💬 My mother's wet hair rule still runs my nights

In our house you could not go to bed with wet hair. This was not a suggestion. My mother would stand at the bedroom door with a towel until your hair was dry. She said you'd get a cold, a headache, maybe worse. She never said what worse was. I was 8 and I believed her completely. I'm 34 now and I still do. I live alone in a flat in Kondapur. Nobody checks. There's no towel at any door. Some nights I get back late and take a shower and I'm so tired I can barely stand up straight. I stand in front of the fan for 15 minutes anyway, swaying slightly, drying my hair with a towel. Once I fell asleep standing up. I'm not kidding. The towel was still on my shoulder. A friend stayed over last month and went to bed with his hair dripping onto the pillow. I lay there in the dark thinking about it. Couldn't sleep. I wanted to say something so badly. In the morning I said, your pillow must be wet. He said, so? I said nothing. He slept fine. He looked fine. In the morning he looked better rested than me, to be fair to him. I called my mother and told her about it. She said, see, that's why I told you. I said, he's fine. She said, he's young. He doesn't know yet. I asked what he doesn't know yet. She said, you'll understand when you're older. I'm 34. She hung up to take a call from my aunt. I still don't know.

There's no towel at any door, that line got me. My mother used to say the water goes into the head, which I never understood, but I dry my hair properly even at midnight. Some rules from our mothers stay long after they stop checking. Do you ever call her when you dry it, or is it a private ritual now?