I was going to do a piece on Kate Middleton's bangs and why everyone was talking about it like it was the Holy Grail. When another major event, maybe the only major event that could eclipse a haircut, came along: Kate Middleton's Baby Bump.
Or baby news. And of course it is lovely news that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting (especially since the media has been pressuring them to be expecting since the wedding!). And we're all worried about Kate Middleton's sudden trip to the hospital for acute morning sickness after playing field hockey on the new artificial turf at St. Andrews School to celebrate St. Andrew's Day (I particularly love the picture of her upper center where it looks like she's walking on air – of course she knew then what we did not).
But that fact that it took this news to unseat headlines about a haircut is crazy. I remember having to look really hard—and make comparisons to earlier pictures to even be able to tell.
I have said before that the cutting of bangs seems to mark some power shift or change in life. And lately it often occurs at midlife when it can give a more youthful vibe (and cover forehead furrows) – case in point: Holly Hunter's new bangs, or Patti LuPone's long straight fringe, or Rita Wilson's. But the furor over the Duchess's bangs!
Salons in New York City are overwhelmed with clients calling for appointments to get the new 'Kate Middleton bangs'."
Headlines indeed. Seriously? They are just bangs. They're not ever particularly distinctive.
What was distinctive was, a mere few days before, the furor over 12-year-old Willow Smith – of Whip My Hair fame – shaving her head. And her mom, Jada Pinkett Smith, 41, taking flack for it! The 41-year-old HawthoRNe star responded with an open letter on Facebook:
First the 'let' must be challenged. ... I made a promise to endow my little girl with the power to always know that her body, spirit and her mind are her domain." "Willow cut her hair because her beauty, her value, her worth is not measured by the length of her hair,"
Is it the old biblical Samson story — cutting hair means loss of strength? Does women's only strength come from their/our hair?! Kate Middleton (will we ever stop calling her that? probably not) might want to take a page from Jada Pinkett Smith's playbook. Especially if she has a daughter with some of grandmother Princess Diana's feisty spirit.
More hair-raising headlines:
