#9: hairspray

My apologies if you were expecting a "tiny moment" involving an illegally downloaded frame of the 2007 John Travolta movie by the same name. Confidentially, I haven't even watched it, not that I haven't tried. Hairspray was one of the movies offered on the last flight I took, but it wasn't my first choice--I ask you, why list movies when they are not available? whose perverse idea of customer service is that?--and by the time I selected it as my second or third choice, too much time had passed for me to see it through before we landed. That's OK: I pegged it as a quirky spoof of musicals, and I've checked the imdb.com synopsis (the one with spoilers), so I feel as though I watched the whole thing. It'll probably be on TV in a year anyway.

So if not about the aforesaid movie, what will this post be about? Well, if you surmised from my recent postings that I haven't left the house all week, you'd be close to the truth. Today's moment comes to you courtesy of a visit to Caroline at the aptly named Vanity Hair.


It bears a resemblance to prison stripes, I know, but the top's mod design is the inspiration behind the hair. Can't wear a groovy top without funky hair. ("It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.") I obligingly tilted my head for this shot so you could see the zigzag part (my request) and moderately chunky highlights.

Appointments with my stylist are always big deals for me; therefore, in honor of the occasion, I decided to search out a handful of relevant and intellectually stimulating quotations.

Except for the seven hours part, I could identify with the following:

Your hair may be brushed, but your mind’s untidy,
You’ve had about seven hours’ sleep since Friday,
No wonder you feel that lost sensation;
You’re sunk from a riot of relaxation.

Ogden Nash (1902–1971), U.S. poet. We’ll All Feel Better By Wednesday, Versus (1949).
from Bartleby text text

Nash is the guy who wrote "Old Dog lay in the summer sun, / much too lazy to rise and run." Some of us memorized that poem in grade 4. By "some of us" I mean at least two of Miss Bazak's former students. I clearly recall Don K. reciting it in front of the class. And there are times when I can recite a few of the subsequent lines; now is not one of them. I'd include a link to the poem if I could, but Nash died in 1971, so his work is presently under copyright protection in the U.S. until 2042 and in Canada until 2022. (That info. brought to you courtesy of knowledge gained in my former position clearing copyright requests.)

Next:

Some of the worst mistakes of my life have been haircuts.
Jim Morrison, No One Here Gets Out Alive
The Quotations Page

(some, but surely not all, Jim)


This one I find sobering (puts me in mind of Siobhan's "Passion" post):

An error the breadth of a single hair can lead one a thousand miles astray.
Chinese proverb.
Bartleby

Here's one with which I think my mom will concur:

Hair style is the final tip-off whether or not a woman really knows herself.
Hubert de Givenchy, Vogue Jul 85
Bartleby

And, finally, whether you've had a bad haircut or just a bad hair day, here's one to put it all into perspective:

Interest in hair today has grown to the proportions of a fetish. Think of the many loving ways in which advertisements refer to scalp hair—satiny, glowing, shimmering, breathing, living. Living indeed! It is as dead as rope.
Dr William Montagna, dermatological researcher, Brown University
NY Herald Tribune 11 Apr 63
Bartleby

What more could I say?