Hair

Need a haircut? I always do. But if you need one, get yourself down to Hampton Salon, on Bayside Circle in Newport Beach by 4 p.m. today. It's important. Every hair that ends up underfoot at Hampton Salon today will be sacrificed for a very good cause — to benefit Containers of Hope, a Christian nonprofit that provides food and school supplies to kids around the world. The event is called "Cuts for Change," and not only do you get a perfect trim but it's way too cheap to stay home.

C harles Thompson, 65, has decided that he's been working too hard. The wig maker is retiring after 45 years in his Laguna Beach shop. Thompson said there's other things he wants to do, too. "I have gotten busier than I've ever been," Thompson said. "I was beginning to think I wasn't going to do anything besides what I do every day. I mean, just my routine is going to work and staying by my hair and doing hairpieces. Thompson said he and his partner bought property in a 13-acre gated community in Charma, N.M. "I want to do some gardening," he said.

A hair salon in Newport Beach is helping to clean up the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, one haircut at a time. All of the clippings that stylists sweep from the floor at Hair West Salon, 2817 Villa Way, in Cannery Village, are shipped to a nonprofit group that uses the hair to make sausage-shaped booms and square pads that sop up oil from industrial spills. Oil clings to human and animal hair because of their porous texture, but the oil is not absorbed. This makes hair an ideal material to clean up oil spills.

Tim Toone says people give him strange looks in Ogden, Utah. It’s a conservative town, and Toone usually catches people by surprise because of his hairdo. There aren’t too many white men with dreadlocks in Ogden. But Toone appears to have a flair for being different. On Sunday, at the end of the NFL Draft, Toone became unique again. The Detroit Lions picked him with the 255th and dead-last selection, making him Mr. Irrelevant XXXV. Yes, Mr. Irrelevant is a white man with dreadlocks.

As a kickoff for the national tour of the new musical ?Xanadu,? which will be at the Orange County Performing Arts Center from Dec. 15 to 27, local spas and salons have created special ?Find Your Bliss? packages and deals that run through Sunday. Those who make appointments at the salons, which include Circa 91 Salon, Spa Gregorie?s, the Spa and Fitness Club and Vitalae Wellness, also will be entered to win two tickets for the 7:30 p.m. Dec. 15 show. Deals include hair treatments, massages, facials and relaxation sessions.

In the seventh decade of my life, I’ve finally discovered who I am. Not in the metaphysical sense, of course, but in a more corporal one. I’m a Ginger. A what? A Ginger. That’s me. Gingers had their “coming out” in a 2005 episode of the popular Comedy Central series, “South Park.” Frankly, it was a clever satire of racial intolerance. But, a little more than a week ago a Facebook group jumped on the idea and promoted a “National Kick a Ginger Day.” The contemptible action resulted in several “Ginger kids” around the country being beaten up. It’s not my intention to make light of their misfortune, but I find the subject personally relevant.

Police are seeking the public’s help with locating three men who robbed another man at knifepoint early Tuesday. A man was walking to his car near the Alejandro’s Mexican Food restaurant, 801 W. 19th St. in Costa Mesa, about 2 a.m. Tuesday when a man approached him from behind and demanded his wallet, said Lt. Clay Epperson. The robber shoved the man against his car and put a four- to five-inch knife to his throat, Epperson said. The victim then tried to get into his car, but when he did, the suspect started punching and beating him while two other men opened up the back of the vehicle and ransacked it, police said.

The President was here this week. Did you know that? You probably did. There is a back story to the president’s visit that you might find interesting. It’s a story about how you never know when your 15 minutes of fame is going to strike — and sometimes it strikes with a vengeance. Turn the clock back two weeks. I am in Washington wearing my Orange County Transportation Authority hat, along with Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle, who is also on the OCTA Board. We are meeting with lots of people on the Hill and at the White House, making our pitch for stimulus package moola.

Police asked for the public’s help Wednesday in finding a man who robbed a Chevron gas station clerk over the weekend. Surveillance photos released by authorities show a Latino man, described as 5-foot-7, 160 pounds in his mid-20s with no facial hair wearing a gray, hooded sweater pulling a gun on a clerk about 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the Chevron gas station at 3190 Harbor Blvd. Police said the man approached the clerk, pointed a handgun at the cashier and demanded the money in the register and the safe box. The clerk complied, and the armed robber fled in a black pickup truck.

When 57-year-old Thomas Kiser’s wife died in his arms of a heart attack just outside of their condominium on the day after Christmas three years ago, he was stunned. They had been married for 33 years and she was only 52. Ever since then, Kiser has dyed his hair red in her memory, but also as a conversation starter. Friday morning he had it done for the third time at Paul Mitchell the School in Costa Mesa, along with about 60 others. Kiser’s wife could have quit smoking or paid more attention to her diet, he said, but neither of them knew how dangerous and prevalent heart disease was in women or how to identify the signs.