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The Rapunzel Syndrome has caught my eye

July 11, 2025

I've noticed a fashion trend lately in women and even men, although not so recently in men. It involves long, long hair tumbling down the shoulders for women and full beards for men. It must be displayed elegantly, cascading down one or both shoulders in women, mermaid-like. I call it the "candle wax look," like the drippings seen down the sides of a candelabra.

I'm surprised that the many fashion magazines that appear in my mailbox haven't commented on it or its psychology as they sometimes do about current trends. Maybe it's about anachronistic desires to go back to a simpler time? I haven't seen it worn too often at the Milton Food Lion or elsewhere locally. Maybe because the weather has been so hot, or all that hair could be cumbersome when peering over the bin of corn or tapping cantaloupes.

It seems mostly to be shown off by female newscasters, both local and national. Curling irons are necessary to affect the tumbling waterfall of curls. I must admit I'm slightly envious. I don't possess the willpower to grow my hair that long anymore. In fact, my in-home barber is my husband Jeff! The electric razor I purchased at Walmart a few years ago has saved me hundreds of dollars in the long run for my blonde buzzcut.

I've heard that women are now saving money at the beauty salon by coloring their hair at home, and maybe saving more money by growing their hair long, too. I remember the days long ago in the 1950s and ‘60s of visits to the beauty shop run by Priscilla Wilkerson at the top of the hill in downtown Milton. Women sat under huge metal hairdryers looking like something out of the “Coneheads" movie. The scent of permanent wave solution filled the air, and pink and blue spindle curlers filled plastic bowls.

Priscilla was a Bingo partner friend of my grandmother, and they played down at the fire hall. But she could never coax my stick-straight hair to keep a wave or curl. My mother tried taking me there over and over again, but the perm never worked, and it turned my hair orange-red in the summer sun with weak waves, not unlike the ocean I swam in.

I tried to grow my hair long many years ago after seeing a vampire movie where the star victim had waist-long, straight, brown hair that I really envied. I thought I could achieve that look if only I could wait it out. And wait it out I did, for once in my life! My mother didn't interfere with my hairstyle, also for once in my life.

If Priscilla couldn't curl my chin-length locks, my mother cut it in a bowl cut with overly short bangs, or worse. And so I started my hair growth journey. I remember the day, standing in the cafeteria line, when I could actually reach my strands of hair to the corner of my mouth. I was on my way! It was easy going then, and the months flew by uninterrupted by cuts.

I usually went against the current fashion trends. Everyone else was wearing short, pouffed hair like the styles seen on “American Bandstand,” or flips that lasted about five seconds on me even after sleeping in hair rollers all night.

I went to college with waist-length hair. My then-boyfriend, Gene King, used to throw pebbles at my dorm window during my freshman year as a signal that he was downstairs, and my long hair hung down like Rapunzel’s as we talked. The second year I let him cut it off very short, like Liza Minnelli's Sally Bowles character in the movie "Cabaret." Then in the early 1970s, the shag cut came into style, a la Jane Fonda. That suited my hair type, and I never had the willpower to grow my hair long ever again.

In Walmart the other day, I came upon a shelf of "hair grow faster" products. Would they really work fast enough for me? Probably not, and my hair would be gray anyway. Not a good look for me, and I couldn't bleach it forever. My mother used to say (one of the harsh wisdoms of Marguerite) that no one could be a singer wearing glasses. Think about it; it's probably true. Can you think of more than one famous female singer who wore glasses? And I never could tolerate contact lenses, plus I couldn't sing anyhow. The same is mostly true of long gray hair, unless it's like a silvery waterfall. It doesn't work, and it can make you look like "Mom-mom" if permed too tight.

I cracked up the waiting room at the eye doctor's office the other day with that piece of wisdom about singers not wearing glasses. Most of them were waiting out the effect of eye drops. A captive audience!

Well, Marguerite my mother, I will never be a singer or have wavy hair like you wanted. You tried! My hair is short, bleached blonde (I learned to do that at home myself) and as thick as your fur coat.

Oh, I forgot about the men with beards. It seems to be a real trend, although anachronistic, and easier than shaving every day. Perhaps our new vice president has caused an increase and greater acceptability in wearing full beards? So that's all I have to say about that subject. By the way, my twin sons both have beards like all the other guys.

  • Pam Bounds is a well-known artist living in Milton who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine art. She will be sharing humorous and thoughtful observations about life in Sussex County and beyond.