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The Chandler kidnapping - something odd?

Rolfe

Adult human female
Rolfe
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I'm desperately sorry for Paul and Rachel Chandler, kidnapped by Somali pirates 100 days ago, and no way to pay the ransom demanded. There was some more heartrending footage of the couple shown today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/8489958.stm

I just noticed something a bit strange. My hair has usually grown a fair bit in 100 days. Mrs. Chandler's coiffure seems the same length as in the earlier pictures. It doesn't look as if it's been hacked off by an amateur either. She may have naturally curly hair, but it looks like a perm to me. A perm that isn't growing out. Mr. Chandler also seems to have had a recent, short, haircut. OK, someone may have taken a razor over his head, but again it looks surprisingly neat for someone who is otherwise being "cruelly treated".

But even more so. Mrs. Chandler is 56. What are the chances of her hair colour being natural at that age? Her hair looks coloured to me - and it's not growing out. Indeed, when comparing the new footage, allegedly only a few days old, to the original pictures, it actually looks a slightly darker shade now, as if it's been newly coloured.

She does look very thin and drawn, but the whole hair thing is confusing me no end.

Rolfe.
 
Rolfe said:
She does look very thin and drawn, but the whole hair thing is confusing me no end.
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I have been hoping for their safe return home. Based on what you said about their hair leads me to the conclusion that the new video you saw was not recorded recently. Very sad.
 
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No, I'm not starting a CT. Or I don't think I am. I'm just confused.

The news story I linked to is well sourced, it would seem. The doctor who examined the couple seems to be independent, and says he saw them a few days ago. There is footage of him with them. Mrs. Chandler does seem very thin and unwell.

However, I was watching the news on TV (which had better close-ups including her hair roots) while running my fingers through my own hair, thinking that I needed a haircut and the roots needed colouring, and my hair appointment made for 8 weeks after the last one isn't due for nearly ten days. Less than 50 days ago, my hair looked like Mrs. Chandler's. Now it's down past my collar. I'm the same age as Mrs. Chandler, and the bits of hair at my temples are coming in grey.

My first thought was, where's she getting the hair dye and the neat haircut. That was based on my initial assumption that the doctor was on the level, and her thin appearance, and the fact that her hair actually looked darker then the earlier picture they also showed. But the darker appearance of the hair could be a trick of the light, and she was quite thin to start with, so I'm wondering if these pictures aren't nearly as recent as we're being led to believe.

I just don't know what to think, to be honest.

Rolfe.
 
Rolfe,
For some people with "naturally curly" hair a perm seems to last longer/is tighter. I don't know the woman so can't speak from direct experience, but I had a girlfriend who could live on about 4 perms a year - and often she didn't appear to need one when she got it.
As to the colouring? I know that if my previous wife and I were to point a yacht out to sea and plan to be thousands and thousands of KM from home, the Ex would've taken her pet brand of colouring with her so she could refresh or redo her hair when the need hit. It's not completely impossible that she has the colouring with her and that they allow her this concession.
 
It was the colour that first attracted my attention to this anomaly, I have to say.

It's possible the curl in her hair is entirely natural, nothing to do with a perm, and wouldn't ever grow out. It's also possible that auburn shade is the true colour of her hair and that she isn't going at all salt-and-pepper at 56. I have to say I find this unlikely, but then I'm not a hairdresser. Maybe someone with better knowledge of this could comment? The colour does look to me as if it's out of a bottle.

I don't see it as likely that she had a couple of packs of l'Oreal with her and has used them. It's a bit of a performance taking the best part of an hour, and the idea that a woman being treated as badly as she recounts being treated would have the desire and the energy to do it seems a bit unlikely. Even if these bandits let her, which seems even less likely.

