In English, brushing strands of hair over a bald spot is called a combover, but in Mandarin you could describe it with the phrase 地方支持中央. It means “the localities support the central government”
Read on for more international phrases about hair and hairstyles (a thread)…
The best Irish expression I’ve ever heard about someone who’s had a bad haircut is a toss-up between “did you lose a fight with a lawnmower?” and “now there’s a haircut for radio”
One of my favourite old Czech idioms for someone that is dishevelled (their hair or just in general) is vypadá jako stra ák do zelí. It means “you look like a scarecrow for putting in a cabbage field”
Slang names that I’ve come across for a mullet are “a Czech footballer” in Polish, a “German mat” in Dutch, “Swede hair” in Danish, and “a Chris Waddle” in French
We had a poem at primary school:
Dan, Dan the dirty old man
Washed his face in a frying pan
Combed his hair with the leg of a chair
Dan, Dan the dirty old man
Also, a tradition I’ve only ever heard of in Israel, when someone gets a new haircut you’re supposed to cry “Tchapikhes!” (צ׳פיחס or ספיחס) and smack them on the side of the head. According to linguist Ruvik Rosenthal the word comes from Iraqi-Arab “Tchapkha”, smack, and originated in Jerusalem.
More Jerusalem hair slang from the 70s: doing an “Abu Agela” is putting all your hair in curlers. “Abu Agela” is Arabic, there’s a place in Sinai by that name, but it also kind of sounds like “the daddy of all rounds”.
Back in the day my bestie's boyfriend said her hair looked like she stuck her head out of a jet window. Another time he described her hair as looking like old dolls hair.... They aren't together anymore.🤔
