Category Archives: Life and style

‘It can leave your self-image fractured’: how hair loss hits men – and what they can do about it

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Michael Segalov is only 27, but already fears baldness isn’t far off. He talks to experts and scientists about hopes for a hirsute future

My dad is bald, and always has been. He’s had a shiny, hairless head with some growth protruding around the edges for the 27 or so years that I’ve been around. Throughout my childhood, his father always had the same carefully crafted combover – grey locks pulled forward neatly hid the tanned, hairless crown which sat underneath.

Mum’s dad – my Grandpa Oskar – just had a giant forehead for as long as anyone can remember: rear bushy follicles formed what could generously be described as a highly pronounced widow’s peak. Mum’s two brothers are the only other older male blood relations in my immediate family. They’ve both fared better. Receding? Yes. But still, hair is hair.

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‘The ketamine blew my mind’: can psychedelics cure addiction and depression?

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This week sees the opening of the first UK high-street clinic offering psychedelic-assisted therapy. Could popping psilocybin be the future of mental healthcare?

In the summer of 1981, when he was 13, Grant crashed a trail motorbike into a wall at his parents’ house in Cambridgeshire. He’d been hiding it in the shed, but “it was far too powerful for me, and on my very first time starting it in the garden, I smashed it into a wall”. His mother came outside to find the skinny teenager in a heap next to the crumpled motorbike. “I was in a lot of trouble.”

Grant hadn’t given this childhood memory much thought in the intervening years, but one hot August day in 2019, it came back to him with such clarity that, at 53, now a stocky father of two, he suddenly understood it as a clue to his dangerously unhealthy relationship with alcohol.

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Dopamine dressing: Australian fashion insiders on the clothes that make them happiest

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Feelgood fashion from a ‘pro-science, pro-Dolly’ T-shirt to a ‘surprisingly powerful’ necktie

The idea of ‘dopamine dressing’ – wearing clothes that make you feel happier, has been around for several years, but it has reached new heights of relevance in 2021 as we continue to go out less, and feel rotten more often.

Feelgood clothes are often reduced to aesthetics – pieces that are bright, poppy or overtly joyful. But an outfit doesn’t have to scream happiness in order to provoke it.

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Jealousy is a curse, turkeys are just big chickens … what Guardian readers learned from their mums

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Ahead of Mother’s Day, readers share the best piece of life advice they got from their mums

My mum used to tell me that the best way to make friends was to find a hobby. She said it’s the easiest and simplest way to find people who will become lifelong friends – and she was right. Two weeks before lockdown in 2020, I joined a CrossFit gym with much trepidation, but it was the best thing I’ve ever done. The people who are part of the gym have lifted me up, kept me going and been there through thick and thin this past year – albeit virtually, mostly. I’ve made real friends who’ve checked in on me when I’ve been down or shared walks and giggles when we’ve been allowed. Thanks, Mum. Sarah Wolf, media officer, Frome, Somerset

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Europe doubles down on cycling in post-Covid recovery plans

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Success of schemes during pandemic has led many cities to plan vastly expanded bike networks

When the coronavirus pandemic led to global lockdowns a year ago, hundreds of cities reconfigured their streets to make walking and cycling easier to aid social distancing and reduce air pollution. Now, with an end to the lockdowns in sight, the measures have proved so successful that cities across Europe are betting on the bicycle to lead the recovery.

According to the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF), the continent’s cities spent €1bn on Covid-related cycling measures in 2020, creating at least 600 miles (1,000km) of cycle lanes, traffic calming measures and car-free streets.

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Come True review – blow-out imagery in visionary sleep disorder thriller

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An insomniac student is haunted by a demonic figure in this flamboyant and stylised waking dream of a film

There is something visionary about this near-nonsensical, kitsch but atmospheric techno-thriller from Canadian director Anthony Scott Burns. Drawn along on dark somnambulic rhythms, it incorporates elements of fantasy, horror and 80s synthwave aesthetics without giving itself over completely to any of them.

A wordless first 10 minutes introduces us to Sarah (Julia Sarah Stone), a runaway student apparently unwelcome or unwilling to return home, waking in spectrally lit parks and falling asleep in coffee shops. Dropping suddenly into surrealistic CGI dreams that track inexorably towards a demonic figure who, if approached too closely, wakes her with a start. Sarah decides to try and climb out of this insomniac bath by enrolling in a university sleep study. It is overseen by Dr Meyer, a Cronenbergian academic in big glasses, but run by a trio of researchers who, like the memory technicians in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, have a loose relationship with scientific protocol. Becoming close to Jeremy (Landon Liboiron), she learns that they are using pioneering technology to observe the subjects’ dreams – and that the same shadowy presence manifests in all of them.

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‘For women, it’s behind enemy lines!’ Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe on their parenting podcast

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It began as a way to moan about the pandemic – or avoid childcare. Now Lockdown Parenting Hell is downloaded 2m times a month. The comedians chat fatherhood, burnout – and dreaming of the pub

Like many comedians, Josh Widdicombe and Rob Beckett found themselves without an outlet when the pandemic struck. And so, like many comedians, they decided to make a podcast. Theirs – Lockdown Parenting Hell – has become one of the most popular in the country, mining the stresses of everything from twins, tantrums and building a trampoline to the tune of more than 15m downloads.

Beckett has two young children with his wife, Louise Watts, while Widdicome and his wife, Rose Hanson, have one, with another on the way. Each week, the pair interview a celebrity (past guests have included Michael Sheen, Philippa Perry and Paddy McGuinness) while sharing stories about their upended domestic lives. It is fast, fun and, at times, genuinely touching. Here, they share their thoughts on their pandemic pastime.

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‘Hydration is a simple thing’: has the quest to improve water actually worked?

