Me and my ‘man hair’: why Miss France gets my vote
As the French beauty pageant faces a backlash after crowning Eve Gilles the winner – despite her pixie crop – ex-Glamour editor Jo Elvin, who has had short hair for the past 20 years, reveals the real reason people don’t like it...
Years ago, over a lovely family dinner in an Italian restaurant, my then eight-year-old daughter, Evie, turned to me and said: “Mum, some of my friends say you have man hair.” My husband nearly choked laughing at the table.
Well, it appears that little children are not alone in having a very rigid view of what constitutes “woman hair”, as evidenced by the outrage caused at the Miss France beauty pageant this week.
It’s hilarious, really – the spittle-flecked rage being directed at a woman who has had the gall to win the title when she has man – sorry, I mean short – hair. People are angry because the new Miss France, Eve Gilles, 20, is wearing her crown atop a gamine crop. Every other hopeful contestant has the same cookie-cutter, long, straight, “proper lady” bonce.
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