/p>\n “Fairies, they say, tangled and knotted the hairs of the sleeping children as they played in and out of their hair at night,” tells A Child’s Book of Faeries<\/i><\/a> by Tonya Robin Batt.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If only they weren’t so hard to comb smooth once again!\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Isn’t there something indescribably sweet about the rumpled hair of a sleeping child? In days of old, mothers (and, no doubt, grandmothers) attributed a bit of magic to the tousled tresses of sleepy little girls. What might have … Continue reading <\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n