Hair Net
The Web is a hairy place. Literally. There are more hair-related sites than, well, the hairs on your head. With that in mind, this week’s frizzy cyber cruise will take on the hirsute. And as for the pages, like mousse, a little goes a long way.
First, a history lesson. At Thinkquest (https://library.thinkquest.org/26829/i_e.htm), the secrets of the follicles are revealed. There are hairstyles through the ages and facts such as the human hair has a life span of 3 to 7 years. Plus Shirley Temple always had 56 curls.
Cultural anthropology more your thing? The Wig Men of Papua New Guinea (https://www.walindi.com/People.html and https://www.peachin.com/mar_nlt.htm) prove drag knows no borders.
About.com has a lot on various styles at https://www.beauty.about.com/style/beauty/cs/hairstyles, but the constant pop-up ads made us want to pull out hair, not comb it.
Speaking of styled hair, it’s not necessarily only on the head. Or even the body. A custom from Victorian times, making jewelry and other objects from dead people’s hair, is for some reason alive and well. That puts a whole new spin on “I got this watch fob from my grandfather.”
At Victorian Hairworks (https://www.hairwork.com or its .org designation https://www.hairworksociety.org), you can find collector’s stories and new hair jewelry for sale. Like earrings that resemble ponytails. Huh?
More info and photos on the antique dead hair stuff can be had at the Historic Northampton Museum and Education Center (https://www.historic-northampton.org/ 1904/Hair_Jewelry_Exhibit/General_General_r.html).
But if you think hair jewelry sets off the ick meter, you haven’t experienced the mullet. That’s the ‘do favored by some country singers and most of Alabama where the hair is short on top and the sides and long in back.
There are many Web sites dedicated to the horrors of the mullet. Mullet Gods (https://www.mulletgods.com), Mullets Galore (https://www.mulletsgalore.com) and Mullet Junky (https://www.mulletjunky.com) are three to check out. And just to prove the British, too, can totally lack any fashion sense, there’s a U.K. mullet site at https://www.mullet.co.uk.
These sites all do a public service. If that many people made fun of the shag, that ‘70s ‘do might never have come back.
Interested in all those Manic Panic wacky colors everyone under 25 seems to be using? It’s definitely a thing for the young. Remember that thirtysomething lawyer dude on “Ally McBeal” who bleached his hair and then died?
For the other kind of dyeing, two Stanford U grads have the scoop. The Official Wicked Hair Dyeing Page (https://www.stanford.edu/~tiggerr/dyeing.html) offers tips and explanations from a multihued brother-sister duo.
More dye discussion can be found at DyeMyHair.com (https://www.dyemyhair.com). Between the pop-up ads and the slow build, however, you might want to view this page after you put the color in and are waiting for it to set.
And, just for you Goths, there’s You Want an Unnatural Hair Color at https://www.gothics.org/eklectique/dye.html.
If buying hair dye or going to a salon is too mainstream for you, try Kool-Aid. And you thought it was just to make kids hyper. Find out how at the Grateful Dyed (https://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~wymer/dyekool.htm).
And while we’re on the odd, Alberto VO5 hairdressing might be the only lubricant you need in your home. Check out all the things it does at Wacky Uses (https://www.wackyuses.com/uses.html). You’ll also see that a blow dryer isn’t just for your head anymore and that Reddi Whip can be used as a conditioner.
Perhaps a little advice on achieving the right look would help. Try the Insta Punk Kit (https://sykospark.net/punk), the Insta Goth Kit (https://sykospark.net/goth) or the Insta Raver Kit (https://sykospark.net/raver).
And just to leave you scratching your head, our final link is the Adventures of the Boy With Immovable Hair (https://members.aol.com/tbwih/contents.htm), a series of comic strips drawn entirely in ASCII. And you thought those semicolon winky faces on e-mail were irritating.
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Robert Burns is an assistant Business editor at The Times.
