Apr 25th 2012 07:34 am From hair to eternity II
Someone asked if I “cut” Janis’ hair, because it would be easier to draw. Actually, the shorter styles are much more difficult to draw than longer hair. Not all women have their hair cut shorter as as they approach or reach middle age, but most do. I just thought it was time for a change. Not to mention, I probably was desperate for an idea that week, as usual. Incidentally, judging from the comments relayed to me, most women don’t regret going to shorter hair.
Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J
43 Responses to “From hair to eternity II”
Joni in Western ND on 25 Apr 2012 at 7:35 am #
I’m just the opposite. Mine is the longest it has ever been. I used to keep it shorter.
hc on 25 Apr 2012 at 7:45 am #
Lopped mine off years ago – my mother referred to the shorter style as “the choir boy” look. I haven’t spoken to my mother in 14 years.
Problem I have with hair – what colour is it now? it used to be flaming red … but now has a lot of white in it, so it isn’t red anymore, nor is it grey or white …
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 25 Apr 2012 at 7:51 am #
hc: Roan?
Jerry: “What is the English word with the most different meanings?” I don’t remember, but am pretty sure Anu Garg has mentioned it recently: http://wordsmith.org/awad/
Symply Fargone on 25 Apr 2012 at 7:59 am #
Women may cut it as they get older, but (most?; I believe) wish they’d leave it longer. I do prefer it long on women, but there are some women who do look cute with short hair…I just do not want my woman to take the chance without an good idea of what it will look like first….YMMV, might be a nice day today, going to be Symply Fargone!
Symply Fargone on 25 Apr 2012 at 8:00 am #
Most men…forgot the word men; most men wish they would leave it longer……..JMHO…..
phil in Missoula, MT on 25 Apr 2012 at 8:25 am #
I have noticed that women tend to wear their hair longer in middle age in Texas and in the Northwest, although the styles differ. Northwest goes for long straight hair and Texas the hair is curled
Bob Ball on 25 Apr 2012 at 8:28 am #
I recall my first wife, then in her early 20s, in tears after getting a shorter haircut. It might have happened to my second wife once as well. Then she got cancer and worrying out whether it would all fall out was a different order of magnitude. It didn’t fall out, the first time, but it did 2-3 times after that. She got quite used to it, didn’t always wear a wig or scarf around the house. I was OK with it: The treatments that kept her going — hiking, jogging, gardening, all of it — kept her alive 28 years after that first diagnosis and mastectomy.
Jean from Dahlonega Ga aka Trapper Jean on 25 Apr 2012 at 8:30 am #
When I was little I had very long hair that my mom spent hours curling and braiding until some well-meaning dolt told her I’d look like Shirley Temple if she had it cut short. The dolt was wrong. My hair frizzed instead of curling. Unfortunately Mom didn’t have the patience to let my hair grow out again, so she kept it cut short. Even when I was in my teens she insisted it be short. I hated having short hair so I swore that once I went off to college I would not cut my hair again, and I never have. Trimmed, yes; cut, no. Mom never admitted my hair looked better when long, but she finally quit arguing about it.
hc, once upon a time my hair was a dark auburn with goldish highlights. Now it is mostly silver and the red that is left is sort of a dark cinnamon. I’m not sure what to call that, either.
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 25 Apr 2012 at 8:41 am #
My Mother had seven kids and she and my Dad worked all the time to barely make ends meet. She never colored her hair. Once when she was in her early 50′s a lady at church remarked how she loved my Mom’s highlights and “Who colors your hair?” My Mom just looked up and pointed to the sky.
Mom also tried cutting our hair. I had a butch haircut for maybe a year. After that we found a reasonable barber and he cut our hair 4-5 times a year. It was always long enough to comb.
Dave in MA on 25 Apr 2012 at 9:04 am #
hc, would white mixed with red give an overall pink hue?
Perhaps instead of “salt and pepper” you could be “salt and red pepper” or “salt and paprika” ?
