Knot Theory

I have some combination of curly/wavy hair. When I was younger my mom kept my hair short, even though it was much straighter then than it is now. Between her impatience and my fidgety restless body, she struggled to deal with my tangles.

On top of that I was a very sensitive kid. I struggled to endure the pain that feminine beauty so requested. I struggled to endure the many ways in which the world wanted to correct me. When my partner brushes my hair I still expect him to sigh in frustration and tell me to sit more still, but he never does.

Some time ago I was reading research articles and came across one discussing a scientific experiment focused on knot theory (Raymer & Smith, 2007). As they described it, knot theory is the theoretical explanation of the universe’s tendency to form knots out of strands of string. This might sound ridiculous to you as you are reading it, but I hope you stick with me.

Researchers took a length of string (if the length matters to you, you can read about it in the original article cited below) and put it in a box. They then had the box rotated and shifted and each time they did, they would observe the string for knots. After so many times of being jostled or moved around, the string would form a knot. By conducting this experiment multiple times they could plot the probability of a knot forming in the string after a each movement/rotation. What you find when you do this is that at an exponential rate, strings that are jostled or moved, form knots.

Okay, now I hope that you really stick with me. As a psychologist I find it extremely meaningful to connect the way we observe and understand our environment with the ways we understand and observe the human mind. Since we cannot touch and manipulate the human mind the way we can string or other objects, it is meaningful to me that the tangible can inform us about the less tangible. I do this all the time with physics, where I can liken things like Newton’s theory of motion to behavioral activation treatment for major depressive disorder (an object in motion stays in motion, an object at rest stays at rest).

Upon reading about knot theory and this study I was immediately enamored, because the universe makes knots at an increasing probability over time, but do you know what the universe does not do at high probabilities? Untie knots.

I think that as string we sometimes already start with knots, but that generally we are pretty detangled and then life shakes us in our box and our knots increase. Consistently get told what to eat or how much to eat growing up? Now you have a hard time looking at food without having a judgement about it. Those are tangles. Get picked on for your psoriasis? Now you shy away from shaking hands or showing places where there’s patches. There’s a knot.

These tangles can make it difficult for us to make decisions unimpeded and for us to ignore something rather than get stuck because the knot caught. When I hit puberty, my hair took a turn for the curly. It was always thick and now it was frizzy and difficult to brush. I remember everyone from peers to family members trying to help me tame my wild mane. Straightening it, putting relaxant into it, conditioning it. I remember this feeling distinctly frustrating. Why was my hair so knotted now? And why did everyone make it their problem too? It felt embarrassing for everyone to see my tangles.

Over time I became proud of my knots, but when I wasn’t careful, I ended up with a nest of tangles that didn’t look or feel good. My knots could catch flies that buzzed stuck until I thrashed in a craze to get them out. So now I seek more balance in how tangled my hair is at any given moment. Sometimes the things I end up catching in my knots aren’t all bad either. It is sometimes how I’ve ended up with lifelong friends and loved ones (“What beautiful hair you have!”).

The thing is, that no matter how often life shakes you in your box, the likelihood that these knots are detangled just by chance are low (not impossible mind you).

Thus, detangling, undoing knots, whatever language we are using, requires choice and intention. We can always try to cut the knots out rather than detangling them, but the hair grows back, and the knots return.

Knots aren’t all bad

Even as your fingers catch in my hair

And I wince in pain

I smile too

To still be able to catch you

Be pulled by you

Fingers entangled,

Limbs

Those same fingers, smoothing out my tangles

Only to get caught again,

A loving rhythm

Knot theory

References

Raymer, D. M., & Smith, D. E. (2007). Spontaneous knotting of an agitated string. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(42), 16432-16437.