Utah State University: USU Folklore Announces Digital Trend of the Year. “Utah State University’s Digital Folklore Project has named the hashtag #MahsaAmini, which launched a significant grassroots protest of the Iranian government’s treatment of women, the #DigitalLoreoftheYear for 2022.”
The Verge: Pinterest is adding search filters for different hair textures. “Pinterest is launching a search tool to help people narrow their hair inspiration searches by hair pattern. When users search for hairstyles, new filter options — for coily, curly, wavy, and straight textures, as well as shaved / bald and protective styles — will appear under the search bar.”
BBC: Lockdown hair given to South Shields Covid-19 archive. “Two men and two women have donated the hair they grew during the roughly 21 weeks of the first lockdown. Adam Bell, assistant keeper of history at South Shields Museum and Art Gallery, said it was ‘unusual, quirky and dare I say a little bit weird’ to collect hair, but the stories behind them should resonate with a lot of people.” You’d need a wheelbarrow for mine.
BBC: Covid: Hairdresser styles deceased clients during lockdown. “A hairdresser has started styling the hair of people who have passed away while his salon has been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. James Riley, from Buxton, Derbyshire, said it was not something he had considered before, but it had helped bring in some income in the last year. ‘I never thought I would, but I quite enjoy it,’ he said. He said the unconventional work had been “rewarding” and become one of the ‘biggest honours of [his] life’.”
San Francisco Chronicle: Stylists say Pelosi’s hair salon visit not a one-off — everybody’s doing it. not me. “Despite all of the shock and awe over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent trip to a San Francisco a salon to get her hair done, the truth is that such backdoor visits to salons, which are supposed to be closed to indoor service during the pandemic, are common and have been going in the city for months. Just ask the hairdressers.”
The Star: ‘I was worried I’d end up bald.’ Survivors alarmed by latest fallout of COVID-19 — their hair. “It was about three months after she first got sick with COVID-19 that Heather Colton’s fiancé started noticing strands of her thick dark hair all around the house. There would be clumps in the drain at the end of every shower…. The Belleville fast-food worker is not the only one experiencing this strange lingering impact of COVID-19. Called telogen effluvium, it often happens after a major illness or trauma. And it’s just one more sign, doctors say, that the strange new virus can impact the body beyond just the lungs, and, even in young people, trigger devastating impacts that last long beyond just 14 days.”
AZ Central: With colorful wigs, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema turns age-old tradition on its head. “U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is reminding people to social distance while bringing back an age-old congressional tradition. The Democratic senator from Arizona, a platinum blonde with the help of hair dye, has sported bob-length wigs in mint green and lavender in the course of her public duties during the pandemic. The hairpieces help cover her own hair’s natural darker hues while reminding her constituents that it is impossible to safely dye hair at a salon under the CDC’s recommendations of remaining six feet away from others.”
New York Times: Hair Salons Reopen, and Americans Rush Back. “Few professional encounters require prolonged bouts of close contact like appointments at hair or beauty salons. This makes beauty, nail and barbershops potentially high-risk hubs of infection for the coronavirus, which has killed almost half a million people worldwide since the start of this year. And yet, across the United States, customers are clamoring to fix gray roots, shaggy beards and chipped nails in reopened salons after months in lockdown, despite stark changes to how these services can now be offered. How do you cut hair behind someone’s ears when they’re also wearing a mask? Doesn’t matter, people are doing it.”
Block Club Chicago: No Walk-ins, No Magazines, No Blowouts: Salons, Barber Shops Prepare To Reopen With New Safety Measures. “Georgia reopened salons April 24 with some social distancing restrictions. Indiana salons reopened last week at reduced capacity. New Hampshire reopened salons last week, too, but with no blow drying allowed. Across the country, similar scenes are playing out: 6 feet of distance between chairs, masks and gloves for staff and clients and jugs of hand sanitizer.”
WQDR: Learn how to give men’s haircuts in quarantine with Quarancuts Virtual Hair School. “Barba, in partnership with the agency Terri & Sandy, has launched the Quarancuts Virtual Hair School. Each day, Barba’s owner and master stylist, Xavier Cruz, will guide you through the techniques of men’s haircuts via Zoom. The lessons will air on IGTV.”
The Denver Channel: Hair getting long while social distancing? Cut it yourself with the help of this website. “The site offers two types of haircuts for men. The least expensive is $18 for a 20 minute haircut. They encourage you to leave a $5 tip. About 80% of the cost goes to the barber. The rest goes to running the website. As soon as you book, you’ll get a Zoom link. There, the barber will tell you what to do.”
Vice: DIY Pandemic Haircuts Are the Latest Social Media Trend. “In the latest social media trend in this period of social distancing, people are collectively grabbing the nearest pair of scissors and hacking at their hair. While many rocked their new hairdos, the impulse makeovers didn’t go too well for others.”
Mashable: The greatest gift machine learning ever gave us is this archive of Mark Zuckerberg haircuts. “Created by Sam Lavigne, an artist whose work focuses on automation and surveillance (among other things), the archive consists of 387 machine-learning generated images of Mark Zuckerberg’s hair. To isolate just the CEO’s mop, Lavigne used an ‘open source hair detector’ available on GitHub.” And now my cat wants to know what’s so funny…
Slate: Curly Hair on Dial-Up. “Mainstream society was not friendly to curly hair in the 1990s, particularly if it grew from a black woman’s head. But my modem led me to the natural hair underground.”
Engadget: Google Lens now lets you virtually dye your hair. “Coloring your hair is a fun way to change your look — but you never quite know how the end result will turn out before you pull the trigger. Until now, that is, as L’Oréal has partnered with Google Lens for a pilot which offers a fast way to try out hair colors virtually.” As long as you’re at a participating Walmart.
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