Hair Apparent

For some reason, the subject of hair has been coming up a lot lately. It has something to do, of course, with the fact that I've been spending a lot of time in the backstage dressing room for this play: hair -- and how it looked in the 50's -- is a critical part of each character's costume.

But yesterday I heard one of the girls -- whose hair is very like my daughter's, shown here, only darker -- say that when she straightened her hair on a whim one day while at college, her own roommates didn't recognize her. "I knew my hair was A defining feature of my look," she said. "But that's the first time I realized it was THE defining feature of my look."

There were other hairy moments backstage: one of the boys, who had put too much gel in his hair, was experimenting with slicking it all back instead of parting it. Oberon, who plays an Elvis look-alike, was having trouble getting that one loose curl to hang down over his forehead.

The fairy with the shortest hair put her pigtails in, and they refused to match: one waved sweetly while the other stuck straight out from the side of her head. And another player was remembering one of the summer shows when numerous bald men in the audience had chosen not to bring hats or sunscreen, and the cast found themselves spotting the red heads blossoming around the theater.

But where this all came home to me was when my neighbor arrived on the island in her new wig, an utterly charming concoction which, though gray like her own hair, makes her look years younger and quite lovely. "And he held my hand," she said, smiling sweetly at her husband, who had accompanied her to the salon -- on their 44th anniversary -- to have her head shaved and choose the wig.

Later her husband took me aside. "Sometime we should talk. I want to tell you what an incredible blessing this whole experience has been for our marriage." It was very dear.

Many of us are almost painfully aware of our appearance, particularly during the adolescent years. There is that tension between the desire to fit in and the urge to be noticed, and hair becomes a key player in the drama.

But in the end, it's really love we're looking for. And how nice to know that when love is present, hair can disappear altogether and love will remain, stronger than ever.

Pretty powerful stuff!