Front Lines

NO F BOOK

Alenline

Hair Today, Wig Tomorrow

Shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen, knotted, polka-dotted,
twisted, beaded, braided, powdered, flowered and confettied, bangled,
tangled, spangled and spaghettied!

B

Sta ff p ho to by Armando R io s

esides being an expression of the fashion of the day, one's
hairstyle can express one's personality, religious, cultural
or political beliefs. Examples range from the longhaired
Samson, who lost his strength with his hair, to the radical student
movements of the 1970s (as the above lyrics to
the 1968 musical Hair demonstrate).
In Egypt B.C.E., members of the nobility
shaved their heads and wore wigs made of
braided animal hair or palm fronds, sometimes
dyed bright colors. In ancient Rome, short hair
was considered a sign of power (there's a turn
around from Samson!), but by the Middle Ages,
short hair was a symbol of dishonor.
In the 15th century, a higher forehead was
Sy Manello
desirable
(Alas, born too late again, I fear!).
Editor ial
Many
women
would pluck the entire front
Assistant
of the hairline away and then wear elaborate
headdresses. Being envious of the hair of northern Europeans,
many dark-haired beauties would sit for hours in the sun to try to
bleach their hair, using saffron or onionskins as the "bleach" of the
day.
Eighteenth-century men were well into white powdered wigs, tied
with a black bow. Women went in for extremely tall hair fashions in

wigs, housing mini gardens, seascapes complete with ships, stuffed
birds and even bowls of fruit. The weeks of styling that went into
these hairdos involved a mixing of horsehair and heavy powder.
This mixture and structure often proved wonderful housing for ver-
min, but the wearers were not put off by this.
By Victorian times, folks were more subdued and puritanical in
dress. Men of the time kept their hair short, loaded with macassar
oil (and thus was born the dainties for the backs of chairs, called
anti-macassars). They also would sport some form of moustache,
beard and/or sideburns.
The flapping of the 1920s did not include hair. Especially for men,
it remained short but took on a part in the center. It was still slicked
back, usually with brilliantine and many highly perfumed oils.
In the 1950s, men spent time copying movie idols like James
Dean and Elvis with the greased-back hair and long, heavy side-
burns.
One form of protest that has not changed is the hairstyle, though
the styles have. We have run and are still running the gamut of
the mullet, the Mohawk, spiked hair, the shaved look, the pony tail
(which on balding men sure makes one wonder what they are try-
ing to say) and the Afro.
There's no need to battle young people over their coiffures; after
all, knowing when to pick your battles is the secret of good parent-
ing (Just ask my granddaughter, Becca, who likes her hair long).
Anyway, hairstyles are as myriad as the wearers.
Let's end as we began with words from Hair:
Flow it, show it, Long as God can grow it . . . There ain't no words
for the beauty, the splendor, the wonder of my hair.

The ABCs Of Torah
Which letter comes first, the aleph or the bet?
Alphabetically, of course, it's the aleph. The first letter of the Torah, however, is bet
— with the word bereshit (in the beginning).
Torah scholars like Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky, a senior lecturer at Ohr Somayach in
Jerusalem, explain why the bet was
chosen over the aleph to begin Jewish
written law. Rabbi Orlofsky spoke Feb. 14
for Ohr Somayach-Detroit at the Max M.
Fisher Federation Building in Bloomfield
Township.
Bet is the letter of brachah (blessing),
and God wanted the Torah to start with
this concept, Rabbi Orlofsky said.
Noting that the Hebrew letters have
numerical value — i.e., aleph equals
one, bet equals two — he explained that
Rabbi Orlofsky
brachah not only begins with the letter bet,
but that the word, itself, contains the concept of blessing. The number two is the concept
of "more." The letters of brachah (whose root is spelled, bet, reish, chof) have numerical
values in derivatives of two: bet equals two, reish equals 200 and chof equals 20.
Rabbi Orlofsky said that the world was created and split into multiple parts — heaven
and Earth, man and woman, etc. — but that our purpose on Earth is to regain unity by
accepting the Torah and obeying God. God, the unity of existence, is represented by the
letter aleph — meaning "one" — as in "Anochi HaShem" ("I am God': the first words
of the Ten Commandments).
Perlena Bodzin of Southfield was among those who braved the snow to join Rabbi
Orlofsky's audience. "I love these lunch and learns:' she said. "They're my spiritual nour-
ishment."

- Susan Tawil, special writer

A Hall Of Famer?
Detroit Pistons majority owner William
Davidson is one of 15 finalists for induc-
tion into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
The Pistons won National Basketball
Association titles in 1988 and 1989 dur-
ing the Bad Boys era under Coach Chuck
Daly and in 2004 dur-
ing the tumultuous
reign of Larry Brown.
The announcement
came Friday.
Davidson, of
Bloomfield Hills,
owns the Auburn
Hills-based Guardian
William Davidson
Industries and
Palace Sports &
Entertainment. He also owns the
Tampa Bay Lightning in the National
Hockey League and the Detroit Shock
in the Women's Professional Basketball
Association. In addition, he is a mega-
philanthropist.
The 2007 class of Hall inductees will
be honored on April 2 at the National
Collegiate Athletic Association Final Four
in Atlanta. Induction ceremonies will be
on Sept. 7 in Springfield, Mass.

-Robert A. Sklar, editor

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February 22 2007

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