Why does Melissa Harris-Perry's hair look like that?

I know I have a number of readers who mostly just read this blog - that is, you don't play the video, or don't play it for very long. But today, I hope you'll make an exception. Find some time on your lunch break, save it for after work, but watch these clips.

Over the weekend, Melissa-Harris Perry devoted nearly half an hour to a discussion of hair because, she said, the subject of her own hair makes "regular and frequent appearances" in the emails she receives from viewers.

First, a primer and vocabulary lesson:

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And while that primer was a much needed public service, there's more.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

My favorite quote: "It's amazing that it's considered revolutionary to wear my hair the way it grows out of my head." My sentiments exactly - I was so relieved when I discovered Lorraine Massey and her staff, people who didn't view my hair as something that needed to be tamed in to submission! In DC you can have an equally revelatory experience at Parlour - tell them you want a Deva cut, which is dry. Yes, your hair can be cut the way it grows out of your head, too.

There's lots more of the MHP roundtable, that you should watch as well, on the business and socio-historical contexts, which includes Surgeon General Regina Benjamin's recommendation that hair should not take precedence over health.

When candid is better, it's time to change the portrait

Until recently, I was most familiar with Rep. Shelley Berkley's image from her official portrait, which appears on her website and her social media profiles:

I can't be the only one who's noticed: her hair in this photo is BIG, completely overwhelming the rest of her. And that's really saying something for a woman who has strong features otherwise.

Rep. Berkley is now running for Senate, and her campaign machine is ramping up accordingly. And you know what I found out? She doesn't have that hair in real life. Here she is on the House floor recently, speaking about the Palestinian bid for statehood at the UN:

Her hair is longer and somewhat straighter and decidedly less poofy.

Her current look is so much more up to date. I hope a new portrait for her new campaign will catch up to that. While hair stylists and makeup artists are helpful for portraits (or weddings, or trials...) it's important that you continue to look like you. What good is looking good if no one can recognize you?

Final word on scrunchie-gate

I know it's summer and you may have (like me) spent some time at the beach, and some more time basking next to the air conditioner, and basically let some routines go. But I bet no matter what you were reading, you heard about the day Hillary Clinton wore a scrunchie. Oh boy did you. The story was everywhere - you would have thought she stepped off a plane wearing one of my grandmother's house dresses:

And yet I wonder, was the scrunchie really such a problem? I'll let you decide:


We've talked before in this forum about how Secretary Clinton isn't particularly well served by pulling her hair back. It tends to focus us in on each individual feature of her face, instead of seeing her face as a dynamic and expressive whole. I think it's that discomfort that we're really reacting to here. There's nothing wrong with wearing a little white silk ruffle in your hair - and ultimately, that's all a scrunchie is, provided it's clean, well cared for and made of good materials, just like all the rest of your clothing and accessories.

The other thing I think some of my fellow bloggers and journalists were reacting to is simply that it's Hillary Clinton, a woman whose looks have been a lightning rod since her public life began. On another political woman, this might have been a non-story. If you're skeptical, simply ask yourself: Did you hear a single word out of anyone when Kirsten Gillibrand wore a banana clip in the Senate last week?

No, you didn't. Not until now.

The forecast in DC today is a high of 92 degrees. I might pull my hair back. Now let's grow up and get back to work.

Pulling back

Kirsten Gillibrand held a press conference yesterday about the repeal of DOMA. She wore her hair pulled back in a bun:

The senator did two things really right in this hairstyle: She parted her hair to one side, and she created some lift in the front. Both techniques prevent an up-do from turning into a hair-plastered-to-my-head-do.

With this style, we do notice her ears more, and with them her earrings. Like many women with pierced ears, my guess is that the piercing sits a little bit low on the earlobe. This can cause small earrings like these to look very small, and the ears look larger. I would have gone with a slightly larger style here, perhaps a very thin, small hoop. 

Pumping up the volume

If you saw yesterday's Republican Committee Chair debate, then you saw Ann Wagner discuss her candidacy. Please take note of her hairstyle:

I'm all for volume, I really am. But there is too much of a good thing here for Ms. Wagner. It's easy to do. You're working with a round brush and a blowdryer, and suddenly you've gone overboard with the hairspray and you end up with a heart shaped confection instead of individual strands of hair.

It's worth considering, especially in dry winter air, whether you really need as much hold as your favorite styling products provide. Flexibility is key to a natural look.

O'Donnell embraces the joke... sort of

Saturday Night Live included a sketch this weekend that played off Christine O'Donnell's "I'm you" ad, showing her wardrobe choice in another light:

While we drew the comparison between O'Donnell's outfit and the signature look of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, SNL shrewdly pointed out the irony in wearing all black while declaring, "I'm not a witch." She was going for sober and serious, but what she projected, at least for some people, was clearly something different.

O'Donnell herself tried to demonstrate a sense of humor without repeating the word "witch" (again) with this tweet almost the moment after the clip aired: 

Of course, SNL is so meticulous about their characterizations that the hair was almost exactly like hers, definitely not better. But this comment lets her be self-deprecating, and might even fend off either Fiorina-style catty remarks or weather-related mishaps.

I suspect we'll see her add some color to that black suit next time, though.

All eyes on O'Donnell's red jacket

Everybody is talking about Christine O'Donnell today after her upset win in the Republican Senate primary in Delaware. For her victory speech, she went for the most classic look in politics: The Red Jacket. Here she is:


Although we know The Red Jacket can be risky, for Ms. O'Donnell it was the right choice. True red is a great color for her. The shoulder pads are a little bit big, but if there were ever a moment where she needed heft and added physical presence, this was it. There is absolutely no question whatsoever who is the candidate in this crowd.

