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Who coined the phrase "having a bad hair day"?

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  • I hate these :)

    From
    http://www.word-detective.com/072104.html#bad hair day

    Dear Word Detective: I mentioned to a co-worker that another co-worker had been really grouchy and snapped at me over some little matter, and the first co-worker replied that maybe the other person was just "having a bad hair day." I made a fool of myself by replying that she had looked just fine to me! Later, it dawned on me that she meant something to the effect that the person was having everything go all wrong that day. I have heard the phrase often since then, but where did it come from? -- Sandy Curtis.

    Well, live and learn, and welcome to the world of bad hair days. It does seem that your co-worker was using the term figuratively to mean that the person was simply having a difficult day, but literal "bad hair days" when your hair misbehaves are no fun either, and may actually have serious psychological effects on the victim. A study conducted in 2000 at Yale University found that a day when a person's hair asserts itself in a lumpy, frumpy, flippy, flat or frizzy fashion can cause debilitating feelings of low self-esteem and vulnerability. Surprisingly, researchers found that men are more likely than women to be thrown for a loop by bad hair. Perhaps not so surprisingly, the study was underwritten by a shampoo company.

    Tracing the exact origin of "bad hair day" hasn't been easy. William Safire, in a column on this topic in 1993, traced the phrase to a 1991 comment by comedian Gary Shandling (known for asking "Is my hair all right?" as part of his stand-up routine). In 1995, TV personality Jane Pauley claimed on a number of occasions to have coined the phrase sometime back in the 1970s.

    But research by American Dialect Society stalwarts Fred Shapiro and Barry Popik, spurred by an extended discussion of "bad hair day" on the ADS mailing list in 2000, uncovered the earliest verified use of the phrase in print, a 1988 column by Susan Swartz in the Houston Chronicle. Significantly, Swartz herself doesn't claim to have invented "bad hair day" herself, and suspects she may have picked it up from nearby teen-aged girls. But since she is apparently the first one to use the phrase in a published work, Susan Swartz is credited in the Oxford English Dictionary for bringing us "bad hair day."

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  • by eric on November 14th, 2008

    eric

    Baddy McHairington?

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  • by Cowboy-Matter of Fact on November 13th, 2008

    Cowboy-Matter of Fact

    It's gotta be Don King, just gotta be....

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  • by technios on December 21st, 2008

    technios

    the list of who emphasized it is a much better reel. idk as far as the answer

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  • by amongst thieves on December 21st, 2008

    amongst thieves

    i HONESTLY DON'T KNOW, BUT WHERE DOES "COINED THE PHRASE" ORIGINATE?

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The earliest use in print of the phrase bad hair day is traced to this houston chronicle columnist in 1988
Im having a bad hair day
Having a bad hair day
Bad hair day jane pauley
Jane pauley hair