Hair

Controversy is swirling around a pricey and much-heralded hair-straightening treatment after researchers in Oregon announced recently that they had found that the formula contained the dangerous chemical formaldehyde, even in packages labeled formaldehyde-free. The company behind the Brazilian Blowout responded with a series of statements on its website, first maintaining that the formula contains no formaldehyde and taking issue with Oregon's test methods, then saying it conducted its own tests and concluded that the formula does indeed contain the chemical but in a trace amount that is "considered safe and allows for use of the term 'formaldehyde-free.

Of all the high hopes and potentially unrealistic expectations that a bride has concerning her wedding day, the desire to look like the most obscenely beautiful version of oneself tops my list. At the risk of coming across as vapid and shallow, I not so secretly fantasize of a super dramatic hush rushing across the room as I walk down the aisle followed by whispers of  “SHE LOOKS AMAZING.” I warned you that this was pretty vacuous. Of course, there are the long-term self-improvements that many brides make leading up to their big day, whether it be joining a gym, kicking a bad habit to the curb or paying visits to a “special” doctor.

Mike Smith appeared dazed in the moments after his horse, Bodemeister, was again beaten by Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another - this time by a neck in Saturday's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course . The veteran jockey wore the frozen smile of a man hardly able to fathom what had just transpired. "I swear I don't know how he ran me down, man," Smith said after trainer Bob Baffert approached in the fading sunlight. "You did a good job," the 59-year-old trainer told the 46-year-old jockey, a fellow Hall of Famer and former Preakness winner who recently passed 5,000 career victories.

Midnight Sun contributor Ellie Kahn saw the English dubstep DJ Rusko headline Rams Head Live on Monday night. This was her take: It wasn't until nearly midnight when the Hollywood sign-like letters flashed on in the darkness to spell out Rusko. Before then, Sigma performed covers of Waka Flocka Flame's "Hard in Da Paint ," Big Sean's "Dance," Flux Pavillion's "Bass Cannon " and hundreds of midriff-bearing, neon-wearing, 20-somethings and teenagers with unforgiving black X's on their hands tried to figure out why Rusko was so late.

Tracie Thoms' discipline as a performer, nurtured early on at the Baltimore School for the Arts, has enabled her to be spontaneous in character every week as Kat Miller, an avid detective on TV's "Cold Case." Even in the train-wreck big-screen version of "Rent," she fused her eagerness for performing with the passion of Joanne, a lawyer who just has to make a case for herself - or at least make a scene. Chris Rock's engaged and engaging new documentary "Good Hair," a good-humored exploration of the meaning and impact of female hairstyles in the African-American community, offered Thoms a chance to do something she hasn't done before on-screen.

Former Mayor Sheila Dixon sent the city bills for nearly $700 for hairstyling during her last year and a half in office, according to records obtained by The Baltimore Sun. Dixon billed the city for "curling and styling hair" and other hair services six times in an 18-month period. The invoices were submitted by stylist Alithea Robinson -- also known as Lisa Robinson -- and ranged from $60 to $225. Dixon did not return a call seeking comment Tuesday evening but had previously said that the she occasionally had her hair styled before taping programs for the city's cable channel.

What is wrong with the TSA ? First it was patting down toddlers and feeling up grandmothers in diapers, but now its agents are searching black women's hair. According to this New York Times article, agents of the Transportation Security Administration have been giving some black women with natural hair a second look in the form of a hair pat-down. Apparently there's a hair-scare in the air. Really, TSA? As a black woman I can tell you right now that there is no way we are going to hide explosives in our hair.

S omeday in a future that seems to grow more distant by the day, there presumably will be a verdict. Maybe not until there's snow on the ground, it can seem as we wait and then wait some more, but if and when jurors decide the fate of Mayor Sheila Dixon, I'll look back and think: Ah, this was the turning point. After days of sending out notes that signaled turmoil among their ranks followed by ones indicating progress, the jurors fell silent on Tuesday. There were no questions about legal definitions, no temperature readings of their discussions, not even a really-need-a-smoke bit of comic relief.

THE RUSH is over, presents opened, lots of sweets and leftovers in the fridge to last the rest of the week. There's some time to think about getting yourself pretty for those pop-on-over parties with friends.Lucky for you, this is a year for fancy and frolicsome hairdos, so your everyday look can take a little tousle and tinsel.Gloria Brennan, of her namesake salon at Pikesville, sees a strong return to special sets. "We're doing glamorous evening looks like we haven't seen in years. A precision cut and blow dry just don't seem like enough for a holiday."

