About That Hair

Well, yes-- why hair??  In part, Catullus is doing what he says he's doing in 65, translating some Callimachus as he is mourning the loss of his brother.  This may seem like a peculiar form of therapy, but it is not entirely illogical.  There are thematic similarities among the poems.  The Lock is mourning its eternal separation from Berenice, and Berenice has sacrificed the Lock because she is mourning the absence of her "brother"/husband. 

Also, the sacrifice of a lock of hair is a ritual of adulthood, so it may be that Catullus is thinking of the adult life his brother never lived to enjoy.  And we have seen the theme of cutting/castration in the Attis poem and in the simile of the flower cut down by the passing plow.