hi cjsmith -- i don't think we actually know each other; i found a reference to this thread by reading wispfox's journal. but i felt that i could contribute to the "hair is dangerous" side of things with a brief story:

i used to have hair that went down to five inches above my kneecaps. it was rarely unbraided, due to a very high tangle coefficient, and due to it getting into all kinds of trouble.

for example. one day, i was sitting at home in an office chair with castors, hair unbound, on the telephone in a deep and wonderful conversation. over the course of the conversation, i had draped my hair over the back of the chair and i slumped down comfortably. while talking, i was slightly rolling the chair back, and forth, and back, and forth... almost in a meditation... relaxed...

(you are by now probably anticipating what happened...) at some point, i tried to sit up, and realized i couldn't. i panicked, and told my co-conversant that i needed to get off the phone.

fortunately, the house had phones with two lines. even more fortunately, my housemate was home. i called her from one line and asked her to come upstairs. she came up, lifted the chair with me sitting in it, and i lifted my head. aieee!