Bad Hair

In the grand tradition of The Mullet, Bloomsbury USA's previous foray into the world of unfortunate coiffures, Innes-Smith and Webb celebrate poor hair choices, from shaggy Fab Four 'dos to feathered sides, and from asymmetrical bobs to intricately structured curls and waves. Missing are the comb-overs, the skullets (the bald-on-top, long-in-back look) and the synthetic rugs that also warrant the insult of the book's title, but since the photos are culled from hairdressers' windows, such an absence is understandable: these were styles people felt proud of! The pictures, which were taken over the last 30 years, are unfortunately not dated; still, one might venture to propose that the 70s were particularly unflattering for men, and that the 80s were a rough decade for women. This volume is briefly diverting, and even quite funny, but, as the jacket copy admits, there isn't much to be said about a group of pictures all designed to elicit a single response: ""Wow, that's bad hair.""