As for the story of my parents and their battles with their TV, Cable Box, etc, that I promised yesterday, well, I wrote it up, but my wife suggested I may not want to publish it as it might embarrass my mom. The wife and I are still “discussing” this, especially since she’s one of three that thought I should write it up to start with (the other two both being my sisters who I told it to in front of my mother).
Sigh.
As for women wondering why men love long hair on a woman? Well, I don’t know the “why” of it, I just know that I do. Why do you women love the physical characteristics on men that you prefer? I’m sure you all have something that you prefer one way or another about the men in your life. Do you really understand WHY you prefer it that way?
Dave in MA on 25 Apr 2012 at 9:40 am #
Comments carried over from yesterday:
Bob, near Mark, so you did. My bad.
Jerry in FL, “that thing that you have your right hand on is a mouse. Two of them would be what?” My answer to that would be, “problematic for most computers to deal with.”
Also Jerry in FL, “How do you make snow red and blue?” – Um, food coloring maybe?
CW in 617, polygamy or divorce would explain those numbers, so would same sex marriage, and being that you’re in area code 617, that’s legal too.
BTW, my mom has 4 children, my dad has 3, between them there are only 5.
Charlotte in NH “It would be nice to transfer them, but I don’t see it happening. Art is long, life is short.” I know the feeling, I know the feeling. That’s why I love doing this. I get to give someone a bit of their past, or even extreme past that they can experience and cherish, and they haven’t had to spend the time to do it. And while films are time consuming, it’s finite and relatively short. Videotapes, well, people tended to leave the tape running (myself included in that!) and instead of a 3 minute reel of film showing the graduation, you have a 2 hour video showing the graduation. Transfering those becomes a LOT more time consuming. For reel to reel tapes, again, most people that have them have a few and they are often full, but again, it’s finite and short. Whereas if they have a large record collection, doing them non-stop 24×7 can still take months or even years. I charge more for a record than I do for a reel of film. It takes a lot longer and in most cases is available on CD for a lower cost. I’m encouraging them to re-buy on CD when possible. If there’s something rare, then by all means, transfer the record. Otherwise, the CD (or for some people iTunes/Amazon, etc downloads) are less expensive and much faster.
Mark in TTown, I wrote an article about that very fact! As you create in new formats, what happens when those formats are no longer supported. With an analog record, you could look at the grooves with a magnifying glass and see the waveform and determine it was audio. Put a thumbtack sideways through the eraser of a pencil, put the other end of the pencil into your mouth, clamped onto by your teeth, and put the point of the tack into a rotating record and you will hear the sound (and damage the record). How can you do that with the 1s and 0s of digital? Unless some program supports that file format, it will become unrecognizable and useless.
A real good example is that, prior to the CD, digital audio recording existed. In many cases it was not what became a standard sampling rate. For example, you could use a special encoder to create a video signal that stored digital audio data in the video track (no watchable picture here folks) and record it onto a standard home VCR, or professional (U-Matic was often used) VCR. Those recordings are not at 44,100 sampling rate (CD) or 48,000 sampling rate (audio track of a video program). They are at odd rates, such as 44,096 or some such. While that’s not a problem to convert, it can be done with math quite easily, it IS a problem to capture/transfer. Most audio cards, consumer OR professional, don’t lock to those sampling rates and you can’t transfer the audio. While you could PLAY the audio and re-capture the analog output, as the players become extinct, that audio can’t be recovered. Standards change, old standards disappear. How will you access those files, recordings, images, etc. ???
Mindy, “The dryer gets blamed because no one counts socks before putting them into the dryer.” I always suspected that, but never took the time to verify it.
So, with the new trend being front opening washers that turn rather than agitate, does this mean no more missing socks?
Dave in MA on 25 Apr 2012 at 9:41 am #
I type way too many words.
