What Happens in St. Louis Stays in St. Louis

I am heading off to St. Louis to give a talk in the physics department at Washington University (WUSTL).

This is my first ever trip to Missouri.

A little while ago, after I went through the x-ray machine, the TSA agents wanted to check my hair to make sure I wasn't hiding something in there. (This happens a couple of times every year.)

Weird Al and Weird Mason

I have pretty much the same hair as Weird Al Yankovic. Just sayin...

My Haircut is the One That Should be Required!

Well, here is a nice foil.

Now I want to be in charge of a country just so I can force people to get my haircut!

Separated at Birth?

Separated at Birth: preppy Tim Lincecum (baseball player) and preppy Rob Ghrist (mathematician).

By contrast, here are Tim Lincecum and Rob Ghrist with long hair.

Time-Dependent Properties of the Hair of Physicists

Physicists have established a fine tradition when it comes to hair, and I have made it an important part of my life to continue this tradition.

(Tip of the cap to Physics Today.)

The Physics of Ponytails

Leave it to Ray Goldstein and company to investigate the physics of ponytails. This BBC News article covers research in an article published today in Physical Review Letters. Among other things, the authors of the article define a new dimensionless quantity that they coined the "Rapunzel number". Oh dear...

Eat Your Heart Out, Oscar Gamble!

Oakland Athletics outfielder Coco Crisp is evoking memories of Oscar Gamble with his huge new afro. Bring it on! (And, seriously, look at the top picture on the linked page.)

Oh, and I wholeheartedly approve!

They're real, and they're fabulous!

The woman behind the counter at Bojangles asked me, "Are those natural curls or do you curl your hair?"

I *should* have answered, "They're really and they're fabulous!"

Alas, it didn't occur to me until afterwards.

This entry will make sense only to people who know what I look like, but Google can always help you with that. Actually, women mention to me pretty frequently that they wish they had natural curls like me and sometimes even mention that they try vehemently to get their hair that way through curling (by which I don't mean the sport), but I don't remember ever previously being asked if I curl my hair. (To put this into proper context, recall that I lived in Midtown Atlanta for 2.5 years! Of course, I do vaguely recall being rendered speechless after some guy at one of Turgay Uzer's parties asked me, "Who does your hair?")

On a similar note, I really need a haircut...

I have joined the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS)!

In news of extraordinary importance, I have joined the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists! In life, one needs to have at least a few important accomplishments, and this is about the best that I've managed so far...

Correlations between geography and hair

I recently realized that the office assignments among postdocs in Caltech's theoretical condensed matter physics group were arranged by hair.

Room 131 consists entirely of postdocs who are going seriously bald, whereas Room 130 consists entirely of postdocs with luxuriously flowing manes.

Coincidence? I think not.