What does “one leg hair controls three ghosts” mean? Can shaved hair ward off evil?

This is a folk saying, not a claim that a single hair literally controls three ghosts. I do not know its earliest origin. Its recording only shows that such an idea circulated among people.

Some regard abundant leg hair as a sign of health. Another story says ghosts must count it before troubling someone, and too much hair keeps them counting until dawn. These are circulated explanations. A vivid story does not mean ghosts necessarily follow those steps.

I understood it through energy then: pores are places where qi disperses, and hair grows as qi emerges. Leg hair can therefore be understood as part of protecting the body and keeping its qi from dispersing outward. In this way, the older idea of hair blocking ghosts becomes easier to understand as expressing protection against outside cold yin energy. This describes my understanding of folk belief and energy.

So, when discussing shaving, I suggested retaining leg hair where possible from this protective-energy perspective. But that cannot make the hair itself an evil-warding object, as though collecting shaved hair could block ghosts. Understand what a custom expresses rather than applying one phrase literally.

I also found using leg hair to block ghosts rather funny at the time. For protection, simply carrying an amulet, protective object or crystal might even be better. In the same episode, explaining the saying energetically and finding it funny appeared side by side.