Hair

The detailed description of a toddler kneeling near his deceased mother's head and stroking her hair sent a jolt through a Camden County courtroom Wednesday afternoon. After a brief pause, Assistant Prosecutor Sally Smith went on to describe how, when police found him, the boy, three months shy of his third birthday, had been at his mother's side, a butcher knife nearby. John Whye's father, Troy, 39, is on trial in the murder of his girlfriend, Krystal Skinner, 23, who was killed March 26, 2008, in the couple's Lindenwold apartment in front of their son. During her opening statement, Smith described young John next to his mother, causing Skinner's relatives to burst into tears and rush out of the courtroom.

Supermodel Cara Delevingne, the 20-year-old face of major fashion brands - think Chanel, Burberry, Marc Jacobs, and YSL - has young girls (and boys) touting her off-the-runway style: slouchy beanie hats, graphic T's, and super-skinny jeans. Take her tomboy minimalist charm and combine it with her ultra-girly looks, and no wonder she walks top designer runways for Diane von Furstenberg, Stella McCartney, Jason Wu, and Oscar de la Renta. In March, British Vogue named Delevingne model of the year.

EYEWITNESS NEWS anchor Susan Barnett is leaving CBS 3 and the CW Philly. Barnett has been at CBS since 2006, anchoring the evening newscasts since 2008. She anchored the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. broadcasts on CBS, and the 10 p.m. broadcast at the CW Philly, along with co-anchor Chris May . Her contract expired in March. "I have decided to not renew my contract with the stations at this time. I am incredibly thankful for having been a part of the CBS Philly family, but I feel that this is the right decision at this time," Barnett said in a statement yesterday.

George Fitchett, a lifelong beautician whose motto was "I'm a beautician, not a magician," died last Friday. He was 60 and lived in West Oak Lane. He also was a part-time bartender. But it was in Alice's Beauty Salon, at 16th Street and Nedro Avenue, where Fitchett earned his reputation as a "happy-go-lucky" person. It was where he also got his nickname, "George the Beautician. " A veteran of the Korean War, Fitchett served four years in the Air Force. After his discharge in 1957, he attended a beauty culture school on the GI Bill.

THE BRUTAL economy - paired with the rising cost of human-hair weaves and extensions - has led to some unbeweaveably brazen thefts at salons and beauty shops in the city and around the country. Elena, a manager of the House of Beauty on Chestnut Street near 12th, said those in search of longer locks for less have snatched packs of hair from the racks, or vaulted behind the counter and stolen them from glass cases. Some have even resorted to stashing the weaves in baby strollers, she said, or using children as mules to smuggle the contraband out of the store.

Take it from someone who once Scotch-taped her hair to her face overnight in an effort to straighten it: Trendy hairdos almost always take some doing. Take it from this voice of experience (lots and lots of experience . . . the tape job, circa 1973, was my effort to look like Laurie Partridge!): Now is an excellent time to be a teen-ager with "problem" hair. What's so great about this year, especially as opposed to last year (and, of course, 1973), is that virtually anything goes.

BLACK FOLKS, we've got a problem! "Dere is a whole heap a colored people who ain't got da news, SLAVERY IS OVER!" We are under siege by the hair police, the thought police, "da speech poleese," and mercy Lord, the how-to-be-black police, by Negroes who think it is their right to tell other Africans how to wear their hair etc., while important issues are ignored. Martin Luther King longed for the day when we would be "judged by the content of our character. " But it ain't just white folks doing the judging.

Primp, crimp, spray, clip, push, pull and pray. Women especially color the gray, hide the thin spots and spend oodles of money to treat damaged hair. But few cosmetic problems are as heart-wrenching as a female balding head. Mary Lou Enoches has been a hairdresser long enough to encounter clients and friends who have developed cancer or other maladies whose treatments have led to baldness. When the 25-year beauty veteran began laying out the floor plans for her new hair and body care shop, La Difference, on Market Street in West Chester, she including a special room.

Herman Allen, owner and president of Innovations Inc., works on Phyllis Vernon yesterday, during a symposium for African-American cosmetologists at the Adams Mark Hotel on City Avenue. The hair-care products presented by Ohio- based Innovations, which are sold exclusively to salon operators trained by Innovations professionals, were part of a symposium entitled "Keeping Your Business Alive in the 21st Century. "

For years - no, for centuries - man has worried about having peace in his time, food on his table, clothes on his back and love in his heart. Mostly, though, he has worried about hair on his head. He need worry no longer. First, there was the wet look. Then, the dry look. Later, the mousse look. Now, many a troubled man may rejoice. Finally, there is the thin look. Consider the heroes of our time, the men that men admire and women adore. Jack Nicholson, Bruce Willis, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and his fellow basketball player Gus Williams, Peter Jennings, Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood, Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, writer William Kennedy.

