
I have my hair cut about every six weeks and the one thing I can’t abide about the whole process is being saddled with a crimper who insists on striking up some inane conversation. The only thing I want the opportunity to get off my mind when I am in the chair is the surplus hair on my head.
I gave three cheers, silent, of course, to an initiative launched by the hairdressers named with some irony, no doubt, Not Another Salon, to be found in Brick Lane in London’s Shoreditch area. When you book an appointment, they are too exclusive to cope with walk-ins, you are given the opportunity to request a conversation-free hairdo. The only words uttered during the process, owner Sophia Hilton promises, relate specifically to the haircut itself.
If more salons follow this commendable lead, the curse of the chattering crimper may soon be a thing of the past. More power to their scissors, I say.
Still, the opportunity to listen to a hairdresser’s mindless chatter may be a matter of some consolation to those who have thinned out on top. A piece of research in South Korea, conducted on 13,000 men aged between 20 and 59, has found that those men who work more than 52 hours a week are twice as likely to lose their hair than those who don’t. It is all to do with stress, apparently, that causes a change in hormone levels in certain parts of the body, including the scalp.
And there was me thinking my full head of hair was all down to genetics.