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From alkaline waters to beauty elixirs, added oxygen and probiotics, many brands claim they have ‘enhanced’ water – but what do the experts think?

Today, when I woke up, I made myself a cup of warm lemon water. After lunch I dropped a Berocca into a glass to power me through the afternoon haze. Running errands I considered treating myself to a Coke but opted instead for an expensive, vegetable-tasting water.

H2O classic may be a prerequisite to all known forms of life, but countless brands insist they have found ways to “improve” water. From a business standpoint, it’s working. Industry researchers IbisWorld estimate Australia’s “functional beverage” industry is worth $445.6m; and as people become more health conscious, the growth of the sector is outpacing the economy overall.

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Chanel channels Stella Tenant’s chic androgyny in Paris tribute

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Designer Virginie Viard combines late British model’s allure with après-ski wear and nightclub glamour

In a filmed catwalk show at Paris fashion week, Chanel has paid tribute to Stella Tennant, the British supermodel who was a muse and model of the house for several decades before her sudden death in December.

A monochrome tweed kilt worn over woollen leggings, and bright Fair Isle-style knits teamed with Oxford bag trousers and flat shoes, were among several looks that took inspiration from the elegantly androgynous chic of Tennant, a catwalk star who was most at home in the Scottish countryside.

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Afghan TV station ‘can’t hire women’ over security fears after four killed

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Government blamed for not ensuring safety as broadcaster’s female staff told to stay home after attacks by Isis

A radio and television broadcaster in eastern Afghanistan that has had four of its female employees murdered since December has said it will not hire any more women until security in the country improves.

The broadcaster, Enikass Radio and Television, has also told all female employees to work from home. Islamic State (Isis) has claimed responsibility for killing all four women, but Enikass also blames the Afghan government for not providing adequate security.

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Dior and Schiaparelli weave surreal fairytales at Paris fashion week

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From magic mirrors at Versailles to Dalí-inspired humour, both houses found dramatic potential in lockdown limitations

Paris fashion week is as theatrical as ever, even while playing to an empty house. Instead of their customary stadium-sized catwalk show, Dior filmed a dark fairytale in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, for an audience mostly watching on their phones.

The opulent venue was Dior’s answer to the challenge of how to make an event out of a show which is, in reality, not an event.

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How we met: ‘I told my grandparents I’d met the woman I would marry’

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Charles and Yidi Outhier, 54 and 47, met on a train in the US before Christmas in 2003. They live in the suburbs of Philadelphia with their pet tortoise

Charles Outhier was travelling from Austin, Texas to Tucson, Arizona to see his grandparents for Christmas at the end of 2003. “I had seen the film The Station Agent, and I thought the idea of taking a train sounded appealing,” he says. “But in San Antonio, the train car I was in had separated and all the passengers continuing on were herded into two cars that would connect with an incoming train.” He spent a miserable night trying to sleep on the crowded train with no air-conditioning and, once the trains connected in the morning, he went to the empty cafe car with sightseeing windows.

He was soon joined by Yidi Shen, who sat down near him. “I had left China to study in Germany, and I was on an exchange programme in Wisconsin,” she says. “I got a train pass to travel the country and wanted to make the most of my opportunity in the US.” She had previously been travelling with friends, but had separated from them in Orlando, Florida, to go west towards California.

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Hopes, dreams and fears: the world of teenage girls through their diaries

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To mark International Women’s Day, explore beyond the stereotypes with Masuma Ahuja’s book Girlhood, a collection of diary entries from girls around the world

Masuma Ahuja was tired of seeing the same stories told about teenage girls. They were either victimised or sexualised, even if an “exceptional girl” such as Greta Thunberg or Malala Yousafzai was occasionally held up as a role model for fighting back.

“We have very little understanding of the day-to-day life of girls and what life looks like for them,” says Ahuja. “I wanted to create a small portrait of what girlhood looks like in different places, and something that girls can pick up and feel seen by … and seen by girls elsewhere who share their own experiences.”

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Face masks safe to use during intense exercise, research suggests

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‘Limited’ cardiology research also shows mask wearing likely to reduce spread of coronavirus in indoor gyms

Face masks can be worn safely during intense exercise, and could reduce the risk of Covid-19 spreading at indoor gyms, preliminary findings suggests.

Scientists from the Monzino Cardiology Centre (CCM) in Milan and the University of Milan tested the breathing rate, heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen levels of six women and men on exercise bikes, with and without a mask.

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How we stay together: ‘It’s within those storms that you aim for the sun’

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From fairytale beginning to unimaginable tragedy, Valentino and Carly Giannoni have been through a lot in two decades together

Names: Valentino and Carly Giannoni
Years together: 20
Occupations: Self-employed

Carly and Valentino Giannoni’s relationship had a picture book start. In 2000, Carly, a twenty-something Australian, went backpacking around Europe. While she was in Italy, she wanted to visit Cinque Terre, the picturesque fishing villages on the Italian Riveria, overlooking the Mediterranean. She found herself in the pretty hamlet of Vernazza and rented a room from Luciano, a local who would turn out to be a fairy godfather of sorts.

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British Vogue covers celebrate black joy with sculpted hair

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Resurgence in gravity-defying dos follows Black Lives Matter movement

The intricate art of sculpted hair celebrating black identity is front and centre of British Vogue’s April issue. Made up of four different covers around the theme of “joy”, each edition features different models (Achenrin Madit, Precious Lee, Mona Tougaard and Janaye Furman) with their hair moulded into spherical, coloured balls.

But the trend is not new. “In the 60s and 70s hair sculpture became part of the black consciousness movement,” says Prof Carol Tulloch, the author of The Birth of Cool: Style Narratives of the African ciaspora. “Gravity-defying hair creations contributed to the black is beautiful [ideology] and revelled in the beauty of black hair.”

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