Posts Tagged ‘haircut’

Celebrity Hair Stylists & Michelle Obama’s Hair Care Regime

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Celebrities throughout the world have their own hair stylists. This plum spot can lead to increased demand, additional upscale clientele and higher fees. A few stylists to the stars and glitterati have landed book deals, network interviews and media contracts, including reality shows.

Of course, Michelle Obama, the first lady, has a personal hair stylist, Johnny Wright. She found him quite by accident while she was living in Chicago. During the campaign, she called on him several times to dress her tresses and he became a regular. Her previous stylist, Rahni Flowers, of Chicago had kept Michelle’s hair beautiful for 26 years. He declined the invitation to accompany the first family to DC. However, Wright moved to DC to take up the challenge and open a new salon in the area.

Inquiring minds want to know more about Michelle’s hair care regime, but Wright is mum about the products he uses on her hair. Since the first lady is perimenopausal, does she have thinning hair? Rumors abound that she is actually bald. The persistent rumor that she may be pregnant also leads searchers to speculate that she is experiencing pregnancy related hair loss. Some searchers are trying to find out if her hairstyle is based on a weave!

Although her hairstyle is unremarkable, it is elegant and simple enough to let her manage the long hours on the campaign trail and now to represent the nation with flying colors. Her most recent haircut, in July set the blog universe abuzz. Everyone from the Huffington Post and Anderson Cooper to the Michelle Obama Watch has an opinion about her hairdos.

Almost as an afterthought, some people do want to know who cuts President Obama’s hair. And his haircut is popular with all ages. Since he just gets haircuts (and he’s a man), this doesn’t get as much search volume or website blog action as does the first lady’s hair styling and stylist. There are over 400,000 plus websites at this point where discussions are taking place about Michelle’s hair. There are also over 100,000 blog posts, 10,000 in the last month alone.

It appears that Hairdresser to the Stars is not a bad job when you consider fame and the opportunity to catapult your career into a higher gear, during and after this sojourn. Folks who have shunned this “pedestrian career” might want to take a second look.

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Historical Hair Tales

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Hair often plays a starring role in literature and theater productions worldwide. We can find hair loss tales everywhere from Greek mythology to Broadway and the silver screen. No doubt, human beings have a reverence for their hair. Our literature contains many details and clues about the role that plays in our relationships. Quite a few hair tales feature women’s hair. These are often love stories, featuring long hair!

Remember the fairy tale about Rapunzel who was forbidden to see the prince who had captured her heart? Well, these kids devised an ingenious plot that involved Rapunzel letting down her long “golden hair” to make their trysts possible. They were soon discovered and Rapunzel was given a haircut. However, the story has a happy ending when the two are reunited in the future and they live happily ever after.

William Sydney Porter (also known as O. Henry) was a prolific author of the early 20th century. His tale, “The Gift of the Magi” is a poignant Christmas story about hair. It captured his readers’ hearts and helped to make him famous.

Two lovers who live in abject poverty search for ways to get each other a present for the holidays. She spots a beautiful chain that she wants to give him to put on his pocket watch. He finds a set of tortoise shell combs that he wants her to have to put in her knee-length hair. So, he sells his watch in order to buy the combs for her. Meanwhile she sells her hair to a wigmaker so she can buy the watch chain! Both were shocked on Christmas day, but as the story goes, they were so madly in love that they were thrilled by the sacrifice that each of them had made. Besides, eventually her hair grew back. But the story ends without him getting a new watch for the chain.

Long hair has been fashionable for women throughout history. The theme of the lure of a woman with long hair is timeless. It is usually paired with attractiveness and love. That is just one of the reasons that hair loss for women can be more traumatic than many realize.

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Hair Loss History, Samson the Nasserite

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

The story of Samson’s hair loss is probably one of the most famous tales in history. We all know how this story ended, but only a few people have heard this tale from beginning to end. The question many people never asked is why Samson believed that he should not cut his hair.

According to the Old Testament, Samson was a Nasserite. These people had a special role within the Hebrew community. The religious community chose many of them for this role. In Samson’s case, his parents claimed that an angel foretold his birth, his rise to leadership and his extraordinary feats, including freeing the Hebrews from bondage under the Philistines.

One of the restrictions that the Hebrew religion placed on Nasserites was that they could never cut their hair. There were additional prohibitions that Samson had to observe as well. These included avoiding wine and any fruits of the vine.

His long hair intrigued all the women in Samson’s life. His wife, his concubines and of course his mother went to great lengths to keep his hair healthy and well groomed. The Old Testament does not contain any records of how often Samson washed his hair. Nor does it contain any information about his shampoos or his other hair grooming aids.

Obviously, Samson lost the same 50 to 100 hairs daily that everyone else does. However, we can assume that Samson had a hair care routine that kept his hair from thinning. He must have done something to keep his head free of lice that affected so many people during that time in history. His hair care practices must have also included some ways to keep his hair follicles healthy too.

We can follow the story of the adult Samson for more than 20 years. By the time Delilah cut his hair, he was of prime age to begin seeing the effects of male pattern baldness. Unfortunately, the story ends shortly after that historic haircut, so we will never know whether Samson’s locks would have continued to grow until he reached a ripe old age!

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