Ruth on 25 Apr 2012 at 9:49 am #
I had hair down to the middle of my back until my daughter was born then I got tired of having it in a ponytail everyday so I had it cut to just below my shoulders. The very first time I cut it short it was at the start of winter (December) and I found my neck and back were always cold as I was missing that added dead air space that is trapped in the hair. Now my hair length is seasonal. It is above my shoulders in spring, summer & early fall and then I let it grow to below my shoulders for the rest of fall and winter.
My husband is more into the color of a woman’s hair than its length. He really likes it when women have red hair. Most of our male friends also prefer woman with red hair. Strangely, very few of us actually have natural red hair or maintain a red color for very long although most of us have mid to long hair.
Robb on 25 Apr 2012 at 10:54 am #
A lot of men just wish they had hair, regardless of length.
John in Virginia on 25 Apr 2012 at 11:21 am #
Okay, let’s stir the pot. How does on go about proving one is a “natural” (submit hair color here)?
Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 25 Apr 2012 at 12:18 pm #
John in VA-
That’s easy- eye brows. They are less likely to be dyed due their proximity to the eyes.
minnesotadon on 25 Apr 2012 at 1:22 pm #
I relate to Arlo real well…I have been caught with that look on my face a time or two. I wish I would have kept my mouth shut but I tried to compensate for my face expression and got deeper into trouble as I proceeded…thankfully time heals. Still married to the woman I lusted after 40+ years ago.
Larry Sheldon on 25 Apr 2012 at 1:22 pm #
“most women don’t regret going to shorter hair”
What do most men say about it?
I hate it.
Dave in MA on 25 Apr 2012 at 1:37 pm #
John in Virginia, you could watch M*A*S*H* (the original movie) for the answer to that one, but it’s not true 100% of the time. There are instances where one area and another area are naturally different colors from each other.
Galliglo in Ohio on 25 Apr 2012 at 1:51 pm #
John in Virginia: I shall not respond to that remark about proving natural hair color (ahem….)..
I was a natural redhead but, unfortunately, genes will out and I started getting gray hair in my early twenties. At least my genes did not follow my dad completely – he was bald by the time he was in his early 30′s!
Colored the hair for years, but then decided to go natural. I was told it was a pretty shade of gray, but… I didn’t FEEL natural! I went back to coloring (NOT the flaming red of my youth!) and will probably never change. When my hair was gray, I felt like I was sailing under false colors! LOL
sandcastler on 25 Apr 2012 at 2:55 pm #
GiO, sailing under false colours reminds of my time with the rogue pirate. Will have to “plead a Mindy,” tis a tale for another day.
Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 25 Apr 2012 at 3:10 pm #
Sandcastler- Was that a rogue pirate or a rouge pirate?
Charlotte in NH on 25 Apr 2012 at 3:15 pm #
Dave in MA, the number of words you type is fine. You must be an awfully fast typist ! I see what you mean about the formats, altho the details are beyond me. Indeed, it must be rewarding to restore these precious and irreplacable memories to people.
I have cut my own hair, short, for lo these many years. Saved lots of money and time ! It’s white now and I guess it looks OK. My husband, bless his heart, didn’t care what length or color it was. When we got out of bed in the morning he would smile and say that I looked like a porcupine. He thought it was cute. I sure miss him.
sandcastler on 25 Apr 2012 at 3:21 pm #
Blinky the pirate was a rogue. The mates wore the rouge and could’ve made a Secret Service Agent blush. Too much said.
Mark in TTown on 25 Apr 2012 at 3:36 pm #
Dave in Ma, Probably the first example of that was when Edison switched from cylinder recordings to discs. Then we had 78, 45 and 33 1/3. For a time there were turntables that would play all 3 but I don’t know if there are any available any more, unless maybe in the major restoration centers. By the way, if you go to the Library of Congress website you can see some of the earliest movies for free. Since everything which was copyrighted was supposed to have a copy deposited there they have many things which you can’t find anywhere else. I have watched some of Willis O’Brien’s earliest animations and footage of Coney Island in the teens.
