Hair and Now

 

America truly is a culture of celebrity. We adore and idolize celebrities and are fascinated by all that they do, even the smallest details of their everyday lives. We want to know if Brad and Angelina are breaking up or if they're going to order another baby. Is he sending secret texts to Jennifer? Who does her highlights? Has Charlie Sheen always been violent to his women? What caused Tiger to become such a dog? We want to know it all. This is nothing new of course; It was like this for Liz and Dick, Anthony and Cleopatra, and all the way back to Adam and Eve. As long as there have been celebrities, we've wanted to emulate them when they are on the rise, and ridicule them when they are falling. This is especially true when it comes to celebrity hairstyles. Changing our hair to match theirs is the quickest way to acquire some of their glamour. The tricky part with that is determining which hairstyles should be emulated and which should be stamped out completely, never to be copied again. 
            Sometimes that can be a hard line to identify. It didn't always used to be like that. In our parents' day, you couldn't go wrong by copying an Elizabeth Taylor hairstyle.   Decade after decade she looked amazing.  And in today's world there are still a few people we can feel reasonably safe emulating all the time. Nicole Kidman almost always looks like perfection. And has anyone ever known a time when Jennifer Aniston's hair looked bad? Long or short, layered or even, her hair is always picture perfect as though she just left the salon. She has always looked like that and I think many times we all forget just how fashion-forward she is. It seems like just yesterday that everyone wanted "The Rachel" haircut from Friends, and that was fifteen years ago. Even today that same haircut looks amazing on most women, and there have been so many variations of it that has kept it alive and evolving all this time.   It was the complete antithesis of "The Farrah" from the 70's. That lion's mane of hair looked great on her and was hot for a minute, but then it got turned into some weird stick-straight cut with one set of feathered wings on the side. You can still find that hairstyle on occasion at family reunions. Everyone's got one of those relatives, usually its some kind of third cousin twice removed. She sports her wings with pride as she recalls the glory days of her youth when she'd buy a new outfit from Zayre and then jump in her Cutlass Supreme and grab dinner at the Western Sizzlin. There are always going to be some people that hold onto a fad too long. Luckily today there are so many examples of "spot on" hair. That little Taylor Swift is yet one of them. All summer long young girls wanted Taylor Swift's shade of blonde and all the Twilighterswere hammering for Kristen Stewart's brunette color with the warm tones sprinkled in. I also experienced quite a few more seasoned women requesting Edie Falco's Nurse Jackie short-cropped look. And just lately I've had more than one call for Sandra Bullock's Blind Side blonde cut and color.
            It would seem that great hair is all around us, but don't be too quick to try and copy a celebrity look, because the popularity of it can change on you in an instant. For example Kate Gosselin's old haircut caused a wave of copy cat's even as the media was ridiculing it. Why anyone would ever have found that cut attractive is mind boggling to me. That haircut, which Kate was still sporting up until a few weeks ago, was just a mullet screwed on backwards. I had a few of my own clients request it at the time and I told them that I'd rather cut their head off with a rusty sword than commit that kind of hair crime.  But Kate's hair isn't the only bad hair that's caused a sensation lately. I am so sick of Rhianna's asymmetrical bob that I want to hit her myself. It's time for that to go. And it's not just the women. What's up with Brad Pitt's beard thing. I never thought I'd ever see a look that doesn't look good on him, but there it is. It's just one step away from being that weird chin-bush Joaquin Phoenix is embracing. (He looks like one of those kooks that hangs out around the bus terminal and smells like litter box). Another one that's caused a lot of talk, but that I've not yet had any requests for, is Lady Gaga hair. For those of you who don't know what a Lady Gaga is; She is a reasonably talented singer who is known more for her outrageous fashion sense and on-stage theatrics than for her singing. Her hair changes often while still maintaining a look specific to her. The best way I can describe it would be as follows: Imagine that you are at a county fair. You have just purchased a big wad of spun cotton candy on a stick. Now imagine that a sudden dust storm whips up, swirling debris in every direction. Small bits of paper, dirt and leaves are now stuck to your cotton candy. Now imagine that as you are running to the car to get away, you pass by a man on a ladder who is painting the side of a building. Accidentally you bump his ladder and a bucket of pink paint tumbles down and splatters your debris-encrusted candy. Then finally you make it to your car, and as you go to unlock your door a large robin-red-breast darts down and sits right in the center of your dirt-laden, leaf-entangled, paint-splattered cotton candy. And as you look at it you'll notice that it bears a striking resemblance to Lady Gaga. 
            So as you flip through the pages of People and Us Weekly and some star catches your eye with their newest look, be very wary before we rip the page out and rush in to the salon to copy it on ourselves. Wait for that next month's issue and see if the reviews stay favorable.

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