Dame Helen’s hair tickles me pink
There she was in all her glory at the Baftas, dressed in a lovely, floaty grey chiffon gown, a grey satin stole – and with PINK hair. But after I got over the initial surprise, I thought Dame Helen Mirren looked softly pretty and feminine, and I didn’t mind the colour at all. In fact, she was a sight for sore eyes on a gloomy February morning, and she brought a smile to my face. 
One of our greatest actresses, Helen Mirren is not snooty or arrogant and she has a great sense of fun. She also has a way of surprising us all at times, whether it’s showing off her shapely figure in a bikini on a beach, or with that pink hair on the red carpet. Hats off to her for being so gutsy, funloving, and indifferent to public opinion. She is as convincing playing a screen siren as she is the Queen, her latest role in new West End play, The Audience. But back to her pink hair.
Many women I have talked to agreed that it was ‘pretty’ but, after some consideration, I am quite sure that I won’t be following suit. I’m certain that I am at my best as a blonde. In fact, I spend hours making sure that my colourist, who also cares for the Duchess of Cornwall’s locks, gets it just the right shade.
Seeing Helen’s pink hair also got me thinking about hair in general and it struck me, yet again, how truly obsessed we are with it – ours and other people’s. When I turn on the nightly news in New York, for example, I am fascinated by the American female television anchors and newscasters who are different shades of blonde, from Marilyn Monroe platinum to shades of honey. (Incidentally, there’s not a brunette in sight.)
So why does hair fascinate us? Well, it surrounds and frames the face. It gives us character and projects our personalities. It conveys glamour, disguises shortcomings and accentuates our better features. Perhaps most importantly, men love it.
And what about wigs? Well, I have girlfriends who swear by them, have entire collections and think nothing of spending £7,500 on one. Imagine that! One friend, in particular, has blonde wigs of different lengths and she’ll wear a short, gamine wig one day, and a long, flowing wig the following evening. I asked her how she explains these sudden changes in length. ‘I don’t,’ she said. ‘It’s no one’s business but mine.’ Quite right.
An obsession with hair is not new to this generation of women, or men (men are as vain about their hair as women). All you have to do is trawl through history to understand how hair has been a dominant factor in appearance over the centuries.
Think Elizabeth I, a dazzling, newly authenticated portrait of whom has just been put on show in Washington, and those glorious auburn wigs she wore. And what about the facial hair on Elizabethan men, such as her favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester? Moustaches and neat, pointed beards were popular and added to the good looks of the courtiers surrounding Elizabeth.
HAIR AFFAIR
Also consider those towering steeples of silver hair so popular at the court of Marie Antoinette or the ‘up-dos’ of Madame de Pompadour – hairdos so bizarre, so extravagant that they beggared belief, then and now.
Now jump back across the Channel to England and have a look at paintings of Charles II and the men of the Restoration… all those Cavaliers in gorgeous wigs. Then there were the curls and ringlets of the Hanoverian Georges who sat on the throne in the 19th century. And don’t let’s forget about the judges in our courts of law today and the barristers who stand before them, all wearing wigs. It’s hair again, don’t you see…
I must tell you that a lot of women and men I know harbour a fear of losing their hair. I tell my women friends that if it happens they should just go out and buy a good wig. As for the men, I explain that they shouldn’t worry too much about baldness, but this is after instructing them not to do a ‘Donald Trump’ by combing their hair forward. I then remind them about two other men… the actor Yul Brynner and the television star Telly Savalas, the lollipop-sucking detective in the highly successful TV series Kojak. Most women found them very sexy, despite their lack of lustrous locks. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether you’re bald as Brynner, pink as Mirren or sporting a wig – at the end of the day, it’s all to do with how you carry it off.
So what happened when we mocked up a pink do for our columist? Barbara's verdict: 'Well my husband, Bob, thought it was "cute", but I think I really will remain blonde after all.'
One of our greatest actresses, Helen Mirren is not snooty or arrogant and she has a great sense of fun. She also has a way of surprising us all at times, whether it’s showing off her shapely figure in a bikini on a beach, or with that pink hair on the red carpet. Hats off to her for being so gutsy, funloving, and indifferent to public opinion. She is as convincing playing a screen siren as she is the Queen, her latest role in new West End play, The Audience. But back to her pink hair.
Many women I have talked to agreed that it was ‘pretty’ but, after some consideration, I am quite sure that I won’t be following suit. I’m certain that I am at my best as a blonde. In fact, I spend hours making sure that my colourist, who also cares for the Duchess of Cornwall’s locks, gets it just the right shade.
Seeing Helen’s pink hair also got me thinking about hair in general and it struck me, yet again, how truly obsessed we are with it – ours and other people’s. When I turn on the nightly news in New York, for example, I am fascinated by the American female television anchors and newscasters who are different shades of blonde, from Marilyn Monroe platinum to shades of honey. (Incidentally, there’s not a brunette in sight.)
So why does hair fascinate us? Well, it surrounds and frames the face. It gives us character and projects our personalities. It conveys glamour, disguises shortcomings and accentuates our better features. Perhaps most importantly, men love it.
And what about wigs? Well, I have girlfriends who swear by them, have entire collections and think nothing of spending £7,500 on one. Imagine that! One friend, in particular, has blonde wigs of different lengths and she’ll wear a short, gamine wig one day, and a long, flowing wig the following evening. I asked her how she explains these sudden changes in length. ‘I don’t,’ she said. ‘It’s no one’s business but mine.’ Quite right.
An obsession with hair is not new to this generation of women, or men (men are as vain about their hair as women). All you have to do is trawl through history to understand how hair has been a dominant factor in appearance over the centuries.
Think Elizabeth I, a dazzling, newly authenticated portrait of whom has just been put on show in Washington, and those glorious auburn wigs she wore. And what about the facial hair on Elizabethan men, such as her favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester? Moustaches and neat, pointed beards were popular and added to the good looks of the courtiers surrounding Elizabeth.
HAIR AFFAIR
Also consider those towering steeples of silver hair so popular at the court of Marie Antoinette or the ‘up-dos’ of Madame de Pompadour – hairdos so bizarre, so extravagant that they beggared belief, then and now.
Now jump back across the Channel to England and have a look at paintings of Charles II and the men of the Restoration… all those Cavaliers in gorgeous wigs. Then there were the curls and ringlets of the Hanoverian Georges who sat on the throne in the 19th century. And don’t let’s forget about the judges in our courts of law today and the barristers who stand before them, all wearing wigs. It’s hair again, don’t you see…
I must tell you that a lot of women and men I know harbour a fear of losing their hair. I tell my women friends that if it happens they should just go out and buy a good wig. As for the men, I explain that they shouldn’t worry too much about baldness, but this is after instructing them not to do a ‘Donald Trump’ by combing their hair forward. I then remind them about two other men… the actor Yul Brynner and the television star Telly Savalas, the lollipop-sucking detective in the highly successful TV series Kojak. Most women found them very sexy, despite their lack of lustrous locks. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether you’re bald as Brynner, pink as Mirren or sporting a wig – at the end of the day, it’s all to do with how you carry it off.
So what happened when we mocked up a pink do for our columist? Barbara's verdict: 'Well my husband, Bob, thought it was "cute", but I think I really will remain blonde after all.'