Strapping two narrow steel blades to the bottom of one’s feet and then being shoved forward onto a sheet of ice seems like an accident waiting to happen. A natural disaster. Yet, some people manage to overcome the hardship and turn it into an art form. Figure skating. Heck, for that matter, playing hockey, or just plain staying vertical on ice skates is somewhat of a miracle if you ask me.
Figure skating used to be a bigger deal than it is now. At least in the United States. Sonja Henie of the 1920s and 30s may have been the first to break through and win people’s hearts. But in our generation, Peggy Flemming (1960s) started the ball rolling, and then it shifted over to the likes of Dorothy Hamill (1970s).
But the thing that struck me, as I recalled all of this, was that humans are really lemmings, in disguise. Not all. But a lot. The entire fashion industry counts on this. As does the automotive industry, the technology sector, and many other lines of enterprise.
I’m thinking mostly of Dorothy Hamill’s hair. By the time she won the gold in 1976, you couldn’t walk ten steps in any direction without seeing some woman or girl wearing the Dorothy Hamill haircut. That poofy back-wedge was on everyone’s head. Albeit I never had the cut, but I am a 57-year-old woman who still wears jeans and hoodies every day. But let’s leave me out of this.
Women seemed to do the hair thing a lot back in those days. It just so happens that this is the date that Dorothy Hamill won the U.S. Women’s Figure Skating Championship in 1975.
Which leads me right into the next hair icon. This is also Farah Fawcett’s birthday, on February 2, 1947. When she came on the scene in Charlie’s Angels, playing Jill Munroe, her hair came right along with her. She only stayed in that role for one season, but she left her mark. Everyone had Farah Fawcett hair. At least 50% of the girls in my high school class wore the look.
For the most part, guys don’t seem to follow the hairstyle crazes. There is only one trend that I can think of, and it is extremely sad and regrettable. For some reason, a bunch of men really got behind the look of those Duck Hunters, or whatever they were. The Duck Kingdom? Duck Empire? Anyway. Those guys.
Now, at least in Preble County, Ohio — and in the recent attack on the United States Capitol — about 50% of the men have that dead furry animal hanging from their faces. As you may have noticed, I am not a big fan of the look. But then again, I am a 57 year-old-woman who has been cutting her own hair since the pandemic began. Living in glass houses, you know.
But the thing about those beards, at least with me, is that I am obsessive-compulsive with a thing about cleanliness. I don’t like clutter, dirty bathrooms, dirty anything, really. And those beards seem a little rat-nesty to me.
Don’t take my word for it, though. There was a study done about a year ago. And in such, scientists discovered men with beards have more germs in their hairs than dogs carry in their fur. In fact, they found that every sample of beard hair collected was crawling with bacteria. Nearly half of them had bugs and bacteria considered hazardous to human health.
This may have been true for the Dorothy Hamill cut, too, I don’t know.
Yet, the beauty of being a human, in a free country, with free choices, is that we all can be who we want to be.*
*Unless, of course, you are black, a woman, poor, homosexual, Jewish, transgendered, etc. etc.
But, at least you can wear your hair.
=========
“If I want to knock a story off the front page, I just change my hairstyle.”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton
========
“People always ask me how long it takes to do my hair. I don’t know, I’m never there.”
― Dolly Parton
========
“And yonder sits a maiden, The fairest of the fair, With gold in her garment glittering, And she combs her golden hair.”
― Heinrich Heine
===========
Dorothy’s hair and duck beards. Sad, but true.
