Pumped Up.(hairstyles)

Pumped Up

From a collision between librarian and rock-star hair comes the new bun. It's sexy, strong, and upswept, but never uptight. By Cara Birnbaum

The classic updo, with all its bobby-pin buttressing and hair-spray cement, is as much a feat of engineering as of hairstyling. Yet despite its impressive architecture, it isn't in any way sexy. Now, hairstylists are loosening up those prim French twists and tight buns and transforming the updo into an undo. Gone are the choking clouds of Aqua Net and the armature of bobby pins. "These styles aren't perfect," says hairstylist Serge Normant. "And that also means they're not severe or intimidating." The new updo's can be worn day or night; they can be rigged up by a professional or by any woman with five minutes to spare. They don't require any laborious straightening or curling; hair's natural, God-given texture does just fine. As Normant explains, "I like to work with the hair's flyaways rather than plastering them down."

Pumped Up

From a collision between librarian and rock-star hair comes the new bun. It's sexy, strong, and upswept, but never uptight. By Cara Birnbaum

Hitchcock Hair

Hitchcock Hair Blood-curdling screams, demonic crows, and classic updo's are all signatures of Alfred Hitchcock. And those updo's are as twisted and impenetrable as his characters. "They convey the idea of femininity as a masquerade and the fact that the woman is highly duplicitous," says Richard Allen, associate professor of cinema at New York ...