The '70S Guarini, er, Afro Is Making Headway Once Again
Jaimee Rose, The Arizona Republic
The Arizona Republic July 30, 2002

Could this mean avocado green appliances will be in for fall?

The Afro, in all its curly, wild, 1970s bigness, is the hottest thing in hair.

America is currently enamored of mop-topped American Idol contestant Justin Guarini, who shimmied his hips and shook his curls into the finals of Fox's smash TV hit. His Afro -- and so-sexy rendition of For Once in My Life -- set him apart from the bunch, critics say, and he's rumored to become the most adored Justin since Mr. Timberlake of 'N Sync. (Ooh. Maybe Guarini can be Britney Spears' new beau, so we don't have to drop "Britney 'n' Justin" from the tabloid lexicon.)

Last weekend, Beyonce Knowles of Destiny's Child hit the silver screen sporting huge, frizzed-out hair in Austin Powers in Goldmember, and Eddie Griffin wore a 'fro in Undercover Brother.

Celebrities, of course, are one thing, but even real people are working on replicating the shaggy 'do.

"I'm trying," says Tim Cook, 31, a Tempe technical support specialist. "I try to make it as big and curly as possible."

Heather Galwey, a stylist at Rumors Hair Salon on Mill Avenue in Tempe, says that, locally, the "Afro is definitely hip." She sees people tweaking the style to suit their own -- twisting hair in small sections all over their head into a tamed-down version of the puffy hairstyle.

All of this, of course, makes the folks who run Naturallycurly.com, a Web site that tracks curls in popular culture, giddy.

"It's just our opinion, but it seems like curls up your chances of becoming an American idol," the site boasts.

Whatever, but perhaps during this incarnation of the Afro in America, we can think of a more politically correct name for the style -- "the Annie," anyone? Or perhaps we should just stick with "the Guarini," as this is his thing anyway. If avocado green does come back, though, a boycott of his first album would be deserved.