Girl Power

I was fourteen when I had my first professional haircut. I visited a hair stylist in our tiny little town, and he was a man. He took my long, straight, parted in the middle hair and cut it in a really cute shoulder length bob with bangs. He took me from looking like every other girl in the 9th grade to an individual. It cost $4, which was a large sum of money back in 1972. It was a great cut with awesome structure, and I could step out of the shower and dry it and I was good to go. It might have been inspired by a great man who passed away today, Vidal Sassoon. A revolutionary, he took us from teased, sprayed beehives to wash and wear hair. If you have a really good cut, you can shake your head around as much as you want, and your hair just falls back into place.

I am a girly girl. I like nail polish and trying out different hair colors and styles and pretty clothes and well, I even wrote a post called High Heels. I tell myself this story, that I look pretty good for 53, but the other day I was washing my hands in the restroom at school and looked up in the mirror and got a flash of my paternal grandmother. I look a lot like her, and it was scary for a minute. I think every woman should feel good about herself. Hair, makeup, cosmetic surgery, whatever makes you feel like you can go out and set the world on fire. The sad thing is, some women spend a lot of money on all that stuff and still feel bad about themselves.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's photograph is all over the place this week. Her hair is unstyled, she's wearing glasses and her only makeup is a little lipstick. It doesn't seem that earth shattering to me, but it has lots of people talking. She actually looks relaxed and happy in the picture, and I am just glad we have a smart woman like her going to places like Bangladesh and India. I hope I get to see a woman president before I die, and I hope it's Clinton.

Julia Bluhm is a fourteen-year-old young woman who got a bunch of signatures on a petition and went to Seventeen magazine with a simple request. She wanted them to have one photograph in each issue of their magazine that was not photoshopped. The big cheese at the magazine met with Bluhm,  they denied her request, but they said some very nice things about her. Bluhm's concern is quite valid, that teenage girls see unrealistic images in magazines and feel bad about themselves. They see super skinny models and develop eating disorders trying to get themselves down to that weight.

Sassoon was a genius. Clinton is brilliant. But Bluhm? Girls like her are going to change the world.

Susan