Lockdown’s given us all multicolour hair to dye for

FINALLY, after all the pre-release noise, Emerald Fennell’s film Promising Young Woman is available in this country.

Nominated for Best Picture at tonight’s Oscars, it features Carey Mulligan (nominated for Best Actress) kitted out in cartoon pornstar style topped off by a wig in strands of bubblegum pink, turquoise, silver, green and white. She appears a hyper-realistic parody of womanhood, with the wig as the star turn in an outfit that includes her scarlet shoes and nurse’s uniform.

But it’s not only Mulligan’s character, the tormented Cassie, who’s been playing around with her hair.

During the past year, hair colour has gone wild. The crazed colouring of Mulligan’s barnet as the film reveals its final horrors looks far less unreal than it would have done pre-pandemic. You only have to walk down the street or join a supermarket queue to see something extreme has been happening.

And it’s not just your usual ash blonde highlights or chestnut balayage. Rainbows have been making an appearance on women of all ages. Blue rinse has gained an entirely new meaning. Even grey roots, once something obsessively hidden, are now being shown off in deliberate display.

It’s as if our heads have become beacons of the pandemic – glaring examples of how this dramatic period, while changing everything, has simultaneously been a repetitive Groundhog Day where our hair has been home-grown entertainment.

Like many women, I legged it to the colourist as soon as the salons reopened. I’d managed DIY pretty well but any remotely close examination would have revealed a serious badger effect around the areas I couldn’t