Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

By Lauri Apple in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 20, 2009 6:00PM

(Did you like that title? Nobody has ever used it before.) On Sept. 10, 2001, Barbara Koenen shaved her head. The next day brought the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. On Sept. 12, 2001, Koenen heard President Bush respond to the attacks by declaring war on "terror" and encouraging us to go shopping, and knew she needed to respond. In addition to signing petitions, sending email blasts, writing letters to the editor and other standard anti-war activities, she also vowed not to cut her hair "until the 'war on terror' was over."

Today at 4 p.m. -- 2,674 days after making her decision -- Koenen will get a haircut at the Hyde Park Hair Salon, where our new-and-improved President Barack Obama gets his do's did. Koenen's calling the occasion "My Audacity of Hope - Reverse Samson Effect," a reference to both Obama's best-seller and the story of Samson and Delilah. Why reverse? "Unlike Delilah's boyfriend in the Bible, cutting my hair will make me stronger," she explains.

"Although resigned that we'll still be at war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, tragically, for the foreseeable future, I'm audaciously hopeful that our new President Obama will not wage war on a feeling, or on the English language, or the Geneva Conventions, or on the Constitution," Koenen says. "He will not bully, he will not disparage nor disrespect our friends or the grievances of our enemy."