Monday, April 19, 2010

now that you mention it

Tonight I was talking to this bartender, and the subject of hair came up, as it does. 

Actually, there were several hair interludes that made this a very appropriate conversation topic: 
1. A guy who was probably a stylist, judging from his mad skills (both with hair and with the ladies) was doing some girl's hair at the bar, with all these swirls and twirls and a high volume poufy front. I totally wanted that guy's hands on my head.
2. There was some movie playing on the bigscreen on the wall, and the guys had fabulously bad hair. One dude had a mullet and one dude had hair that I likened to the Leningrad Cowboys. Bartender got that reference. Points to him. That movie is awesome.
3. PJ had curled her hair into a wild early Mariah-Careyish lion's mane, which drew many admiring glances. I mean circa first album. Do you remember her hair? Not all straightened and blond like it is now. It was kinky and big and New York.
So all this set up made hair a natural topic, and Bartender told me that Vincent Gallo was his favorite actor, and that VG was his hair muse. Okay, fine, he didn't use the word muse, that's my intervention. But he did say that he modeled his hair on Vincent's, using, he said, wax, oil, and grease. And a perm.
L, who's visiting from the States, said that she found this admission very weird, and further asserted that though some people might have hair muses, they would probably not admit it and then go on to describe in such detail their styling regimen. Maybe I've just been here too long, because it's become normal to me. Like, okay, I don't have such elaborate rituals, but everyone else does, right? Can someone explain more eloquently than me why things that are totally not okay back home are just fine here?

Stripper shoes?
Beautiful man bags?
Waterfall hair?
Please don't take them away from me.

8 comments:

  1. America's so uptight. And so generation after generation are taught the rights and wrongs which basically is that everything fun is a sin. Here, everyone's their own person, free to follow their muse and be their selves without an angry mob judging them because they're too insecure to have awesomely amazing waterfall hair.

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  2. Ahh, you see, I wouldn't have got the Leningrad Cowboys reference (haven't heard of it). Can we still be friends?

    Plus my hair is so shit these days.

    Pffft.

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  3. Hahaha. Once again, cracked up by selena. what would i do without you and what would i do without waterfall hair? die. i would die.

    i owe you an email.

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  4. OMG I WANT A MARIAH CAREY PERM!!!!!!!

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  5. A hairy topic indeed....

    Reminds me of photos by Jeanne Dunning I saw hanging in the public library today:

    http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/images/art/jeannedunning/dunning_head8.jpg

    And looks like I might be seeing you 日本 side this summer....!

    ps. Yes, saw some mutual friends in Durham - still skating and destroying.

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  6. Jess, I think you're partially right, and I also just think that different is normal, at least within certain parameters. But try wearing a piercing or a visible tattoo or waterfall hair to a mainstream company job.

    Jen, there are many ways to get points. Obscurish Finnish movies are not the only way!

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  7. Sarah, waterfall hair must truly be cherished. Adore. And email me! Your visit is overdue!

    Beth, I know, right? When I was about eight years old, this hair for me was the height of sophistication. I still love it.

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  8. Ha ha, great link Andy. I am super stoked to see you and Christa this summer!

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