In response to the Christine O’Donnell hair question, raised earlier (in jest), comes this striking analysis of her image strategy, from TPM Reader HF:
Here’s what I think.
The bangs in the ad released October 4 look pretty freshly cut, probably to give her a plainer, more girlish look and possibly specifically for making this ad. Her hair is parted just off-center and straight back to the crown. (Usually she parts it farther off to the right with a zig zag and does a bit of a 60’s, Jackie Kennedy type bang.) The hair on the right is probably longer, which is why much of it is tucked back behind her ear for the ad. Most of her hair is probably pulled back out of the way, as the goal here is to make her hair look as thin, straight and unattractive as possible. It looks like her hair has been flattened with a straightening iron and an oily product to make it very smooth and straight. It falls from a bit of a natural cowlick, so it looks like it was combed and air-dried rather than blown out. All in search of the “I just got out of English class and what’s all this about witchcraft?” look.
The hair color and skin tone in this ad have had all traces of red removed, either by lighting or via use of a temporary hair color and very fair makeup. Her upper lip is underdrawn and she’s only wearing a little bit of washed-out lipgloss (the light-pink lips look very virginal and schoolgirlish.)
If the goal was to make O’Donnell look like an innocent 14-year old Catholic schoolgirl mistakenly accused of witchcraft for this ad, then the stylist and the tech people did their jobs. (Except for the weird smoke, of course, which created exactly the wrong effect, and the nausea-inducing performance itself.)
When O’Donnell’s in her “real” persona (assuming that she has one) she parts her hair further over to the right and poufs it out in a much more voluptuous way, and uses makeup that makes her look pretty attractive. The longer hair covers the shorter bangs which showed in the ad.
O’Donnell could come off as more serious if she were to cut her hair shorter or smooth it out in back, but going for the slightly unkempt look is probably smart for her–she can come off as a political novice when she wants to. (“See? It’s not like I’ve gone all Hillary Clinton and gotten a professional haircut suitable for a woman over 40! I’m just a fun-loving gal whose search for a Christian husband was cut short by a constitutional crisis! Vote for me!”)
