"...rather distressingly like a 1970s childrens' entertainer..."
Alas, I cannot find the original quote online. Nor can I tell you which edition it comes from, only that it was published recently, and that it was one reviewer's (presumably) sober assessment of hairstyles among today's youth, in addition to being the only detail I still actually remember about the review.
It's not difficult to understand what generated a statement like this by a critic writing in the New York Times Review of Books this year, but what is somewhat difficult to understand is how it could come to exist without any concurrent discussion of the likely causes of this condition, distressing though that topic may also turn out to be for the same reviewer. It doesn't necessarily take a genius to observe that lower-maintenance hairstyles tend to gain favor during economic downcycles and periods of uncertainty. Of course, the picture is more complicated than that and one must figure in various macro-trends and the sensibilities of culture. But to simply 'write off' a generation's "do" as, or even because, they're getting the short end of the stick under the new yoke of authoritarianism and ecological meltdown smacks of an order of flippancy, ignorance - even outright cruelty - that seems out of place in a such a stolid, venerable and trusted publication.
And lest you think that some degree of personal offense may have motivated this sudden break with silence, I would challenge you thusly: have you seen my Instagram profile lately??
All in all (I'm here to tell ya, buddy, whoever you are) you're just another brick in the wall.
