APAD: Bad hair day

Meaning:

   A `bad hair day' originally had a literal meaning - a day on which one's hair

   seems unmanageable. The expression's meaning has been extended to mean a day

   when everything seems to go wrong.

 

Background:

   The phrase was already well known by that date but not very widely used. In

   February 1970: the Michigan newspaper the Lansing State Journal printed:

 

     When your hair gets too expressive it usually results in a condition called

     "a bad hair day" ...the only fitting end to a bad hair day is a trip to the

     Barbers.

 

   Whether that's where the term was coined isn't certain, although it is a

   strong contender. There are many hearsay reports that it is much earlier, but

   no hard evidence has emerged to support them.

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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No particular bad hair days stood out, not recently. Time had so whitewashed

memory, a punctured tire, a speed ticket, the daily traffic jam, flops at work,

the pointy-haired boss, sport accidents, etc., that years after, they look

romantic or sometimes even heroic as the sacrifice paving the way.