[Ads-l] _to lose one's hair_ Beatles Don't Pass me by

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The phrase "keep your hair on" has a long history and seems to mean
"keep your composure". Perhaps "you lost your hair" meant "you lost
your composure" or "you lost your temper".

Year: 1889
Title: A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant
Compiler and Editor: Albert Barrère and ?Charles G. Leland
Publisher: Printed for Subscribers Only
Quote Page 442

[Begin excerpt]
Hair (common) "keep your hair on," do not be excited, keep your
temper; varied to "keep your shirt on."

With the most perfect good temper the new-comer answered the
expostulations of the fat woman with a "Keep yer hair on,
Lizer."--Sporting Times.
[End excerpt]

Garson
On Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 11:24 AM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I've always wondered about the line explaining her lateness: "you were in a
> car crash and you lost your hair."  In the WikiP article, they have:
>  However, the expression "to lose one's hair" was a fairly common English
> idiom, and simply means "to become anxious or upset" (see, for
> instance, Elizabeth
> Bowen <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Bowen>'s novel *The Death of
> the Heart <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_the_Heart>*, 1938)
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Pass_Me_By
>
> While it makes a little more sense that way for the song but a few googles
> don't come up with any hair losing/become upset idioms, English (British?)
> or otherwise.
> --
>
> a
>
> Andy Bach,
> afbach at gmail.com
> 608 658-1890 cell
> 608 261-5738 wk
>
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