Blog Posts by Piper Weiss, Shine Staff

Would you pay $42,000 for a lifetime of good hair? A new survey suggests many women already do. The research, which was conducted by OnePoll, gathered information from over 3,000 female Brits and the results showed that they spent an average of over 26,000 pounds (or about $42,000) throughout their lives. They also lost a year of their lives, collectively, styling it.

Stylist Nicky Clarke, who commissioned the survey, marveled at a "how well and truly obsessed the nation really is with hair." That's good news for a hair stylist, but bad news for our bank accounts. But are Americans as obsessed as Brits? Not if you look at a recent study from Consumer Reports.

According to their research published in May, the average American woman spends about $195 a year on haircuts and $260 on color. If this average American woman starts paying for cuts (around $39 a pop) and color ($65 a pop) from age 25 to about 80 years of age, that would mean she spends only about $20,000. Factor in

Nominees Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp in the critically panned film,
This morning marked the real start of the Oscar race. The announcement of the Golden Globe nominees is the tip off for potential Academy Award contenders. It's also an opportunity to bring the biggest names in the business together for a ratings bonanza. That may be one reason this year's Golden Globe's list is chock full of A-Listers. Already critics are crying foul over Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp's nominations for the panned film "The Tourist". Could it be a ploy for their attendance at the January 16 televised event or an earnest nod to their misunderstood performances? Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal are also garnering mutters for landing on a line-up alongside more acclaimed performers. (According to Yahoo voters at OMG, Annette Bening and Depp are the shoe-ins in their categories.) I'm personally surprised-slash-disapointed to see Tracy Morgan didn't get nominated for Best Supporting Actor on "30 Rock." This was his year!

Here's the entire list of nominees. Who are you

Katy Perry in what's now considered a standard Santa costume for women. (Photo by Larry Marano/Getty Images) When we look to pop culture to explain why young girls feel pressure to dress sexy, we blame people like Miley Cyrus. Never Santa. But Christmas has been consistently dishing out the same mixed messages as Miley since the '50s.

First Santa's jolly ("Jingle Bells"), then he's sexual prey ("Santa Baby"). "Naughty or nice" is meant to keep kids behaved or it's meant as innuendo. "Santa's Little Helpers" are mythical elves- no, wait, they're strippers delivering toys to kids in a moving pole-dancing bus in Las Vegas. No really, that just happened.

Like everything in tween-centric pop culture, subliminal messages for adults always get in the way and cross wires. Look to greedy marketers using sex to get consumers as excited about the holidays as their children. From Katy Perry in her scantily Santa mini-dress at the Jingle Ball, to the burlesque-inspired Holiday windows, the season is looking more and more like Halloween everyday. Costume sites that hawked sexy devil outfits only two

It's that time of year when Christmas movies from days of yore illuminate the TV screen. Last night, I watched "A Nanny For Christmas" and was reminded of the major problems people have in movies about the holidays. While real live humans worry about whether to get their boss a gift, and how they'll afford their plane ticket home, movie characters have bigger concerns: like how to save the local orphanage, what to do about that escaped convict they've hired to play Santa and how on earth they'll tell the man of their dreams they're not really a high-powered ad exec but a nanny- before the big ad agency Christmas party. The last dilemma is one that was tackled efficiently in last night's made-for-TV movie thanks to the help of "the spirit of Christmas." That spirit, it can fix anything!

With that in mind, I took a trip to Wikipedia in search of synopses of some of the best-worst holiday films ever. Here's a round-up of the dilemmas and resolutions in holiday films, courtesy of old St.

Sarah Jessica Parker isn't doing the whole Carrie Bradshaw thing anymore. So it was surprising to find this photo spread on Style Bubble, that looks like it was ripped from the classic "single and fabulous?" episode. Vintage Carrie? Is that you? No it's an artist named Cedric Rivrain, who just happens to be a man. He uncannily resurrected the sweet spot days of Bradshaw for a photo spread in Double Magazine. No really, this is a guy.

Still a dude.

(thinkstock images)

There are two things we know we do in public bathrooms. We've even numbered them. But that's not all that goes on behind the stalls. A few recent studies, including the latest released this week, found that both men and women have some strange impulses during bathroom breaks. Go ahead and act surprised. We won't blow your cover.

1. We talk sh--. Figuratively, that is. 86 percent of people surveyed admitted they dish on everything from office gossip to sex lives while they're filling up the porcelain cup. Maybe the walled in privacy makes secrets feel more sacred, or maybe there's a safety in not making eye-contact while you dish on your co-workers.



2. We go for the middle stall. Nicholas Christenfeld, Ph.D., a psychologist at the University of California, San Diego, found that 60 percent of the used-up rolls of toilet paper came from the middle stalls, suggesting our favorite choice is dead center. His explanation? It saves us brainpower from making a serious decision

Proposals are at their peak around the holidays, with one in four grooms popping the question in December. Incidentally, it's also the month of a statistical spike in break-ups. Coincidence? Maybe not. A bad proposal can mean the end of a relationship, and it's not always obvious what's bound to backfire. Before you bite the bullet, educate yourself on how not to pop the question.

1. Don't propose in public

If you haven't watched the video (above) of a Jumbotron proposal that backfired, consider it a warning. "Proposing in front of an audience of thousands puts way too much pressure the woman," says Amy Eisinger, an editor at TheWeddingChannel.com. "You never want to make her feel uncomfortable or pressured to answer right away." It could lead to a false positive: "Your partner may agree to your proposal to save face in public and then privately retract it," warns relationship psychologist, Dr. Linda Young. The same goes for proposing in front of family members. "The