Is Fluffy the New Black? Is Our Quarantine Hair Trying to Tell Us Something? Sheltering at Home Week 23

August 16, 2020. Sheltering at Home Week 23

I’ve got quarantine hair. It’s growing and growing and getting fluffier and fluffier. So is Stephen Colbert’s. Ditto Katie Porter’s.

Conan O’Brien’s quarantine hair has been taken over by runaway cowlicks.

Which makes me wonder — what will we all be looking like when the coronavirus is tamed and we’re back to singing in church and crowding into bars?

That Dressed-for-Success Look

Will we women be digging around in our closets for sleek pantsuits and battle-ready boots? Will we be heading to the hairdresser for that flawless, dressed-for-success look of yore?

I don’t think so. From now on, I think, the world and all the people in it will be going for — fluffy.

Fluffy is the new black. Fluffy hair. Fluffy, loose-fitting shirts and jackets. Fluffy, loose-fitting lifestyles. Fluffy boundaries between home and work and the greater world.

That crazy, out-of-control quarantine hair we’ve been putting up with is one sign of things to come.

In the fluffy world to come, I’m thinking, it will be OK — for men, as well as for women — to tell the truth and admit to being a little late for work this morning or a little groggy this afternoon because the baby was awake all night and it was our turn to walk them.

The Cat Is Out Of the Bag. And So Is the Dog and the Parakeet

Thanks to all that video chatting and Zooming we’ve been doing, and thanks to the socially distanced news reports we’ve been taking in, the lines between home and work have been blurred — fluffed — forever. The secret is out. People have kids at home. The have dogs, chickens, parakeets, spouses.

Your boss, your favorite late night talk show host, your congressperson, your governor, and the TV pundit of your choice have been unmasked for the human beings they are — people with rows of corny family photos on their bookshelves and knickknacks of debatable sophistication. People with lives.

Keeping a Lid on the Personal  Stuff

Not so long ago, people arrived at work, ready for work, looking professional and making like they hadn’t another responsibility in the world. Which they did, of course. They had another life. But there was a felt need to keep a lid on family worries and other extra-curriculars.

Not now. Not during the coronavirus shut-down that we’ve been putting up with and adapting to since March. To wit:

• Author Anne Lamott gives a Zoom talk for a virtual crowd of wannabe writers. Her dog crawls onto the sofa and plops his head on her lap. She strokes his ears and keeps on talking.
• It’s Sunday morning, and I’ve taken my tea to church. I keep it there on my desk and when the preacher puts up a screen share of Jesus and my face disappears from gallery view, I take a sip.
• Nancy Pelosi’s got quarantine hair. Her bangs are growing out. While they’re doing that, she’s up on Capitol Hill playing hardball.

A Ring Around the Toilet

The new fluffiness is not limited to the outside world. You find it at home as well. Spider webs go unnoticed in the garage, and dust balls in the closet. In one household, there are yellow rings around some of the toilet bowls. No one pays any attention, not even me.

Before coronavirus, I would not have tolerated yellow rings. But now, no one sees them but Jon and me. And so, given the choice between taking an afternoon walk in the neighborhood and attacking one of them with a scrub brush, I choose the walk.

The starchy housekeeping standards impressed upon me as a girl (repeat girl) have turned to fluff. I think I’ll keep them that way when the new normal arrives at last.

Fluffy Friendships

As for entertaining friends post-coronavirus — what will become of all those gourmet meals and elegant table settings that took so much of our time and attention?

Jon and I have learned, to our delight, that a fluffy, socially distanced bottle of sauvignon blanc on the deck paired with with a fluffy dessert from the food drop keeps old friendships moving along nicely.

So, cheers! See you and your fluffy self on the other side.

More about fluffy in yesterday’s post, “I’ve Got Curls All Over My Head. How Did That Happen?”   More thoughts on our changing times at “Geographic Mobility in America: Watching My Grown-Up Kids Disappear.”