R.H. Thompson as Matthew Cuthbert

Matthew Cuthbert– R.H. Thompson, 2018  Canadian Screen Award, for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama, “Anne with an E” — is our new role model in the matter of hair.  If you are becoming  agitated about your own haircut situation and you haven’t seen the series, you are missing a bet.  You’ll feel much better  about your own shaggy mane once you become acquainted with Matthew, the painfully shy, stoic, humble potato farmer from Prince Edward Island.

Like the rest of us, when Matthew was about to face a stranger or a visitor or when he felt he needed to make a good impression, he often made an effort to smooth and straighten his hair.  Usually that involved an aborted attempt ending in jamming his hat back on his head to conceal the worst of it.  It never really worked and served only to make him all the more endearing.

I’m counting on that very reaction as I search through my old, discarded bits and pieces of headgear.  So far, I have come up with only one really suitable option.  Unfortunately, it is a knitted wool cap — too bulky and too warm by far for the upcoming season.  Not that I’ll be out and about that much, but it’s always nice to have some sort of appropriate sartorial splendor at your fingertips.

Better Than A Kerchief!

Speaking of hair and hats.  After years of having short, sensible hair, I’m finding these shaggy locks quite trying in the night.  There seems to be hair everywhere — in my face, caught in my kiss-and-lie-down-dress, pulled this way and that as I turn over.  Finally, I understand the line in Clement Clarke Moore’s famous poem:
“And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap…”

No wonder they wore night caps (and probably drank them, too!)