They also have audio rarities online there.
Mindy on 25 Apr 2012 at 3:59 pm #
And did ye wear a ponytail, Sandcastler?
sandcastler on 25 Apr 2012 at 4:21 pm #
In those day of yore, the entity now known as sandcastler (please note non-capital s), wore his hair high & tight.
Mark in Boston on 25 Apr 2012 at 4:50 pm #
Why is it that “hair” is both singular and collective but “fur” is not?
I know what my hair is, and I know what “one hair” is. I know what my dog’s fur is, but what is “one fur”? Is it one entire set of fur, as for instance one fur coat?
I just used the word with the most meanings.
David in Austin on 25 Apr 2012 at 5:12 pm #
Mark,
Fur is compose of individual hairs. It’s just that we collectively call it something different on people, since it isn’t a full body covering. For example, one dog without fur is a Mexican Hairless Chihuahua. However, I would guess then that the expression for “The hair of the dog that bit you” means you ingest only some of the hair, rather than the entire fur.
David
Bob, near Mark on 25 Apr 2012 at 5:48 pm #
Mark in Boston,
I don’t know what just “one fur” is, but an entire set of fur is a pelt.
Now, if you get “pelted” with hail, does that mean that the hailstones are soft and furry?
Mindy on 25 Apr 2012 at 5:55 pm #
Bob, near Mark, if you get hailed, then, have you been pelted? Hailstones are most definitely not soft and furry. Soft and furry things are usually warm and cuddly. And, David, I must have seen counterfeit Chihuahuas all my life since I’ve never seen one totally denuded. Did you know that the Aztecs used them as their version of meals on wheels? Whenever the Aztecs would take off on one of their long journeys there were always dozens of Chihuahua with them. If the hunters had a bad day along the way, the Chihuahuas had an ever worse one in that they became the entree.
Wow! The things you can learn around this site! Soft and furry hail and main courses on the hoof!
Jerry in Fl on 25 Apr 2012 at 6:00 pm #
The word was run. Look it up. Now I’m going back to read. Some of you were wordy today and no I’m not complaining. I’ll be back with big news.
Jerry in Fl on 25 Apr 2012 at 6:31 pm #
The subjects that we get on! Hail, fur and eating dogs, with a little spelling lesson thrown in. One of my favorites is lead, lead and led. My computer stays confused enough without more than one mouse thank you very much. I will postpone my comment on recent earhquakes in favor of news that just rocked my world. My youngest just told me that he is moving to St. Paul, MN for a job one week from today. I had to look at the Atlas to find it. Two states west of Michigan I believe. Actually it was the twin cities tht I had to look up. Anyone familiar with the area please feel free to comment. The closest that I’ve ever been would be either Denver or Ft. Knox. I knew that he would not be staying in this area, but now that it’s here I don’t know what to say. This is tough.
Jeff in Ann Arbor on 25 Apr 2012 at 7:02 pm #
Ah, redheads. I married one 44 years ago with curly red hair, and am now married to a naturally frosted something or other. Same lady. Seems to have been a Viking descendent in Scotland.
Her mother, also a redhead, used to get those same questions in her maturity that have been mentioned – who does your hair?
Funny thing is, I never had a thing for redheads before meeting this certain one, and ever since, I have. My attention is always turned.
As a person of the male persuasion, I will offer my opinion on long hair vs. short on a woman. I love long hair, but think that short hairdos are more attractive. A real conflict, I know. But short cuts are so cute!
Bob, near Mark on 25 Apr 2012 at 7:25 pm #
Mindy,
Hail, yes!
As for Chihuahuas – A family in the neighborhood has one. There is a leash law here, but that family pays no attention to it. Their Chihuahua runs loose, and has absolutely no fear of traffic. He runs into the street in front of cars and trucks, and expects them to stop for him. Some day, someone is not going to stop in time. One of the other neighbors has seen the dog officer pay them a visit, but it hasn’t done any good. I don’t think that there’s any possibility of a local Aztec having him for a snack, but we DO have coyotes and large hawks.
