Winter of discontent

Now is the winter of our discontent. - William Shakespeare (Richard III)

My French hair

    

"Cheveux: un chaos, oui, mais organisé!" / "Hair: chaotic, yes, but organized!"

Les Do's & Dont's de La Parisienne - Caroline de Maigret in Vogue Magazine (February 2020)

 

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Some years back as editor-at-large of BonjourParis.com I wrote an article called, "Getting It Straight: A Hair Piece." (© Barbara Pasquet James). At the time it received quite a bit of attention and, thanks to those days, many of those readers followed me to USA Today and eventually here, to this blog.

From an early age, my hair never really did what I perceived it should be doing. It seemed like everyone but me could effortlessly achieve perfectly coiffed, straight hair. But no, mine had to be curly, fly away, rebellious, no matter how much time I spent trying to tame it. If I blew it out to a smooth sheen, in no time at all East Coast humidity would frizz it up again. Not curlers made from coke cans or ironing or teasing it or even applying chemical straighteners made my hair "behave" the way I wanted it to, like the carefree do's of those snooty private school girls in Georgetown, and peer pressure made it worse. It was hopeless. Then one day, I suppose I was about 15, waiting in line to buy an ice cream, someone behind me tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was French. I'd seen him before and thought he knew my name, Pasquet, but he didn't. And then he said, delighted, "You have French hair!"

It was the first but not last time I'd hear that. As it turned out, French hair was a "thing." A concept. It was unruly, defiant, tousled. A cousin, Mireille, who spoke only French, came to stay with my family one summer in the U.S. and I remember watching with awe her daily routine of piling her thick dark locks atop her head in one quick gesture, securing the knot with no more than two long hair pins. As strands tumbled around her barely made-up face, it felt good just looking at her. My siblings, our offspring, relatives on my father's side - including an aunt who was a print model for Revlon well into her 40's (we'd come across her photos leafing through glossy magazines at the supermarket checkout) - all of us, had this hair. Mine wasn't "strategically disheveled" as in yesterday's Parisienne ("My Little Paris") chart. It did it all by itself. When I moved to Paris for good, so many, I began to notice, had hair just like mine and like The Ugly Duckling, I thought, maybe I'd been swimming in the wrong lake. - BPJ

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"Flat, straight, hair looks like death... The biggest difference [between French hair] is that they are much more into movement than other countries in the world, and they like volume... It doesn't have to be perfect." - celebrity stylist David Mallett (Paris' Most Famous Hairstylist on French Hair - Kathleen Hou 2016 The Cut)

 

Update: "Ditch the brush" - Caroline Maigret for thezoereport.com / Fashion and Style

 

Below: in Cadaqués Spain, 80s

Merci to beautiful Parisiennes everywhere. Wherever you are.

 

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Also see: Messy French buns

 

 

The Parisienne #2

How many of these are you?

 [Chart: My Little Paris 11/2019]

Clichés are often anchored in truth and in Paris, the (cliché) Parisienne is alive and well. Like other clichés - the Southern Belle, Valley Girl, Sloane Ranger... - she is a subgroup unto herself. Not every woman in Paris is, or even wants to be, this Parisienne. But many are. Trying to change and redefine her to fit your comfort zone doesn't work. As legendary hair stylist David Mallett put it, "You know her when you see her."

That’s her on a bicycle with flawless skin, scarf in the wind, a baguette under her arm. She's feminine, thin, natural, but mostly, she's "bien dans sa peau" (well in her skin) at any age. Facelifts and botox are not part of her world. She can be chic. Or not. As long as it's on her terms, not yours. And her hair! Sometimes referred to as that "just-rolled-out-of-bed look," it's been like that all of her adventurous life.

Long after she's left you in the dust will it hit you that you were sent off on fausses pistes (translation: holes in her stories). And besides a full head of "French hair" (didn't you know?) she's had that smug expression - some call it a sneer, others a smirk - for as long as she can remember and it usually means, “You are a bore.”
 
You hate her but love to copy her. In your zeal to wrap her in as many shapes and sizes as there are French cheeses you forget that she is, like all clichés, unaware that she is one. Or cares what you think what she is or isn't because, well, she just is.

