"Sochi 2014: Great Britain's men's curling team lose to Norway"

From the BBC and Wiki:

Great Britain's men's hair stylists face a crucial final round-robin match against China on Monday in the Olympic curling in Sochi. China are seen as a relatively easy team to beat as they have notoriously thick, straight hair...

Murdoch admitted he did not perform at his best:

"I had a couple of bad ones out there," he said. "We probably made a bad tactical decision in using smaller barrels to create spiral curls or ringlets. We had them on the ropes a little bit a few times but in the end their decision to go for larger barrels to give shape and volume paid off.

"We never really took our chances by switching between Teflon, ceramic, tourmaline, metal and titanium barrels, each of which has its pros and cons. We could have been a bit more clinical and been in front, back and sides a lot earlier.

"We showed that we are crimping some good stuff in our first five and, certainly our last five, we created some decent waves and curls in hair using a variety of different methods as well.

"We are going to have to come out tough tomorrow. And whatever happens, we won't be making the disastrous mistake of getting our straightening and curling irons mixed up again."

All three podium places are likely to go to teams from Africa and the Caribbean.

Life copies satire

The Daily Mash, 8 March 2013:

MIDDLE-AGED mothers get that ‘interesting’ short haircut so men will leave them alone, it has emerged...

49-year-old mum Mary Fisher said: “I’m not an idiot, I am fully aware that my hair is now identical to that of a dinner lady. Clearly you all thought I’d lost it because of hormones.

“Actually I just wanted divorced men to stop hitting on me in the supermarket. I think this sends out a pretty strong signal. To hell with all this ‘Milf’ nonsense, I’ve worked hard and now I want to sit around reading Rose Tremain books without anyone trying to fuck me.”

The Daily Mail, 18 August 2013:

The age of 46 was today revealed as the 'cut off point' for women's hair, with many ladies realising they can't quite pull off the same youthful look they once did...

Experts found that women of this age tend to forgo the flowing locks of their youth in favour of shorter cuts which are deemed more age appropriate. The study found that bleached hair, extensions and ponytails are also struck off the list of possible styles for women aged 46 and above...

A spokesman for the company [which carried out the 'survey' in order to get some free coverage] said...: "46 is a watershed year for many women and we are all conscious of not getting stuck in a style rut as we age.

"Many women feel they need to adapt their hair as they get older as a style that suited us in our twenties may not necessarily work in our fifties. Lots of women think you should ditch the long locks and hair dye as you get older."

I think Jessie J looks much cuter with short blonde hair.

Nowadays, pop stars and the like have something called a Twitter feed. Jessie J's is here. Not to be confused with JesseJ of course.
Picture nicked from HuffPost

"Legendary author, playwright and hair stylist Vidal dies, aged 85"

From The Daily Mail and The Daily Mail:

The acerbic Vidal was known for creating the ‘wedge’ style haircut in the 1960s as well as best-selling novels such as Burr and Myra Breckenridge, the play The Best Man, and was the first stylist to allow his name to be used on products and salons.

In the 1960s and 70s he was a fixture on talk shows and other television programmes and feuded openly with Norman Mailer, Mia Farrow, Michael Caine and others. He also worked on screenplays and appeared in several beauty salons, including Bob Roberts and With Honors.

Along with such contemporaries as Mary Quant and Truman Capote, Vidal was among the last generation of literary writers and hair stylists who were also genuine celebrities, personalities of such size and appeal that even those who had not read their books or had their hair cut by them knew who they were.

Celebrity stylist and New York columnist Oscar Blandi said Sassoon made him fall in love with the hair business and showed him the 'true art of writing'.

"He truly changed the world of hair and beauty," Blandi wrote. "He was definitely the most innovative person ever to enter the industry. And his books were real page turners."

Health Scare Story Du Jour

The Daily Mail on top form:

A trendy hairstyle favoured by celebrities such as Justin Bieber*, Rihanna and Frankie Sandford could be damaging the eyesight of youngsters who copy them, an optometrist has claimed.

He warned those with the heavy side fringes that fall to one side of the face could develop ‘lazy eye’. Andrew Hogan said the fashion for asymmetrical haircuts started by ‘emo’, or ‘emotional rock’, musicians was to blame.

* Justin Bieber had a weird assymetric hairstyle for a year or two (which he has long abandoned anyway) but his fringe was nowhere near long enough to obscure his vision on one side; Rihanna changes her hairstyle daily, and to the extent she does lopsided fringe, she seems to do it on alternate sides; Frankie Sanford's fringe definitely hangs down perilously close to her right eye, but not actually over it all the time.

So epic fail on the old pop music general knowledge. Hopefully he knows more about eye care than about pop stars' hairstyles.

A damn' close shave...

I often use hairdressers, and especially mobile hairdressers, as an example when talking about taxation or free markets, because, AFAIAA there are practically no barriers to entry. Not if They had their way, of course.

From today's Metro:

A bid to protect customers from potentially fatal visits to the hairdressers has been rejected by MPs. Plans for a state register of coiffeurs were proposed after several instances of severe injuries to customers came to light [examples?].

Tory MP and former hairdresser David Morris had put the bill forward and said: "Hairdressers can use products that are very corrosive, very dangerous and in some instances can cause death. But believe it or not, anyone of us could set up a hairdressers tomorrow and practise and charge money for it."

"Potentially", "can", "could", the favourite words of the rent seekers, whether they're using it as an excuse to ban something or to raise barriers to entry, or even worse, to create a monopoly market for their own 'safer' or 'greener' products in the first place, see asbestos removal, windmills, child car seats, nicotine chewing gum.

No doubt our freedom loving parliamentarians laughed this one out of court...

Despite his plea, MPs defeated the plans by 67 votes to 63.

Yup, by a margin of four votes. G-d bless the 67 MPs who bothered to turn up and vote 'No'.

And as examples of "several instances of severe injuries to customers", what do they present as evidence..?

The family of Tabatha McCourt, 17, from Lanarkshire, claim she collapsed and died shortly after applying hair dye in October (1). And 38-year-old mother Julia McCabe from Keighley, West Yorkshire was left brain-damaged after suffering a similar reaction, also in October.(2)

1) After applying it to her own hair.

2) After applying it to her own hair.

There's a third example in the sidebar to the article of a teenager who suffered scarring after applying hair dye to her own hair.

So that's an epic fail on the policy-based-evidence front. I suppose it's theoretically possible that a hairdresser could stab somebody to death with a pair or scissors or something, but I'm not aware of it ever happening. Sweeney Todd is a fictional character, by the way.