Without great hair and makeup, even the most sizzling prom dress will come up average. That is why we turned to the beauty experts at Bernard's Salon and Spa in Cherry Hill to show prom-goers of all shapes and sizes how to have red-carpet-ready hair and makeup this season. Hair: Cascading waves and braids are the hottest looks in special-occasion hair this season, Cusimano says. The long layers elongate Pelley's neck, while the braids styled into the flowing mane keep the vibe young.

LONG BRANCH, N.J. - I know what you did last summer on New Jersey's beaches . . . and it was gross. Based on the trash left behind by beachgoers, washed ashore from distant landfills or sewer overflows, one can only assume it was a summer to remember. "Volunteers find the wild, the wacky and the weird during the beach sweeps - everything from ant traps to Yoda," said Cindy Zipf, executive director of the Clean Ocean Action environmental group, which organized the cleanups.

Supermodel Cara Delevingne, the 20-year-old face of major fashion brands - think Chanel, Burberry, Marc Jacobs, and YSL - has young girls (and boys) touting her off-the-runway style: slouchy beanie hats, graphic T's, and super-skinny jeans. Take her tomboy minimalist charm and combine it with her ultra-girly looks, and no wonder she walks top designer runways for Diane von Furstenberg, Stella McCartney, Jason Wu, and Oscar de la Renta. In March, British Vogue named Delevingne model of the year.

  A BENAA, 35, and Jamal Timazee, 46, of West Mount Airy, own Brownstone Natural Hair Salon, on South Street near 17th, which they began in 2001. Jamal oversees accounting and payroll, and Abenaa trains staff. The husband and wife also make their own natural hair products. Abenaa was recently interviewed by MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry during a symposium at Penn about the politics of black-women's hair. We spoke with Abenaa. Q: How did you come up with the idea for Brownstone?

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Police in Hamas-ruled Gaza have started grabbing young men with long or gel-styled spiky hair off the streets, bundling them into jeeps, mocking them, and shaving their heads, two of those targeted and a rights group said Sunday. It is the latest sign that the Islamic militants are imposing their strict practices on the population. Hamas has been slowly forcing its fundamentalist interpretation of the religion on already conservative Gaza since it overran the territory in 2007, but the new action against long hair and tight or low-waist pants - in several cases accompanied by beatings - appears to be one of the most aggressive phases of the campaign so far. The crackdown began last week, and two of those targeted told the Associated Press said they were rounded up in separate sweeps in Gaza City that included more than two dozen young men. House painter Ayman al-Sayed, 19, had shoulder-length hair before police grabbed him and shaved his head Thursday.

JOSH REDDICK has gotten himself into a hairy situation. The A's outfielder opened the season with facial hair that rivals that of Michael J. Fox in "Teen Wolf. " Last month, Reddick accepted a beard-growing challenge from WWE wrestler Daniel Bryan. On the top of his Twitter account, Reddick proudly proclaims: "I have two jobs . . . Play baseball and BEAT DANIEL BRYAN IN A BEARDOFF!" So far, it looks like Reddick will win. A photo circulating on the Internet shows last year's Gold Glove winner with the hair on his head combed over his face.

DEAR ABBY: My hair falls nearly to my waist. Many of my friends, both male and female, have grown out their hair over the years and donated it to cancer charities. While I think it's a beautiful act of selflessness, I have never felt the calling to donate my hair. I have recently been criticized for wanting to keep my long hair for myself and have been called selfish and a hypocrite. Abby, cancer runs in my family. I donate money and volunteer for my local Relay for Life every year.

ORLANDO, Fla. - Justin Rose started out as another guy in Tiger Woods' group Thursday at Bay Hill. He wound up in the lead. Rose put on a clinic with the putter and ran off four straight birdies late in his round for a 7-under 65, giving him a 2-shot lead after the opening round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Woods had two sloppy bogeys from greenside bunkers. But he made enough key par saves and manhandled the par 5s to scratch out a 69, a reasonable start as he tries to win Bay Hill for the eighth time and return to No. 1 in the world.

When composer Eric Whitacre launched his East Coast tour Monday, he received such a rock-star greeting that he wondered whether he should have a stack of amplifiers and a mean-sounding Stratocaster. "I felt a little guilty," he says. "I wanted to have something to meet that young energy. " Instead, he conducted 30-plus singers in Monteverdi and his own trademark ethereal tones, which many listeners drove considerable distances to hear at the Strathmore concert hall near Baltimore.

CLEVELAND - Sixteen Amish men and women who have lived rural, self-sufficient lives surrounded by extended family and with little outside contact are facing regimented routines in a federal prison system where almost half of inmates are behind bars for drug offenses and modern conveniences, such as television, will be a constant temptation. Prison rules will allow the 10 men convicted in beard- and hair-cutting attacks on fellow Amish in eastern Ohio to keep their religiously important beards, but they must wear standard prison khaki or green work uniforms instead of the dark outfits they favor.