ROSEMARY HARRIS: Last week I was in Italy - it was fabulous - and for whatever reason, call it the protein from all the cheese I ate - my bangs decided to have a growth spurt. Kind of like Jack's beanstalk. One day fine, next day I couldn't see. Calling the concierge and asking for scissors was out, I was staying in an apartment and no amount of round brushing or smushing to the side was working.I have heard that cutting one's own hair is a sign of mental illness. Call me crazy. And I did it with the itty bitty scissors on a Swiss Army Knife. My hair grows really fast, what's the worst that could have happened?
Oh...think Moe Howard. Margaret Mead. The kid on the Dutch Boy paint can.
People who wear bangs will share my pain. As the bangs go, so goes the whole head. At the risk of being one of those women who wears her hair the same way for her entire life, I just can't see myself without them. Long, short, permed, highlighted, hennaed ("give me ahead with hair...long, beautiful hair!")the bangs are a constant.I grew them out once when I was sixteen. Hideous. With my round face I looked like a Cabbage Patch Doll.
LUCY BURDETTE: I used to have bangs, back when my mother would line us up and clip a ragged line across all four kids. but I've had the same cut now for at least fifteen years--short. I keep thinking I might like to grow it out, but I can't stand the shaggy stage more than a week. I don't think I'd take a Swiss army knife to it--but I might.
HALLIE EPHRON: I'm with you, Ro. I wear bangs and my hair grows out f-a-s-t... so I'm always trimming them and trying not to look like Buster Brown (does anyone but me remember Buster Brown?) And whenever I do I identify with Kinsey Milhone who cuts hers with a nail scissors.But I've had long long hair and short short. Bangs, no bangs. A few ill-advised perms. And I've let it go a streaky silvery grey because I'm too lazy and too cheap to do anything about it, and hey, it looks okay to me. It's real real.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Buster Brown! (With Froggy Gremlin "Dooo ya Dooo ya?) Anyway. I would never ever cut my own hair, not a bit, no way. I'd be terrified. (You know what happened the last time I did it, right? At age 16?
I GAVE MYSELF a Sassoon? Long on one side, up over my ear on the other? I loved it, but I thought my mother was going to pass out.)
What's my style constant? I'll tell you: "NO cleavage on TV." Easy as that.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Oh, BANGS! My mom cut mine straight across the middle of my forehead with the sewing scissors until I was a teenager. I HATED them. Then I grew my hair into a long shag (remember those?), then cut it short in my early twenties. Grew out chin-length with bangs in my early thirties, with a few very, very ill-advised perms. Then short again (author photo on first dust jacket--ack!)
After I sold that first book I grew my hair out (along with the divorce, a symptom of rebellion) and wore a chin-length bob (no bangs) until about five years ago. I cut bangs, and layers, which I love, and I don't imagine I will ever go back to no-bangs. The only downside is the same as Ro's and Hallie's--my hair grows really fast. But I've never resorted to the nail scissors!
ROSEMARY: So Reds and readers, what's your style constant? The thing you wouldn't dream of changing or being without...like Hank's leopard print shoes, only no fair mentioning them, Hank!(BTW...now that I'm home I've had a pro clean up my hatchet job.)
And in honor of women with bangs, here's Ricky Martin and She Bangs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ihtX86JzmA
HANK: And I have to say, I simply do not understand the song "She Bangs." And I don't wanna know..
ROSEMARY: I don't really get it either but he looks so fine - does it matter?