Monica on 25 Apr 2012 at 7:51 pm #
Hair grows back! I have an unusual premature salt & pepper that strangers stop to compliment. As I get older, it looks more like a life choice but dying just was never a consideration (my first silver came in at 11 years old). I love getting haircuts and have had every kind of length! My main anguish comes in finding an adventurous creative hairdresser! I have had the hair long for several years with many compliments but recently had a dramatic shorter stylish cut and have had people stopping dead on their tracks gushing with admiration. Like I said, hair grows (at least for some).
Mindy on 25 Apr 2012 at 7:52 pm #
Dear Small “S” sandcastler: I capitalize the 1st person noun by sheer force of habit after having that beaten into me by sadistic concentration camp guards posing as English teachers who just happened not to be able to tell their metaphors from a glass of water.
Monica on 25 Apr 2012 at 7:52 pm #
I meant dyeing not dying!
David in Austin on 25 Apr 2012 at 10:22 pm #
When I was small, we had a neighbor whose chihuahua was allowed to run loose. It also had no fear of traffic, until it encountered a dump truck driving through the neighborhood. After that, it just had no fear. Without going into details, the cartoons with steam-rollers are pretty close to reality when a small dog meets a 50,000 lb truck. I will remember it for the rest of my life.
Jerry in Fl on 25 Apr 2012 at 10:25 pm #
As used, the other was ok too. Still wondering about the appearances schedule.
CW in 617 on 25 Apr 2012 at 11:20 pm #
When the movie “Rosemary’s Baby” came out, there was speculation that Mia Farrow cut her hair on her own because, being married to Frank Sinatra, she didn’t want to look so much younger than her husband.
It was years later that I read the Ira Levin novel, and found that the scene in the movie reproduced the novel’s dialogue nearly verbatim, and the short haircut added to Rosemary’s nearly skeletal appearance while pregnant, reminding us that her pregancy was, well, different.
Mindy on 26 Apr 2012 at 1:53 am #
Wow! Point-six-six inches of rain in 3 hours 30 minutes…and the two storms were only about 25 minutes each in duration! I wanted some rain to soften the ground so I could get at the Devil Bamboo runners [rhizomes], exposing them and then using bolt cutters to cut the little boogers into a million pieces. But I surely didn’t want to have to wear a wet suit while doing it and on the slope where I’ll be slopping around I’d end up skidding downhill on my tush with ponytail dragging in the dirt. That idea of napalm keeps seeming betterer and betterer. I did find another pair of underwear [female] in the stuff that’s still standing, about 15 feet off the ground, and, no, Small “S” Sandcastler, there is no story for yet another day there, but I doubt that this is a case of the furry little woodland creatures dragging them in as someone suggested.
The chipmunk is back after a troubling absence. Emeritus, you keep insisting that it has to be a second or even a third chipmunk since they don’t live more than 3 years but I have to keep insisting that it is the same little fella, no doubt. The one that hangs around here has a distinctive white spot on its left side rump, a distinguishing mark if I ever saw one, and I dare say that we wouldn’t have had two, three or four of them with the same unusual markings. Of course, the grey squirrel that is almost white that hangs out in the back yard looking at where the bamboo used to be had a white nose as well. Odd creatures in the mountains!
minnesotadon on 26 Apr 2012 at 6:22 am #
Jerry in FL I live about 5 miles from St Paul. It is a great place for “quality of life”. The summers are wonderful. And today we have all sorts of tech type clothing that is good for the wintertime. Lots to do in the winter…just dress for it. If your son is into “social” life at all he is going to love it in the twin cities. Lots of concerts, and theater is big…I run out of money before I run out of things to do. And if he is into morel mushrooms, next week is the prime time in this area.