Slight not safe for work question about the Royal locks.

[Guest]

Maybe I am worrying too much about it, especially since I just read that question on this board about the Chalk Siri uses.  Anyway, this is the second topic I have made about the Royal locks and now I am curious again about something.  We know that Siri can grow her hair as long as she wants, even if she were bald, but my question is, can she also shorten her hair at will as well?  I label the question as Not safe for work because I don't just mean the hair on the top of her head, but rather from all areas of her body.  Arms, legs, head, and everywhere else hair grows.  I'll understand if this is not one that people wish to discuss.

 

[NameIess]

I don't think she can control body hair, only the hair on her head. To answer your question, I am fairly certain that she cannot shorten her hair, or else she would have done so instead of having the servants cut it off.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Llstml said:

I don't think she can control body hair, only the hair on her head. To answer your question, I am fairly certain that she cannot shorten her hair, or else she would have done so instead of having the servants cut it off.

Huh, I forgot about that because it has been a while.  I mean, I remember her having them cut it off, but I did not remember why.  I guess it was seriously tangled and too hard to deal with, so she just told them to chop it all off?

I just find sentient/multicolored hair impressive and want to know all that it can do.

[NameIess]

Male members of the royal line can control their beards:

Quote

joh-wee

Can male members of the Idrian royal family and or Returned grow out their facial hair at will? If so, can this lead to epic beard competitions?

Brandon Sanderson

Totally.

And members of the royal line can learn to manipulate more than just their hair, I couldn't find a direct WoB stating this, but I did find this:

Quote

Questioner

In the Stormlight Archive we saw the sword from Warbreaker and we also know that the royal line can change more than just their hair, will that come into play?

Brandon Sanderson

They can! What’s that?

Questioner

...will that come into play?

Brandon Sanderson

That will come into play, keep your eyes open.

 

[Guest]

^Well that's close enough, I guess.  Now I am further curious.  Could someone give breaths to their hair, and when cornered, use it as a weapon?  Like if you were going to rob me in a dark alley, you get close enough and my hair comes across my shoulders and stabs you like a scorpion tail?  My hair is currently long enough, so it would work if true.

[Honorless]

47 minutes ago, Enoshima Junko said:

^Well that's close enough, I guess.  Now I am further curious.  Could someone give breaths to their hair, and when cornered, use it as a weapon?  Like if you were going to rob me in a dark alley, you get close enough and my hair comes across my shoulders and stabs you like a scorpion tail?  My hair is currently long enough, so it would work if true.

Hello Jiraiya 

Edited November 5, 2019 by Honorless

[+Invocation]

I don't think the other stuff has to do with hair changing, more like facial feature augmentation like (Stormlight Spoilers) 

Spoiler

Vivenna/Azure's facial scars and changed facial structure to blend in,

which all comes from the same commonality with Returned.

1 hour ago, Enoshima Junko said:

Could someone give breaths to their hair, and when cornered, use it as a weapon?

I don't think that would work. It's still part of you, still subject to your own innate Investiture, so I don't think you could Awaken it. Maybe if you tied a whip into your hair that would work though.

[Aon Tia]

Guys I have one More question regarding the royal locks..

Siri said in warbreaker that she should not be cutting her hair and regrowing them on a daily basis. 
 

I have always wondered if that is dangerous... what could be the possible outcome? Savantism? 

I tried to check in the wobs but could not find anything related to this.. any views..

[AonEne]

20 minutes ago, The traveller said:

Siri said in warbreaker that she should not be cutting her hair and regrowing them on a daily basis.

I have always wondered if that is dangerous... what could be the possible outcome? Savantism?

I think she mentioned at some point that it was because it made her feel tired and hungry, so it could be merely because it's annoying to do so. It might be possible to starve yourself doing it.

[Aon Tia]

15 minutes ago, AonEne said:

I think she mentioned at some point that it was because it made her feel tired and hungry, so it could be merely because it's annoying to do so. It might be possible to starve yourself doing it.

