Mar 08 2002
Love & Hate #1: Buffy’s New Hair
Love/Hate – Friday, March 8, 2002
John and I are going to try and start our very own Friday tradition, though with my limited attention span and capricious temperament, who knows how long the tradition will last? The idea is we’ll pick something and each take a side, one of us for and the other against.
And for our first foray, what could be better than starting with our favorite TV heroine, the adorable Sarah Michelle Gellar of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? We’ve been Buffyphiles since the show first started — though I must admit that John had to talk me into it, the premise sounding so goofy and all. But it has the best writing on TV, with a wit to match Frasier and emotions deeper and truer than anything on the small screen. And what other show could have a musical episode that was so fantastic I had to watch it twice (and I would pay not to see any Broadway musical you care to name)? Not to mention the fact that the cast is very, very cute and can out-act almost any other TV cast. So it’s completely satisfying on just about every level.
Which brings us to the topic du jour: what was Buffy thinking when she chopped off her hair? For the purposes of this blog, I’ll refer to the character (Buffy) rather than the actress (Sarah Michelle). OK.
I freely admit that I have long hair and in general, I think long hair is prettier. Some girls can carry off the short hair and look great, but Buffy’s hair looks like a little Dutch girl hat. I think the chopping is supposed to be symbolic and has something to do with her, uh, relationship with Spike (is there an “R” rating for TV?) and her coming back from the dead, but who cares why she did it? It looks icky. And I’m talking about a girl who is completely cute in a fast food uniform.
Also, part of the fun of watching Buffy in action is the contrast of the monster-killing with her stylish clothes and hair flying.
I think she’s already realized it was, as Ahnuld would say, a big mistake, because it looks like it’s growing back already. Hopefully her tressage will be restored by the time she gets married (the actress, not the character).