Nesakim can become [confined] tamei for two weeks, [and are confirmed tamei] with two symptoms: with deficient blond hair or with expansion. Deficient blond hair [means] damaged [by being] short, these are the words of R’ Akiva. R’ Yochanan ben Nuri says: Even long. Said R’ Yochanan ben Nuri: What do people mean when they say, ‘‘This stick is ‘dak’ ’’ [or] ‘‘This reed is ‘dak’ ’’? [Don’t they mean] it is very thin, disregarding whether it is short or long? R’ Akiva said to him: Before we learn from a reed, we should learn from hair. [When people say] ‘‘So-and-so’s hair is ‘dak,’  ’’ [they use] ‘‘dak’’ [to mean] very short, not long [and very thin].

Deficient blond hair renders [the nesek] tamei whether together or scattered; surrounded or not surrounded; changed [by the nega] or not changed, these are the words of R’ Yehudah. R’ Shimon says: It only renders tamei if changed [by the nega]. Said R’ Shimon: It is a logical argument. If white hair, whose tumah is not curtailed by other hair, renders [a nega] tamei only if it was changed [by the preexisting nega], should not deficient blond hair, which is curtailed by other hair, render tamei only when changed? R’ Yehudah says: Wherever the [Torah] needs to say ‘‘changed,’’ it says ‘‘changed.’’ However, a nesek, about which it says ‘‘it had no blond hair within it,’’ renders [the nesek] tamei whether changed or not changed.