Column: Something About Nothing

Is it real or has she or he had help? Do you ever wonder when you are looking at someone with spectacularly beautiful hair if the hair is real?

Recently John Travolta was in the news because apparently he went without his toupee while vacationing in Hawaii. The headlines were splashed all over the newspapers and on every prominent website. Hair or lack of does make news in certain instances. Personally I love John Travolta with or without hair.

We are obsessed with hair. It isn’t just women that fix and dye and curl and fake their hairstyles. Men are just as vain.

On the same day as John Travolta’s hair was in the news, I Googled a favorite woman star of one of my favorite soap operas. I wasn’t expecting to find the articles I did. She was being accused of faking her long beautiful red curly locks. As I remember it she has always had this hair, but apparently as she has gotten older, so has her hair. People were mad.

I have had many bad hair days. I don’t have nice hair and I struggle with it on a daily basis. Back in the late ’60s and ’70s wigs and hairpieces were in, and I would pop some hairpiece on top of my head and make a bun. My hair would look great, or so I thought. I also had a long, blonde wig I loved. However unless you spent megabucks on those wigs and hairpieces, everyone knew they were fake.

The same can be said for a bad toupee. Sometimes bald is more beautiful than a bad hairpiece.

Wigs were worn in ancient Greece. The wigs then were assorted sizes of braids set with beeswax. Wigs worn in the ancient Egyptian times were worn by all classes. The material of a wig would set apart where you were in the class structure. Upper class women would own wigs different styles and some were actually human hair while others were made from wool or palm leaf fibers and sometimes silver. There is quite a history to wigs.

In this day and age we don’t have to settle for a plain wig. After looking in to all the possibilities to make my hair better I am more confused.

A hair weave adds additional hair to ones natural hair by adding or covering the natural hair with synthetic or natural hair. One website compared it to adding shingles on a roof. I’ve never had my hair or head compared to a roof but some people have told me that I have bats in my belfry and they weren’t talking about my house. One type of application is a sew-in and another is by glue.

I found hair weaving has its own dictionary. Terms are Remy hair or non-Remy hair, single drawn, double drawn, quality A, quality B, quality C. You may have choices of Indian hair or European hair. There are different techniques such as bonding, tracking, fusion, nobraidsglue, netting, tree braiding, clip ons, lace extensions and micro-braiding. This is too much for my old brain. It would be great to have a hairstylist write a column on this to alleviate our confusion.

There are also many choices for wigs. There are half wigs, ponytail wigs, full wigs and more. Wig business is big in 2011.

We have come a long way since the first wig back in the Egyptian days. It is great for men and women to have so many choices for our hair. Most of the time we can’t tell anymore if anyone is wearing a wig. Whether you wear a wig because you have suffered hair loss or just because you want to have fun with your looks having natural looking wigs boosts a gal or a guy’s confidence.

I can’t write this story without giving a plug for Locks of Love. My granddaughters both let their thick hair grow long and then donate it to Locks of Love. Locks of Love is a nonprofit organization that provides hairpieces for financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada suffering from long term medical hair loss. This organization helps kids restore their self esteem and confidence by helping them during a difficult time in a child’s life. If you have long hair and are thinking of cutting it you may want to check out Locks of Love.

John Travolta, hair piece or not, we still love you.

Donald Trump, you might want to check in to all the new things out there to help you with your hair. Wait, Mr. Trump, if you are reading this, you better stick with the hair you have now. Your hair is such a media sensation now that if you got a hair weave we would have no other news stories for years. What is our fascination with everyone else’s hair?

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send e-mail to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net. Her blog is www.thankfuljoy.com. Listen to KBEW AM radio 1:30 p.m. Sundays for “Something About Nothing.”