Hair

This summer, hair weaves are taking a turn for the kinky, the curly and the wavy. Why is this news? When black women first started sewing hair onto their scalps during the 1990s en masse, the resulting shoulder-length bobs were as much about achieving a smooth texture as it was about having length. Fabulous hair was defined as long and straight. However, as more black women have come to terms with their natural curl pattern, store-bought tresses are trending toward the fuzzy rather than the flat-ironed.

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.

In the current economy, people are finding all kinds of ways to save a few bucks - including doing without trips to the barber. That's nothing new for me, though. I've been cutting my husband's hair for at least 12 years - since shortly after Ken and I were married. I had never cut hair before. Well, I did try trimming my friend's bangs once in middle school, but that went horribly awry. I lopped off too much of her bangs. (Despite that, we're still good friends.) After that, I never cut hair again until Ken. I'm not licensed.

YOUR ONLINE poll the other day, asking "Do you think Sarah Palin will wear her hair up or down for the big speech tonight?" is, in a word, disgraceful. I'm sure that had Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty been named the vice presidential nominee, you would have been worried about the color of his tie, rather than the actual substance of the speech he was planning to present, right? Evan Davis Philadelphia IN REGARD to Mr. Andrew Dankanich's comments on the Democratic Convention: He asked, "Is this what politics is all about, the art of illusion and trickery, maybe sabotage and intimidation?"

A lot of hair has been shorn in the 20 years since the rock musical Hair glorified the spirit of the hippie movement. So, in light of the Temple University revival of this tuneful paean to the flower children of the '60s, it is pertinent to ask: Is Hair still pertinent? As social statement it is not, and that is probably a good thing. The Vietnam War and the rancorous dialogue between young and old that spawned both the youth rebellion and the musical are in the past, and no one who lived through those distressing times would want to see them return.

It was 1988 and I was watching Salt-N-Pepa's video for "Push It. " The rap stars danced in black catsuits and 8-ball jackets, and their hair was cut into these fierce asymmetrical bobs. "I want that haircut," I told my mom. "That?" said my mom, an expert on all things pop culture. "That isn't anything but a modified Vidal Sassoon bob. " She then went on to talk about Diana Ross and the Supremes and Twiggy and other fashion icons of her generation who wore a version of the clean, angled geometric bob years before.

This summer, hair weaves are taking a turn for the kinky, the curly and the wavy. Why is this news? When black women first started sewing hair onto their scalps during the 1990s en masse, the resulting shoulder-length bobs were as much about achieving a smooth texture as it was about having length. Fabulous hair was defined as long and straight. However, as more black women have come to terms with their natural curl pattern, store-bought tresses are trending toward the fuzzy rather than the flat-ironed.

CLEVELAND - Sixteen men and women pleaded not guilty Thursday in beard- and hair-cutting attacks against fellow Amish in Ohio. The 10 men and six women and their attorneys overflowed defense tables and the jury box as they entered the pleas before U.S. District Court Judge Dan Polster in response to an updated indictment. The latest indictment added new allegations that the suspects tried to hide or destroy evidence, including a disposable camera, shears and a bag of hair from the victims.

DEAR ABBY: What's the best thing to do when someone insults me for being myself? My hair has been bright blue for the past two semesters of college. I like it. I'm young, and my family is letting me express my "wild" side while I'm in school. Six months ago I went to meet my ex-boyfriend's mother, and the first thing she said to me was, "You're one of my son's phases, right? Boys don't actually bring girls with blue hair home to Mama. " Abby, it was with my ex's encouragement that I dyed my hair this bright color.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - It wasn't the kind of day West Chester's Sean O'Hair was looking for. He had a chance to surpass his best finish in a major, which was a tie for seventh in the 2010 British Open. Or even his best showing here at the Masters, which was a tie for 10th in 2009. Instead, he closed with a 77 that including a double bogey at 17 and a third consecutive bogey at 18, which dropped him to 291. "I'm definitely ready for this week to be over," said O'Hair, who made birdies on the second and third holes to get on the first page of the leader board.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - It wasn't the kind of day West Chester's Sean O'Hair was looking for. He had a chance to surpass his best finish in a major, which was a tie for seventh at the 2010 British Open. Or even his best showing here at the Masters, which was a tie for 10th in 2009. Instead, he closed with a 77 that including a double bogey at 17 and a third straight bogey at 18, dropping him to 291. "I'm definitely ready for this week to be over," said O'Hair, who made birdies on the second and third holes to get on the first page of the leaderboard.

Question: What do you think about the use of "pink slime" in ground beef? ?Answer: With a name like "pink slime," it seems like "lean finely textured beef" has a serious image problem. I've seen the video of food chef and critic Jamie Oliver where he tosses scraps of meat into a washing machine to illustrate rather poorly the meat separation process, followed by the dousing of household bleach on so-called pink slime to make a dramatic point. This is simply not accurate. What is finely textured beef?

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Sean O'Hair knows a good thing when it finds him. So when 1992 Masters champion Fred Couples asked him a couple of weeks ago whether he'd like to play a practice round this week with him and Tiger Woods . . . "I was all over it," the West Chester resident said. "I knew it would be a good time. " You think? The threesome teed off first on Tuesday morning, at 7:50. The galleries were what you'd expect, at least for the front nine. Then Woods decided to call it a round.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Sean O'Hair knows a good thing when it finds him. So when 1992 Masters champion Fred Couples asked him a couple of weeks ago if he'd like to play a practice round this week with him and Tiger Woods . . . "I was all over it," said the West Chester resident. "I knew it would be a good time. " You think? The threesome teed off first on Tuesday, at 7:50. The galleries were what you'd expect, at least for the front nine. Then Tiger decided to call it a round.

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.