My concern, as before, is her hair. It isn't in a ponytail this time, but it looks a bit unkempt. At the end of a long election day, that's to be expected. But this is a good reminder that if you're keeping your hair long, you need to invest in regular trims just as frequently as if you had a short hairstyle. Straggly ends are for teenagers.

Fundamentals on primary day

Happy primary day! Today we'll see primary elections in New York, Massachusetts, Delaware, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and Maryland, featuring a number of candidates we've already featured here like Christine O'Donnell,  as well as incumbents like Barbara Mikulski and Carol Shea-Porter.

Today, let's look at one more candidate: Reshma Saujani, who is challenging Carolyn Maloney in the Democratic primary in the House 14th district.

Two features strike me:
1. She's young
2. Hello, black eyeliner (Lest you think this is just the video, check out her website - it's not)

So let's talk about what this means. First, she looks young. That might not be a bad thing. But in this case, I think she might be reading a little too young for a member of Congress, especially when you put her next to Carolyn Maloney, who is formidable. One of the biggest factors in making her look young is her long hair, well below her shoulders, which she wears loose and mostly unstyled. This is just a very young look. Even if she weren't ready to lose some of the length, a barrette or possibly even some curls might make her look older and more polished - something that looks like she did more than wake up and run a brush through it.

Second, the eyeliner. This much dark kohl on the upper and lower lids is closing in on her eyes and making them look smaller and harder to read. For voters looking for honesty and trustworthiness, having open, visible eyes is really important. I would recommend something much softer for her, perhaps a dark shadow applied with an angle brush on the upper lid only. That would outline the eye without shrinking it. 

Madam Secretary, where did you put your hair?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recorded a message for Uruguay Independence Day sporting a much different hairstyle than usual. She pulled her hair back:

I'm all for trying new looks, but this experiment was not successful. Suddenly our eyes are focusing on the lines around her mouth, and her eyes seem to bug out a little.

She does much better when her shoulder-length hair is blown out straight around her face:

The Year of the Woman? Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Carly Fiorina discuss

Meet the Press had a segment this week on the media's favorite meme after last week's primary elections: 2010 is the "year of the woman." Carly Fiorina and Debbie Wasserman Schultz were on hand to discuss. I recommend watching the whole clip, which is about 6 minutes:


Without a doubt, we're going to have a lot more to discuss here!

Rep. Wasserman Schultz does the red jacket look really well here. Her hair is perfectly frizz-free too, although I am concerned that it looks rather stiff. For years, women with curly hair were encouraged to use silicone-based products to keep frizz at bay, and while they are effective, they can leave you with this stiffness problem, especially if overused. I recommend instead water based products like Deva Curl Angell and as much time as possible to air dry your hair before applying a hairdryer.

Distracting Accessories: Different causes, similar results

Accessories have a special power for women getting dressed. As we've seen over and over, they can add a much needed accent of color or style, or they can distract so aggressively from our message that we almost can't be heard.

Last week, we saw two examples that were distracting for different reasons.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords slipped up by adding too many accessories in one outfit:

Dangling earrings and chunky necklace and flower brooch and cuff bracelet is definitely too much. [As an aside, she has also changed her hair color and style so significantly since her official portrait was taken that I nearly thought I had misidentified her in the video. The flower brooch, though, has remained the same.]

Meanwhile, Senator Susan Collins made a different but equally distracting choice with this two-strand necklace:

There are two reasons why this necklace is distracting. The first is that the shorter strand is too short for her face shape. The second is that the bold shape of her jacket collar probably requires no necklace at all, or at least one that is more delicate and lighter colored.

With accessories, less is frequently more.

Marsha Blackburn discusses Medicaid expansion

Rep. Marsha Blackburn commented on the idea of Medicaid expansion at a Republican press conference this week reacting to the President's health care letter. Her outfit was fairly unremarkable, but let's have a look at her hair:

The Congresswoman wears her hair with an overlapping part in a style that many of us remember once calling "the Rachel." But something isn't quite right with Rep. Blackburn's version. It's a bit too long in front, leaving too little difference between the length of the layers. The effect is that her hair seems to sit on top of her head, around her face, instead of looking like it's a part of her. Compare to the actual "Rachel:"

This is a great example of why regular haircuts are important even if your style is long. A cut is as much about shape as it is about length.

Hillary Clinton says Iran is becoming a military dictatorship

Hillary Clinton said Iran was moving toward a military dictatorship in a televised discussion with students at the Doha campus of Carnegie Mellon. She wore marine blue:

We already know that a deep vibrant blue is a strong color on her. What I want to discuss this time is her hair. The Secretary has a great hairstyle here. As her hair is getting a little bit longer, it looks great curled at the bottom and with just a little bit of volume at the crown. The curl helps to balance her face shape, but all of the styling is subtle enough that we careful observers are probably the only ones actively noticing it.

Here was can see the back as well as she greets King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia:

Unfortunately, when Secretary Clinton's hair gets flat or limp, it makes her look tired, so the extra amount of style time she put into her hair for this event was worth it. She looks healthier and more powerful. Looking tired never projects confidence or conviction.

Olympia Snowe

I'm sure you noticed Olympia Snowe in the press this week after she voted with the Democrats to move the health care reform bill out of the Senate Finance Committee. She looked great doing it:

The sharp contrast between her black blouse and light jacket compliments the contrast between her hair and skin tone. Her jewelry is tasteful but still interesting, and matches her outfit well. This is a great example of how far too much is made of a fear of being "matchy." Sometimes matching is very elegant.

Senator Snowe also wears her hair longer than a lot of women in politics. There is no rule that your hair has to be shorter as you get older. If you care for it well and keep it out of your face, long hair can be a great look, especially if you have a strong nose like the senator does.