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Afros, beehives, pageboys and rattails
Have you ever looked at your old photo albums and thought, "What was I thinking? Look at that hair!"
Whether you proudly flaunt (or flaunted) Farrah Fawcett-Majors wings, a high-top fade or a fauxhawk, hairstyles help define eras, generations and cultures. However, finding scholarly resources on these hairdos can result in a tangled mess. Luckily, the University Libraries' databases make investigating the social, cultural and political significance easier than combing a crew cut.
Starting at the University Libraries' Anthropology Subject Guide (http://libweb1.lib
.buffalo.edu/infotree/
resourcesbysubject.asp?
subject=Anthropology), you can select from several scholarly databases that contain references to physical and cultural anthropological aspects of hair. Historical Abstracts (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries
/e-resources/histabst.html) leads researchers to a variety of interesting articles about 18th century wigs, legal challenges to male hair-length requirements, and commodification of hairstyles.
Social scientists and historians are not the only ones having fun with hair. Scientists at the University of Michigan's Museum of Zoology (http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/
topics/mammal_anatomy/hair.html) host a well-researched and concise page on the structural components of hair and the function of hair. The San Francisco science museum The Exploratorium hosts an online exhibit, "Better Hair Through Chemistry" (http://www.exploratorium.edu/exploring/hair/index.html), that discusses the chemistry of washing, conditioning, coloring and styling hair. DermAtlas, a project from the Johns Hopkins medical institutions, provides high-quality images of hair disorders (http://dermatlas.med.jhmi.edu/derm/result.cfm?Category=8). UB Libraries also carries materials, such as "The Science of Hair Care" (http://bison.buffalo.edu:8991/F/?func=direct&doc_
number=002365573&local_base=BISON), that cover the scientific aspects of hair more extensively.
Hair also has become a medium of all types of artists, not just the ones at Supercuts. At the Albright-Knox Art Gallery recently, Chinese artist Wenda Gu displayed her sculpture "100,000 Kilometers" (http://artvoice.com/issues/v4n44/permanence_and_change
/100000_kilometers) that is made of bricks of human hair, which serve as a metaphor for the Great Wall of China. On the Web, Photoshop enthusiasts hold contests that lampoon celebrities and politicians. One such contest reaped a Hillary Clinton with microbraids (http://pixeladdiction.com/Contest_entry.php?id=4764&cad=497&
type=c) and Dick Cheney with a woman's layered cut (http://www.pixeladdiction.com/Contest_entry.php
?id=4799&cad=497&type=c). Who gets your vote—for best hair-don't?
Hair also brings out the charitable side in many of us. The nonprofit organization Locks of Loves (http://www.locksoflove.org/) solicits donations of hair to create hair prosthetics for children who have lost their hair due to a medical condition. Recently, Milwaukee Bucks basketball player Charlie Villanueva, who suffers from alopecia, became a national spokesman for the National Alopecia Areata Foundation (http://www.naaf.org/). During the season, Villanueva meets with children with alopecia before his games, providing them a positive role model (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2782571).
Finally, if you need a hair-inspired laugh, take a look at entrepreneurial Baby Toupee.com (http://www.babytoupee.com/) or the ribald humor on the Web site Mullets Galore (http://www.mulletsgalore.com/).
And you thought you were having a bad hair day!
—Dean Hendrix, University Libraries