Dido with Youssou N'Dour at Live 8 concert in Hyde Park, London, July 2005

The Dido flip was a female hairstyle of the early 21st century in imitation of the singer and songwriter Dido Armstrong. It was a "chopped" style that gave Dido a distinctive look, although, in general, she professed her aversion to performers' appearance detracting from their music.

The style[link]

The term, "Dido flip", was noted by the Sunday Times in a profile of Dido following her winning two "BRIT" Awards in 2002: "Having a distinctive chopped hairstyle that has been widely copied as 'the Dido flip' attracts the paparazzi like hungry mosquitoes".^[1] Stylist Steven Ward, of New York's Garren Salon, described the flip as a "short choppy shag".^[2]

The effect[link]

Dido herself was quoted as saying, with reference to the flip's "wannabe" effect, that she "love[d] it when you turn up at gigs and the first few rows all have your haircut".^[2] However, in some ways, this was an unlikely trend because, although she occasionally posed for fashion magazines and appeared in some mildly risqué videos to accompany songs such as "Sand in My Shoes",^[3] Dido did not obviously promote that side of her persona. In 2006 she remarked, of suggestions that she was a "sex symbol", "I just make music and don't pay much attention to all that".^[4] Indeed, Dido had previously appeared to deprecate artists who relied too much on their appearance: "I've always tried to keep people focused on my music, not on me. So I don't parade around with a bra top and hot pants".^[5]

High Street chic[link]

Paradoxically, it was perhaps the ease with which "ordinary" young women felt able to identify with Dido that led to the flip's catching on. A journalist who interviewed her shortly before the release of her second album, Life for Rent (2003), noted that "for a platinum-selling star she radiates normality .... She looks like any quietly stylish 31-year-old".^[6] In similar vein, the Observer once described Dido's style of dress on stage as "high-street chic".^[7] However, looking ahead in September 2007 to the release of Dido's third album (which, in the event, was released over a year later) the Daily Telegraph speculated as to whether "music's own Bridget Jones ... has, like her trademark boot-cut jeans and eponymous Dido-flip hair, fallen out of fashion".^[8]

The flip was sported for a time by Chelsea Clinton, daughter of the former US President Bill Clinton,^[2] at the time of Dido's rise to fame.

CD covers and materials[link]

The flip was not discernible on the cover of Dido's first album, No Angel (1999), on which her hair was combed back, and by the time of Life for Rent, her hair was longer. It could, however, be seen clearly on the cover of the CD single, "All You Want" (2001), and to a lesser extent on that of her almost seminal song, "Thank You" (2001). Photographs of Dido published in November 2008 with her third album, Safe Trip Home, showed a version of the flip that was slightly longer and shaggier than before. However, perhaps the most obvious and consistent features of that portfolio, given Dido's remarks in 2005 about her appearance, were glimpses, with at least four different outfits, of her black brassiere.

Other eponymous styles[link]

Other eponymous styles of the late 20th and early 21st centuries included the "Bo Derek" and the "Rachel" (after Jennifer Aniston's character in the TV series Friends).

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Hair secrets of the stars: Dido's look

Dido or DIDO may refer to:

• Dido (Queen of Carthage), the founder and first queen of Carthage
  • Dido, Queen of Carthage, a play by Christopher Marlowe
  • Dido and Aeneas, an opera by Henry Purcell, based on the play by Marlowe
• Dido (singer), a British singer and songwriter
  • Dido flip, the singer's eponymous hairstyle
• Dido Elizabeth Belle, daughter of John Lindsay
• Dido (footballer), a Brazilian association football player
• Tsez people or Dido, an indigenous people of the North Caucasus
  • Tsez language or Dido, their language
• DIDO (nuclear reactor), a nuclear reactor at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, Oxfordshire
• DIDO (optimal control), a software package to solve optimal control problems
• Philaethria dido or Scarce Bamboo Page, a butterfly of the Heliconian family
• HMS Dido, the name of seven British Royal Navy vessels
• South Devon Railway Dido class steam locomotives (1860 - 1877)
• 209 Dido, a very large main-belt asteroid
• Dido, a planet in Doctor Who television series
• "Dido", a song on Café del Mar Aria
• Fido Dido, a cartoon character licensed to Pepsico for their 7UP brand
• DIDO (network), “distributed input distributed output” wireless network technology

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Look up Flip or flip in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Flip may refer to:

• Flip (acrobatic)
• Flip (album), a 1985 solo album from Nils Lofgren
• Flip (mathematics), a mathematical operation in algebraic geometry
• Flip (cocktail)
• Flip (form), a hinged form factor for handheld electronic devices
• Flip (Little Nemo), a cartoon character
• Flip (slang), a colloquial reference to Filipino people
• Flip (hairstyle), popular in the 1960s
• Flip Animation Festival, Wolverhampton (UK) based international animation festival
• Flip Burger Boutique, a chain of gourmet hamburger restaurants in the Southern United States
• Flip the Frog, a cartoon character
• Flip jump, a figure skating element
• Flip Skateboards, skateboard and clothing company
• Flip Video, a video camcorder
• Coin flipping, a method of sortition

FLIP may stand for:

• FLIP (protocol)
• Festival Ludique International de Parthenay, a fair in Parthenay, France
• Fluorescence loss in photobleaching, a microscopy technique
• RP FLIP ("Floating Instrument Platform"), a research vessel
• FLICE-like inhibitory protein (see CFLAR), protein involved in apoptosis
• Franklin Large Igneous Province, a large area of igneous rock in northern North America

People[link]

• Flip Benham (born 1948), American Baptists and anti-abortion leader
• Flip Cornett (1957–2004), American funk guitarist and bassist
• Flip Johnson (born 1963), American football player
• Flip Kowlier (born 1976), Belgian singer-songwriter
• Flip Lafferty (1854–1910), Major League Baseball player
• Flip Mark (born 1948), American former child actor
• Flip Phillips (1915–2001), American jazz tenor saxophone and clarinet
• Scott "Flip" Phillips (born 1973), drummer for Alter Bridge and Creed
• Al "Flip" Rosen (born 1924), Major League Baseball Third baseman
• Flip Saunders (born 1955), American basketball coach
• Flip Simmons, Australian actor and musician
• Flip Wilson (1933–1998), American actor and comedian
• Lil' Flip (born 1981), American rapper

See also[link]

• Flop (disambiguation)
• All pages beginning with "Flip"

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.