La Parisienne plays by her own rules. She tries to be politiquement correcte and not judge books by their covers, but will point out that if covers don't matter, why do publishers devote entire departments to book cover design? - BPJ

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The No. 1 response to my informal survey of French women about the secret of magical ageing is not gaining weight. Ever. - From French Secrets to Ageing Gracefully - Ann M. Morrison (Lifestyle/Beauty - Sydney Morning Herald 2010)

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Some comments lambasting Parisiennes:

- Believe me when i tell you that NO ONE wants to look like most french women do ! I've lived here for 6 years and for the most part, they shower once a week, don't wear any make up and very rarely even put a comb through the hair! Not to mention about the hairy situation all the time... And the parisians that everyone is talking about are one in a million rich people who can afford to buy Channel and Dior….

- (Paris) is full of people who are not a singular white, thin woman in a messy topknot and Breton-striped shirt. And yet, this is rarely (if ever) included in the many odes to "French style.” How to be Parisian, for example, doesn’t mention the incredible array of hijab fashion you will see on the street every day in Paris. And, while it would be wrong to imply that France (and Paris in particular) is a bastion of diversity — or that French culture has mastered embracing different backgrounds — the reality is that these outdated notions of What Is Parisian only perpetuate the real problems of representation in the country itself.

- Thank you for this article! I couldn't agree more with your points, especially the last one on diversity. As a Francophile, I have been made aware of this obsession with trying to become the French woman since "French Women Don't Get Fat" hit the bookshelves in 2004. To be honest, I've also entertained the notion that they possess a certain je ne sais quoi that was lacking in American culture and that I should try to obtain it. Now, I'm just over it and I roll my eyes each time Vogue, Huffington Post (or Refinery29...) writes an article about this elusive woman. I roll my eyes because I know her and she is just the same as us! Let's be proud of who we are as women on this earth and not women of Paris, of New York, etc.

 

But then...

- You almost convinced me. But then I remembered that the last time I was in Paris, I was struck by the dozens of chic Parisian women, commuting on bicycles, looking fresh faced and moist-lipped, even in blaring traffic. They pedaled in skirts and flat shoes, gamine and athletic no matter their age (...). I love being an American woman, but I love loving the French women.

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Adapted from: 

Seduction and the Art of The French Femme

and

Eating French: Why French Women Won't Get Fat

   a.k.a.

A French Paradox: The French Non Diet and The Art of Eating for Pleasure - Barbara Pasquet James

Tomorrow:
My French hair

 

The Parisienne #1

 "Qui a dit que la Parisienne était un mythe?" / Who said the Parisienne was a myth?....

You don't have to be from Paris or live there to be a Parisienne. It's a look, a style, a state of mind. - Inès de la Fressange and Sophie Gachet La Parisienne (2019)

 

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Once again, the elusive Parisienne is in the news, democratized and watered down by people who never understood the entrance requirements. Like the Southern Belle, she is a category all her own that no diversity seminar can mint. To be a Parisienne is an attitude, a style, and unapologetically French. Try as you will to rebrand her, she’ll still be leaning against the zinc café counter in her ten-year-old trench, regarding the whole circus with the faintest lift of an eyebrow. Some myths refuse to be focus-grouped into oblivion. - BPJ

Tomorrow:
Are you a (cliché) Parisienne? Check the chart

 

Update: see December 14, 2020 post

Parisienne rules

 

 

 

 

A Paris butcher

 

 

Head bowed in reverie, a butcher prepares a roast for pickup.

Touch of spring

Bright mimosas on the sidewalk in front of a Montmartre florist.

Striking

Today ends almost two straight months of non-stop strikes protesting the government's proposed retirement reforms. For now. Despite endless civil upheavals, encroaching homeless and migrant populations, pollution and soaring crime, like the Eiffel Tower, Paris always manages to keep its head held high, and for visitors, its clichés - fashionistas, dawdling for hours at cafés, baguettes, fabulous wines, cheeses, small dogs, macaron-nibbling Parisiennes and sexy French lovers - remain intact. For now. - BPJ