Hair is Key in defining a woman...
Marian Keyes in lockdown video gotta give and it seems to be affecting our mental health. The most Googled thing this week was hair – and women are now at the end of their tether. Marian Keyes took to Twitter to air her hair matters. She said: “I look like a sheep, my hair looks like sheep’s ears, I have to go on Lorraine in a few minutes looking like a sheep, it’s not good you know, it’s not good.” The fact the hairdressing black market is now a thing proves how upsetting it is to women that we
Hair stylist Aidan can’t get to the salon.
Women wouldn’t be offering up to 400 quid for a haircut if they didn’t feel utterly desperate.
With the correct social distancing measures taken, a limit on customers in the salon and the right PPE gear, surely the hairdressers could potentially slowly reopen?
Just like the plan to slowly open the country, hair salons really are a vital service to protect women’s mental health.
The other option touted this week is for salons to work outdoors in the summer, a good alternative to risking public health indoors. There’s nothing new about us caring about our hair.
For centuries, hair dye has been instrumental in portraying an image – either we fit in or we subvert the trend.
Hair has always been one of our defining elements and it’s in our psyche.
My next-door neighbour is a hair stylist and her phone has been hopping with troubled women begging for advice on how to sort their hair – with many asking could she pop over in the PPE gear for a quick hairdo.
My own stylist in Blackrock, Dublin, Aidan Fitzgerald, has for many years been working with ladies who lost their hair due to chemo.
He’s helped to restore their confidence with modern wigs replicating the real deal.
I’ve seen first-hand the incredible confidence the wig brand My New Hair has given to women in remission.
So it’s a psychological thing – our hair done well gives us a feelgood factor.
Hair is actually in our DNA in more ways than one. Some men are naturally seduced by long hair, believing a woman with a glossy mane is more fertile.
Ancient civilizations used basic hair colorants, based on recipes that included cassia bark, leeks, leeches, charred eggs, henna – still commonly used across the Middle East and India – and even gold dust.
It wasn’t until the Middle Ages in Europe that hair dyeing began shifting into being a predominantly female habit.
In early Rome, it wasn’t uncommon for ladies to attempt to colour greying hair with a root touch up, because apparently women aging has never truly been OK.
To achieve blonde hair, a woman’s hair was slathered with anything from ashes to pigeon poo and then weed on.
One of the biggest stigmas placed on women is still aging – and having our hair done shields us from this somewhat.
Yes, some women embrace their grey locks, but by and large we’ve been masking them for centuries, so why should we be ridiculed for wanting to continue with this?