the power of hair.. the power of going bald.

i sometimes wonder if men who go bald early on in life are more inclined to grow up quicker. after all.. they’ll never suffer from what i call cuteness disease. cute fluffy men are more in danger of not getting taken seriously. when you’re young and pretty you can fall into the lazy trap of allowing yourself to be stroked and patronised, where as young bald men have no choice but to play a different hand of cards. without realising, cuteness can socially arrest the development. it must be a delight for bald men to finally realise that in the adult world, they’re perceived as stronger and more formidable…sexier even… in some very crucial departments bald men maybe have the last laugh.

and then there’s the wigs..one of the most unsettling things is seeing a male who you know in a wig for the first time…it takes some getting used to. wigs have an almost magical power in that they are strange and transformative….. a bunch of years ago i made a little music video where i had to wear a wig…it wasn’t even for drag…it was to take on the look of a long haired 70’s rocker…my boyfriend came to the set later on when i was fully decked out, and it sort of upset him…he said i was like a stranger…but it was just a frigging wig.

now i’m thinking of the unspoken power of the actual hair industry..how many salons are there across the land…how many people do they employ, and how much tax does that pay into a country. don’t forget to consider all the spendy hair products as well. it’s obviously big business. another funny thing is when you finally find a perfect hairdresser who does you just as you like it, the relationship takes on a kind of one sided monogamy..you’d never let anyone else near you, and you’d be crushed if your perfect hairdresser ever moved on.

a hairstyle on a politician seems to have magic powers as well…even when it’s awful.. donald trump and boris johnson are vogueing their comedy hair for all they’re worth.

in rock and roll, hair becomes an ambassador for the actual music…from little richard onwards, they all had great hair…even mangled hair works, just as long as it’s carried off with conviction.. think of robert smith or jimi hendrix, yet baldness or bad hairstyles in pop music are usually a cardinal sin. imagine marc bolan having recorded his big hits only being bald…would we have still sent his rocket skyward? ..and even if the exact same records did become hits only with a bald frontman,would we have heard them differently?…what about bruce springsteen only bald…or elvis…come to think of it, would rock and roll ever have even existed without hair?..i dunno.

maybe our minds are more sophisticated these days, and hair’s less of a deal breaker. i was thinking that while watching this clip of future islands… i’m not ashamed to tell you that the singer gives me extreme horn..it’s as clear as bells he’s receding, and i like that a lot.