Starving herself to death, by re-growing her hair daily? I don't think so, she can always get more food. Lift has more chances of dying of starvation than Siri. She metabolises food into investiture far more often than Siri..

I think that the danger could be something more.. It is magic that she is doing on a daily basis.. there could be other consequences..

[AonEne]

1 minute ago, The traveller said:

Starving herself to death, by re-growing her hair daily? I don't think so, she can always get more food. Lift has more chances of dying of starvation than Siri. She metabolises food into investiture far more often than Siri..

I think that the danger could be something more.. It is magic that she is doing on a daily basis.. there could be other consequences..

Well yeah, of course that wouldn’t be likely for Siri, in the situation she is currently in, to die of starvation. I didn’t say it was, just that it might be possible - for example, Vivenna cut off and sold her hair when she was in a bad situation, then was too exhausted and starved to regrow it and sell it again. She might have been able to, but if so it probably would’ve left her malnoursished. 

If it were possible to become a savant of the Royal Locks, I suspect Siri would have done so long ago, as she allowed her hair to change colors frequently. However, since that is not a choice on her part but a natural reaction of her family’s hair, I don’t think savantism is possible. We don’t know much about it, but all evidence so far points to it being something that happens when you consciously use Investiture too much, go too far. 

There certainly could be other consequences, but I’m pretty sure we’d have seen them already if this were the case. As you said, this is something that happens on a daily basis. If there was a negative effect, it most likely would have already manifested - even if only in the past, in which case Siri would still have experienced it. 

[Aon Tia]

1 hour ago, AonEne said:

If it were possible to become a savant of the Royal Locks

Savantism resulting from regrowing her hair again and again only.

changing hair colour of Royal locks is not actively doing magic, it is more similar to breath auras. Changing hair colours do not cause her to be hungry either. 

Regrowing her hair, is not something she has been doing for years, back in Idris. It is something she has started doing now, in hallendren, i think give her time, may be in the next book, we might learn of some bad consequences from it..

Edited November 5, 2019 by The traveller

[Friendshipspren]

10 hours ago, Honorless said:

Hello Jiraiya 

 

[AonEne]

8 hours ago, The traveller said:

Savantism resulting from regrowing her hair again and again only.

changing hair colour of Royal locks is not actively doing magic, it is more similar to breath auras. Changing hair colours do not cause her to be hungry either. 

Regrowing her hair, is not something she has been doing for years, back in Idris. It is something she has started doing now, in hallendren, i think give her time, may be in the next book, we might learn of some bad consequences from it..

I agree with your middle paragraph, that’s what I said too, so I’m not sure why you’re arguing it. Though for that last sentence, I want to amend that we haven’t seen a visible effect on that front, but if you did it a lot at once, quickly, it might change something, like with breathing. Just an idea. 

Why do you think she hasn’t been doing it for years back in Idris? She clearly knows how to do it, so that must imply she’s done it before. This being Siri of all Idrians we’re talking about, it seems fairly likely that she would’ve done it any number of times, experimenting, wanting to look colorful, et cetera. 

[Aon Tia]

I might have misread your earlier comment.. if we agree then no issues.. 
I am certain Siri mentions that here she is being lazy and doing it more frequently than in idris. 
But I will have to look for the exact quote..

Edited November 5, 2019 by The traveller

[Snorkel]

From the annotations:

Can Vivenna change her appearance more? She can indeed. She could actually stoke that fragment of a divine Breath inside of her and start glowing like a Returned. She can’t change her physical features to look like someone else, but she can change her age, her height (within reason), and her body shape (to an extent). It takes practice.

We learn that

Vasher

can change his appearance dramatically, and especially the length of his facial hair.

 

 

So I believe that those with Royal Locks can prevent hair growth and body hair growth if they wish ... but they might not know that's within their powers.