Ariana cut her hair

It takes commitment to create a signature look. Ariana Grande has a signature look: oversized sweatshirt, over-the-knee boots, and a high very long ponytail. Last week she told Camila Cabello the cost of that ponytail – a lot of pain. It’s true. I have long hair too. And every time I have it styled in a topknot or a high ponytail, I pop a few Advil early in the day, because you cannot avoid the low-grade headache that happens from all the pulling and from the weight of all of it on top of your head. By the end of the day, when I take out the ponytail or the topknot, there’s a raw spot on my scalp that feels like a bruise. I end up massaging it all night. 

Here’s how Ariana described it: 

There is no way that ponytail was all her own hair, which is what she’s acknowledging here. And it appears that Ariana has taken out her extensions. Or replaced them with new, shorter ones? 

This is what they call a lob – a long bob. It’s also what they call a classic breakup move: you change your hair. Is it the official hair of her “thank u, next” era though? 

She followed that shorter hair post up with another one: 

Not sure if that means the lob is just temporary or if there’s something to the “Chihiro” reference. Perhaps the main character in Spirited Away? I’m too old and tired to try to decipher this riddle. The rest of the internet will do it for me. And there’s something else to talk about that requires no investigation – “thank u, next” keeps breaking records. This is the latest one and now the biggest song of her career. 

Paula Mejia wrote in The New Yorker that it’s the “breakup song for the social media age”, singling out that great lyric (“I’m so f-ckin’ grateful for my ex”) and the “breezy” way Ariana sings it, which makes the words that much more effective. When you know people are going to talk anyway, you might as well give them something to meme that came directly from you. When’s the last time a breakup song was this much fun?