Magenta Topknot

Magenta topknot
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I had to go to Outpatients on Monday - so naturally I took my sketchbook! Waiting rooms always provide an excellent opportunity to draw people - people come and go all the time - it makes a for a nice challenge.

I often spend my time noticing how many commonalities we have (the ladies in their navy jackets) while all being slightly different.

What's really great is when you notice somebody who stands out. Here's the view from my seat in the waiting room - I just loved the dark magenta bun of the lady who was sat just in front of me. It brought the phrase 'top knot' to mind as she had taken her beautifully braided hair and gathered the ends into a bun.

However I took a look at the phrase 'top knot' and I gather it's more correct to apply it to a traditional haircut of Japanese men! For example

Sumo wrestlers with sekitori status are allowed, on certain occasions, to wear their hair in a more elaborate form of topknot called an oicho or ginkgo leaf style, where the ends of the topknot are splayed out to form a semicircle. Given the uniqueness of the style in modern Japan, the Sumo Association employs specialist hairdressers called tokoyama to cut and prepare sumo wrestlers' hair.
Wikipedia - Chonmage

You learn something new every day........

I came home from the hospital having learned another new phrase - thrombosed angioma. Plus I get to have this funny nodule on my shoulder 'shaved off' at the end of next month. Why do they need to use the word 'shaved' I ask myself? That then reminded me that surgeons used to be barbers..........