April showers bring frizz

Seemingly in honor of today's date, there are not one but two declarations that curly hair is something other than an imperfection to ...

Your to-read list for the day

-Flavia's post on some not-useful new-pope commentary. -Stephen Metcalf on the brand that is Brooklyn. -Robert Huber on race in Philad...

Beyond guyliner

As a matter of principle, I must approve of the fact that the most enthusiastic makeup-and-skincare routine "Into The Gloss" has y...

Today in schnozzery

Via Refinery29 , a Guardian story on how Iran has the highest per-capita rate of nose jobs. Interest in international primping trends is ma...

I had one more beauty-post in me yet!

-Autumn is back at The Beheld, I'm back just at WWPD. That was an exciting guest-blogging stint, and I'm so grateful to Autumn for t...

Bringing glamor to the woods

Below, three recent or recent-ish things I bought but did not need: - Galaxy-print leggings . At long last! And $20! Which might seem like a...

On avocados, elsewhere

Autumn Whitefield-Madrano has kindly invited me to guest-blog at "The Beheld" ( here and here ) this week and next. WWPD is, as y...

Maybe she was born in Maybelline UPDATED

I've been against "natural" beauty since forever, but this is not a post about that. It's a post about how 'celebriti...

Anachronistic fashion-victimhood

Are you a woman (or a man)? Do you wear your hair somewhere between your chin and shoulders? With bangs? You   are, without knowing it, imit...

Jew-fro politics

Philip Galanes, whose interviews on Leonard Lopate and such have gotten me through many a poodle-walk, addresses the Jew-fro . A man who use...

Confessions of a woods-hermit

-We're all going to get the super-flu . Even those of us who got flu shots months ago. I'm going to make use of the lack of commute ...

"When the body isn’t working on breaking down and assimilating food, it works on repairing itself," and other bad advice on the internet UPDATED

"The fact that, thanks to favorable genetics, I can eat and drink mostly everything and still stay on the slim side is a blessing and a...

A serious woman

It suddenly occurred to me why that makeup " Room For Debate " hit such a nerve.What the makeup conversation is really about, if ...

The Final Word:* makeup UPDATED

Everything there is to say about makeup . Everything! (Did I miss anything?) -Yes, heterosexual men, whether or not women wear makeup is all...

It's time for a national conversation about the refusal of teenage boys to make chit-chat at the hairdresser's

So the latest warning sign , apparently , is that the Newtown killer failed to make small-talk during a haircut. It seems to me that there...

Luminosity

It's possible (definite) that my parents sometimes read my blog, and one piece of evidence is that I got a Sephora gift card for Chanuka...

The very surface of shallow

After a day some of which was spent driving with my parents watching (I had said I'd drive! And it went OK, thanks to my husband's e...

Serge Gainsbourg is not my style icon

Day 1 of 2 of oral exams. Most are today. Stamina so far so good, to be improved with (more) caffeine. Happier than usual not to be a Mormon...

What your great-grandmother recognized as de-frizzing serum UPDATED

-A Frenchwoman lectures an American audience on chic, which she humbly implies she was born with. A Frenchwoman in a track-suit . But she...

"And I was like, ‘No, no, no—it’s for my skin.’"

There is something kinda bleak about a profile of an immensely successful, impressive, talented young woman that tells us not how she got w...