Somebody was reading to me - sorry, I'll get to talking about giants or whatever in a second - the history of toupees. I'm sorry, I mean toupées. Mustn't forget the accent aigu! By the way, I wasn't sure I spelled "aigu" properly - I thought it was "ague" because that's sort of how I pronounce it - & I found typed quickly into a search engine, "accent age" - & I got this response:
Accents are forever." Subheading: By their first birthday, babies are getting locked into the sounds of the language they hear spoken.
That's more about accents from a foreign language rather than regional accents; I actually worked pretty hard when I was sixteen years old to lose the Southern accent that I once had & that graces the voices of all of my siblings. Actually, my mother, who is German, speaks English - I've been told - with a Southern accent on top of her German accent!
Anyway, someone was reading me an article about the toupée (with the accent aigu) (which my blogger spellcheck says is incorrectly spelled, & it says the same about toupée but not toupee) in which it was said the oldest example of a toupée was found in an Egyptian tomb dated over five thousand years ago. It also mentioned the Ovid quote, "Ugly are hornless bulls, a field without grass is an eyesore. So is a tree without leaves, so is a head without hair." Gosh male people have had to deal with the stigma of baldness for a long time!
Toupée use has doubtless grown as we've begun living longer. I myself have less hair every day. I remember when I was looking for some consolation from the wife about my fear of balding, I asked if I might have a bald spot forming, hoping she would realize that I wanted her to say no, my hair was fine. She did say no - that was momentarily gratifying - but then she said, "But of course your hair is thinning. So maybe soon."
My hair was thinning! I wouldn't buy a toupée though. It just seems silly. It's like when the dentist asks if I am interested in teeth whitening. Isn't that something one does to feel - not necessarily to be - more attractive? I've never really felt attractive, so doing something to make me feel attractive seems improbable & silly. Still, I thought, it might be fun to read an article or even a short book about the history of toupées & wigs. If only I wasn't always working on radio shows!
Like this one coming up about giants! I was never going to be a giant myself but I do believe that I am actually shrinking. The last time I had my height checked, I was around 5/8ths of an inch shorter than the last time I had my height checked. That doesn't bode well. In fact, it bodes ill. Bald & shrimpy, my future seems bleak. I wonder if it's possible to suddenly grow a hunchback in one's dotage? If so, I'm doomed.
The word "toupée" by the way comes from the French & means "tuft of hair," or "forelock." The word itself admits it's not the entire head of hair. I like that.
Giants probably don't worry about hair loss. Who can see the top of their heads, anyway?
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