I first picked up hints of a growing crisis on Facebook.
Then an observant person (me) noticed something different about TV news shows.
And now men are expressing agita on Twitter.
A couple of weeks ago I observed two little prongs of hair appearing at the rear of my head, down at my neck. They curl outward. I don’t like them, but I’ve come to utilize them as a signal: time to go to Laura and get my hair cut.
Thing is, when I first decide it’s time to get my hair cut I don’t call for an appointment right away. No, I wait a couple of weeks until I really thoroughly dislike those stupid things sticking out. This time, though, I got an email from Laura’s place of business: they were closing because of the virus.
So I settled for trimming my own bangs. Which I do very well. Then I attacked the prongs. Which I did not do so well. So I settled into being shaggy for the nonce.
I don’t color my hair. Indeed, I’ve got a gorgeous patch of silver hiding under my bangs and love it so dearly, I’m constantly pushing my top hair back to expose it. So I initially failed to appreciate what many friends of mine were going through. Until someone posted on Facebook, “We’re all about to learn what color our hair really is.”
Oops. And I understood. No stylists and no colorists. This is going to be a deep roots spring.
And the women newscasters I watch regularly on MSNBC? They all looked…different somehow. Not bad, but different. Did they have new makeup people? No! They were broadcasting from home and had no professional makeup people at all.
I think it was Nicolle Wallace who said no one can imagine how difficult it is to put on your own makeup when you’re used to having someone else do it for you.
I was talking to a friend in Birmingham, Alabama. She watches Kelly Ripa’s morning show and told me Ripa came right out with it: she wasn’t wearing any makeup because she didn’t know how to apply it herself.
And her hair was in a ponytail. Nicolle Wallace’s hair is different now, too.
Nobody has professional makeup and hair people. So we’re all getting shaggy and pale together.
OK, so that’s the women. But now men are tentatively weighing in on Twitter, plaintively asking what they should do about their hair. They’re sort of cute, as if they’re not sure whether they are allowed to show such concern, as if maybe they’ve encroached upon territory labeled For Women Only.
One guy said he was wavering between letting it all go or buying a scissors on line and cutting it himself. Today, a man posited two possible choices. Either he could go fuzzy or try to cut his own hair into a crew cut. A man who is bald replied: “I have a third alternative for you.”
And Jonathan Capehart said if this goes on for a few months, he’ll have a big Afro.
Can’t wait. Meanwhile, I’m going to keep my prongs at bay.