Bad hair days are when everything looks wrong. We have bad hair days for two reasons. One is humidity breaks the bonds in the fibrous keratin protein that hair is made of. When that happens it makes hair frizzy.
The other reason is stress. That releases hormones that break down keratin.
In other words, a dry climate and a stress-free life are the keys to good hair. And in that atmosphere, one never has a day when everything goes wrong. At least that’s the theory.
We hate it when our hair becomes unmanageable. It robs you of self esteem. The advertisements in magazines and on television prove it. Men hate it, but they can ‘get away with it’ in more situations because the social conventions allow it in more situations.
Which only goes to show that women have it rougher yet again.
Straight Asiatic hair that hangs thick and luxuriously is easy to manage. But the downside is trying to introduce individuality. Have you noticed the number of Asian woman with dyed hair? The bottom line is that every kind of hair brings its own problems, from flyaway to frizzy to too much like everyone else’s.
It’s funny in a sad kind of way how hair can reduce a confident person to a nervous wreck.
As we read in the newspapers, people with enough money sometimes take their own hairdressers with them on holidays and business trips. Would you do that?
Everything Is Wrong Today
How interesting that a bad hair day became emblematic of a day when everything goes wrong.
Such an interesting phrase, isn’t it? It’s the idea that it’s no one’s fault that everything is going wrong, it’s just what fate has decreed for us; it’s just one of those things sent to try us.
Photographing The Bad Hair Day
I photographed this bad hair day tree on the outskirts of a village in Lincolnshire. I shot it with a film camera and developed and printed the film.
After that it’s all a bit hazy. Perhaps I scanned the negative and toned it digitally.
Or perhaps I sepia toned the print and scanned that. I forget because it was several years ago. But I remember the scene when I took the photograph.
I was attracted to the bit of fence, and the ‘arms’ on the trunk of the tree that reminded me of a tree man.
Arthur Rackham’s Drawings
When I look at the tree, Arthur Rackham’s drawings come to mind – he was fond of trees that came to life.
You probably know his drawings even if you don’t know his name. He made illustrations for Alice In Wonderland, Rip Van Winkle, Aesop’s Fables, Gulliver’s Travels, A Christmas Carol, and many others.
If there is one message that comes through to me from his work it is that tucked inside the minds of people there are glorious imaginations.
Arthur Rackham was lucky in that he had the talent to bring his ideas to life in his drawings and illustrations.
The tree wasn’t as bent as it looks here. I manipulated it digitally to twist the trunk. You can see how the barbed wire and the tall grass beyond the fence are bent and curved.
Perhaps next time you or I have a bad hair day we can imagine we are trees with twigs and branches reaching everywhere. It’s ridiculous. The worry over hair is ridiculous in a world that needs so much care for so much that is wrong along with all that is right. But as we know, everything we believe is relative to how closely it affects us personally.
Finally, if you like the Bad Hair Day images, the greeting card is available. Just click the image at the top and it will take you straight to it.