PHOENIX -- A woman dangled about 20 feet off the ground for about an hour when her hair became entangled in her rock climbing equipment."I was hanging in the air by my hair and my harness," Tracie Hemphill, 19, said yesterday. "I was screaming, yelling and crying. It hurt."Ms. Hemphill, who said she had gone rock climbing only once before, was rappelling down a rock face on Camelback Mountain when her hair got caught yesterday morning.To make matters worse, she said, well-meaning hikers heard her screaming and yelling and tried to help by tugging at her rope, hoping to free her."

Well it seems as though the writers of heard my whining here in Baltimore, because for the second week in a row "Revenge" reminded me of the show I fell in love with in the fall. The plotting and suspense is back in full force, and the previews for the next two weeks have me believing this season will certainly be ending on a high note.  This week "Revenge" took a step back in time - New Years 2002 - to give us some more background on the tangled web of Hamptonites backstabbing.

This episode was practically perfect, you guys. I won't spoil it in the first paragraph, but the teams are still in India and I think some bad karma came around to gently nudge a few people. I wouldn't have minded a swift kick to some people's behinds, but the gentle nudge wasn't too bad. The first four teams leave within 45 minutes of each other. Poor JJ has a cold. They head to a temple to receive a traditional blessing from a head priest. Sometimes these brushes with other religions bring out some rude remarks, but not this time, everyone was cool.

We often watch a reality show about a couple and assume they won't be a couple for much longer. It's not that we're cynical; it's just the facts of reality TV life. But "Giuliana & Bill," featuring Giuliana and Bill Rancic, seems to have broken that curse. The show (Season 5 premieres at 8 p.m. Tuesday on Style) features the so-clearly-happily-in-love husband and wife balancing their busy careers with domestic life and becoming even closer as Giuliana battles breast cancer and eventually has a double mastectomy.

Oscar nominee Viola Davis is featured on the cover of the February issue of the LA Times Magazine. While the article focuses on her work as an actor, mentor and soon-to-be producer, I think the real story is her hair - her natural hair. In a four-picture spread by photographer Ruvan Afanador, Ms. Davis' radiance is undeniable. With the exception of Whoopi Goldberg, this marks the first time, in recent memory, that an A-list, African-American, Oscar-nominated actress has dared to go "bare," so to speak.

Hairstylist Reggie Dowdy has found himself time and time again doing emergency hair repair on women whose tresses have been damaged by weaves and extensions. They come in with bald spots, also known as alopecia, and thinning hair caused by heavy weaves pulling at their scalps. Sometimes their real hair is so unkempt underneath the weave that it becomes matted and breaks off if they try to comb it. Or they break out in rashes because of the glue some stylists use to apply weaves. Dowdy doesn't oppose weaves and extensions — the hair practice makes up 50 percent of the business at his salon, Geometrics Hair Studio in Canton.

Doris C. Margulis, a Baltimore actress who during the 1960s and early 1970s trained Special Forces troops in interrogation at the Army's old Fort Holabird in Dundalk, died Nov. 27 of cancer at the North Oaks retirement community in Pikesville. The former Mount Washington resident was 95. The daughter of a cigar maker and a homemaker who later owned a grocery store, Doris Crane was born in Baltimore and raised on Smallwood Street. After graduating from Western High School in 1932, she went to work as a stenographer and typist for Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. and later for several lawyers.

If you've just been to the hairdresser and a passing wind whips up your coiffure, don't be mad be happy.This season, the deliberately disheveled hairdo is the height of style. Top stylists like Oribe, the hair maestro at the Elizabeth Arden Salon, are making sure their customers leave the shop looking as if an errant breeze had already dislocated a lock or two."It's a way to make the popular 60s bouffant look younger and more modern," Oribe said. What Oribe does is set, tease and arrange a coif the usual way. Then he coaxes some pieces and tendrils out of place.

The race for the Republican presidential nomination turned nasty this week, as Mitt Romney's former hairstylist, Francois Lockes, accused the GOP front-runner of using hair color to grey his temples. "Monsieur Romney est inauthentique," Mr. Lockes, a French citizen, told reporters. "Le candidat would shave his head pour un vote!" The Romney campaign denied the accusation. "Frank the barber is a disgruntled former employee who was fired for trying to spike Mitt's chamomile tea with caffeine," said a Romney spokesperson.

Few places are left unexplored for Jennifer Petrin Johannes. Over the years, the 38-year-old public high-school art teacher has been to six continents, 27 countries and 43 states. She also shares her passion for traveling with her students, taking them on trips to Egypt, China and Australia. Johannes grew up in Demarest, N.J., but has called Pigtown her home for the last seven years. When she isn't traveling, she enjoys making jewelry and cooking. Currently, she and her students are shipping over 3000 books to a school in Kenya that she visited in 2010.