bijou
06-05-2008, 03:56 PM
Lopsided haircuts made popular by 1980s pop stars not only risk making those sporting them look silly but also go against the evolutionary process itself, according to a professor of mathematics.
Even 20 years later many still cringe at the decade's excesses from Flashdance legwarmers to shoulder pads, New Romantic frills and excessive eyeliner.
Now Prof Marcus du Sautoy, of Oxford University, says that as well as being in questionable taste some of the more bizarre haircuts of the 1980s actually run counter to the path of evolution.
Over the centuries people have developed to find symmetry attractive but the decade remembered for yuppies, mullets and ra-ra skirts saw a host of stars choosing daring asymmetrical haircuts, which flies in the face of nature's rules of attraction.
Prof du Sautoy, author of Finding Moonshine, a book about symmetry, will single out asymmetrical haircuts for particular criticism as the worst of the Eighties excesses at the Cheltenham Science Festival, which is sponsored by The Daily Telegraph.
Mike Score, the lead singer of Flock of Seagulls and a former hairdresser, had a lopsided hairstyle that has been copied, and parodied many times, most notably in a flashback episode of the American television sitcom Friends and his hair style has also been referred to in movies such as Pulp Fiction and The Wedding Singer.
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But these go against nature's key message that symmetry is beautiful, so the decade will never be stylish, concludes Prof du Sautoy.
"As a student in the 80s I was never attracted to the music of the likes of Flock of Seagulls or Human League. Now I know why. The maths just says all that asymmetry just adds up to a fashion disaster. In the natural world, symmetry is always an indicator of something significant - it is there to attract attention', says Prof du Sautoy.
....http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/06/05/scifashion105.xml
Even 20 years later many still cringe at the decade's excesses from Flashdance legwarmers to shoulder pads, New Romantic frills and excessive eyeliner.
Now Prof Marcus du Sautoy, of Oxford University, says that as well as being in questionable taste some of the more bizarre haircuts of the 1980s actually run counter to the path of evolution.
Over the centuries people have developed to find symmetry attractive but the decade remembered for yuppies, mullets and ra-ra skirts saw a host of stars choosing daring asymmetrical haircuts, which flies in the face of nature's rules of attraction.
Prof du Sautoy, author of Finding Moonshine, a book about symmetry, will single out asymmetrical haircuts for particular criticism as the worst of the Eighties excesses at the Cheltenham Science Festival, which is sponsored by The Daily Telegraph.
Mike Score, the lead singer of Flock of Seagulls and a former hairdresser, had a lopsided hairstyle that has been copied, and parodied many times, most notably in a flashback episode of the American television sitcom Friends and his hair style has also been referred to in movies such as Pulp Fiction and The Wedding Singer.
....
But these go against nature's key message that symmetry is beautiful, so the decade will never be stylish, concludes Prof du Sautoy.
"As a student in the 80s I was never attracted to the music of the likes of Flock of Seagulls or Human League. Now I know why. The maths just says all that asymmetry just adds up to a fashion disaster. In the natural world, symmetry is always an indicator of something significant - it is there to attract attention', says Prof du Sautoy.
....http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/06/05/scifashion105.xml