Hair

Some women are coy about revealing their beauty secrets, but Dana Williams-Johnson happily concedes that she's a product junkie. Inside the Clinton townhouse she shares with her husband, her private bath overflows with health and beauty aids — hundreds in all. Think teeth whiteners and lip glosses, firming creams and false eyelashes. "I'm a girl who's been obsessed with makeup and beauty products since I was a little kid," says Williams-Johnson, 32, a webmaster for a trade association.

Someday, if we're lucky, jukebox musicals will go the way of, well, jukeboxes, and creative types will concentrate solely on fashioning fresh plots peppered with brand-new songs. Meanwhile, you might as well join the crowd and revel in the latest and certainly loudest entry in this genre, " Rock of Ages," now showing off its energy and its hair at the Hippodrome . The 2009 Broadway hit celebrates those heady, hard-thumping days of '80s rock, cramming in about 30 songs from the likes of Foreigner, Pat Benatar, Journey, Twisted Sister and Styx.

Children don't believe their parents had a life of their own before they were born, just as children don't believe their parents actually did anything to bring them into being. So I purchased a pair of tickets to the revival of "Hair" at the Kennedy Center Opera House in order to prove both points to my 20-something daughter. She bailed on me. She was sweet about it, but she had a work commitment and — what irony here — I could not argue that seeing "Hair" trumped a job. So I went with my friend Betsy who, coincidentally, had a role in the Paris production of "Hair" while studying abroad during her sophomore year of college.

Carol Prisant's thoughts keep going off-leash. Her new book, "Dog House, A Love Story" (Gotham Books, $22.50), is ostensibly about the many wonderful homes she's lived in alongside her many, many pets. But like her dogs, Prisant's memories have a tendency to get loose and wind up in strange places. As the book begins, the author's childhood canine encounters keep going sweetly sour thanks to her primly perfectionist mother. As Prisant points out, "Dogs don't do immaculate. " So newly married and living in Florida with her Cape Canaveral-based husband, Millard, Prisant decided her first dog (or as she puts it "pseudo-dog")

In 2010, your initial reaction to the iconic '60s musical "Hair" might be a yawn. A show without a plot to speak of? They've long been a dime a dozen. Nudity? Please. Some seasons, you can't find a show without it. Someone in drag? See previous answer. Anti-establishment preachy-ness? As if we've ever run out of that. Heck, even hip-hugging jeans are back. But, as last year's Tony Award-winning Public Theater revival makes plain, there's a force churning beneath the "American Tribal Love Rock Musical" that can jolt even jaded theatergoers out of condescension and ennui.

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.

His hands have worked magic on some of the most famous manes in the world: Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Jennifer Lopez, Linda Evangelista. But Oribe Canales wants you to know that he's just an average Joe. He's frequented the same neighborhood barber in Miami for the past 18 years. You can call his sister — who works the front desk of his Miami salon — to make an appointment. Oribe — he's referred to by his first name — was at The Sheraton in Towson earlier this week to help celebrate the 40th anniversary of About Faces, the salon chain that has used and sold his products since his line launched, to give a hair demonstration and help style models for a hair and fashion show extravaganza.

William F. Fritz, a World War II veteran who owned and operated a well-known Pikesville hair salon for more than 50 years, died Wednesday of kidney failure at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 85. Born and raised in Baltimore, Mr. Fritz was a 1943 graduate of Patterson High School. During World War II, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and served in the South Pacific, attaining the rank of corporal. After the war, he returned to Baltimore, where he planned to become a barber until two uncles persuaded him to become a hairstylist instead.

Bieber fever has found its way into the barbershop and beauty salon. The Canadian crooner's straight, side-sweeping mop has created almost as much news as the throngs of fans that have made him the reigning prince of 'tween pop. Rowan Sher, a stylist at Dakota Salon in Columbia, has been flooded with customers as young as 4 wanting their longer locks to be transformed into sweeping bangs across their foreheads just like Justin Bieber, who...

Baltimore Fashion Week VIPs will be treated to swag bags (gift bags) each night. Baltimore Fashion Week organizers allowed The Baltimore Sun to photograph some of the items that guests will receive this year. (Items from Banana Republic and Levi's had yet to arrive by publication time.) The items include: Back to Basics citrus shower sage gel Back to Basics kiwi melon body lotion Strawberry lemonade body lotion by Bed Head Bubblebath for kids by Avon Herbal shampoo by Melaleuca Dove ultimate beauty deodorant Bain de terre: balancing shampoo, balancing conditioner, smoothing gel and shaping gel Ambi creamy oil lotion Avon gift bag SeptiFile (sanitizable nail file system)