wiley, wondrous, defying insistence

MOLLY YOUNG, with whose needly observations and french-infused vocabulary i often empathize:

On kid hair

"One of the least attractive phrases in the English language is “virgin hair”––meaning, in stylist’s parlance, hair that has never been dyed or processed. Virgin hair is difficult to find in Manhattan.

Unless you broaden your horizons to include a demographic with hair that is ALWAYS virgin: 3-5 year-olds.

Kids have the best hair. Any kind of kid. This is because a kid’s hair is uncontrollable and self-willed. No matter how tightly-braided or curled, a child’s hair will quickly escape its confines and revert to chaos.

The same thing happens to adults, too, but it is less charming for two reasons. One, an adult is usually aware of it and self-conscious. Two, an adult has dominion over his own hair, so an unsuccessful hairstyle communicates a failure of some kind. An adult’s hair is a reflection of his abilities and intentions. It is charged.

A kid’s hair, on the other hand, is not. It does not reflect the child’s self but is a force independent of both kid and whichever adult is responsible for dealing with it. A kid’s hair is like the weather: wild, unpredictable, fluctuating in temperament and not infrequently awsome."