Lesbians and Hassidim?

The Meow Mix, where I was on Friday night, you may remember, was made famous as the lesbian bar in the movie Chasing Amy. If I am not mistaken it still is a lesbian bar.

I was wondering why there were so many girls there with 2 braids. What is the significance of that? Is that a lesbian trend that I missed? It seems like many of the patrons were "braided". Please explain.

If memory serves me, there is a related phenomenon among hassidic girls in some communities. Hassidic women cover their hair completely when they get married. Most (though not all) hassidic women actually shave off their hair completely and wear a wig and a hat. (I never understood this myself, but I digress.) But the single girls in the community are divided in to the available and the unavailable ones. Ie, there are those who have reached marraige age and those who have not. Those girls who are not available because they are too young wear two braids, and those who are "on the market" switch to one braid. This might be a phenomena particular to Mea Shearim Hassidim. I do not recollect this clearly.

I guesss all communities have similar customs. I have a very gay friend who once removed a bandana, that was hanging out of my back pocket, from my pants. He claimed that the way I "wore" it indicated that I was gay and available. I guess it may also be related to the 80's thing where one wore an earring on their right ear to indicate homosexuality, and the left ear to indicate heterosexuality.

These are such complicated subtle social indicators.