Having said that, it's probably the length of the hair I find particularly anomalous, in both captives. Look at the pictures again. Both of these people have been captive for over three months, in very bad conditions. How much does hair grow in 100 days? Both of them nevertheless have very short hair, indeed Mr. Chandler's is a lot shorter than it is in the pre-captivity pictures.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46619000/jpg/_46619633_-1.jpg
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46616000/jpg/_46616507_chandler.jpg

I can't find one of them taken early in the kidnapping, but some video footage taken shortly after they were seized was shown last night as part of the news item, and Mrs. Chandler's hair seemed the same length, and if anything a bit lighter in colour.

Here are the recent ones again.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/47216000/jpg/_47216953_008656134-1.jpg
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/47216000/jpg/_47216968_008656224-1.jpg

It's ridiculous to speculate that there's any sort of fraud going on. Even if the kidnapping hadn't been more or less witnessed live, anybody faking this sort of thing would obviously neglect to cut their hair as a matter of first principle.

The story about the doctor seeing them, and the camera footage, all seem quite genuine. So am I entirely mistaken that the hair length is an anomaly, or is there any possibility all that footage was recorded much earlier than claimed?

Rolfe.
 
shemp said:
Myabe they got kidnapped by a bunch of gay hairdressing pirates.
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Or straight hairdressing pirates. I've not seen any coverage of this on TV, so I don't know if you can hear musical theatre in the background.
 
Rolfe said:
But the darker appearance of the hair could be a trick of the light, and she was quite thin to start with, so I'm wondering if these pictures aren't nearly as recent as we're being led to believe.

I just don't know what to think, to be honest.

Rolfe.
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That would seem the obvious guess.

But these things are strange. Not to derail your thread, but remember when Saddam Hussein was caught? He was supposed to have been in hiding for what? 10 months? Yet he sported a beard that any normal man would take a couple of years to grow.

I think we are often cheated.

Hans
 
shemp said:
If you're starting a CT, that forum's down the hall to the right.
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shemp said:
If you play the latest video backwards, you can hear The Village People's "In the Navy".
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Shemp, do you have an actual point? Do you think the amount of hair growth of both people (including Mr. Chandler's very short cut), and the maintenance of that auburn hair colour in a 56-year-old, are compatible with a captivity lasting over three months?

If so, why not just say so, preferably with reasons.

Do you think it's completely impossible that kidnappers will try to pass off much older footage of their captives as recent, in order to give the impression they are still alive?

Or what?

Rolfe.

ETA: Here's the latest story, with photos.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/8491301.stm
 
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Its entirely possible that's her natural hair colour and it is naturally curly. I have an aunty who is nearly sixty who still has hair that colour with not much grey at all. With regard to the length, maybe she has been allowed a pair of scissors to cut her own (and husband's) hair - some people are very good at this - my sister has cut her own hair for years.

And the photographer was from the news agency, so are you saying you think that the doctor, reporter and photographer visited them some time back and are just releasing details/photo's now? Why would they do that?
 
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Professor Yaffle said:
Its entirely possible that's her natural hair colour and it is naturally curly. I have an aunty who is nearly sixty who still has hair that colour with not much grey at all. With regard to the length, maybe she has been allowed a pair of scissors to cut her own (and husband's) hair - some people are very good at this - my sister has cut her own hair for years.
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I agree the naturally curly part is very likely. I tend to think the auburn colour is a lot less likely at that age (I couldn't see any grey at all at the temples in the TV news footage last night), but I couldn't say it's impossible.

It's the length that's confusing me more than anything. We're told they've been held apart since relatively early on in the affair. We're also being told they're being "cruelly treated", and Mrs. Chandler has twice said she's close to giving up (whatever that means).

During the examination, AFP reported, Mrs Chandler said: "Please help us, these people are not treating us well."

The surgeon, Mohamed Helmi Hangul, said she was in a poor state of mental and physical health.

"She is sick, she is very anxious, she suffers from insomnia," Mr Hangul told AFP.

"But I think she's mainly mentally unwell, it seems. She's very confused, she's always asking about her husband - 'Where's my husband, where's my husband?' - and she seems completely disorientated," he added.

The couple have been separated by their captors and are being held apart from each other in rugged areas between the coastal village of Elhur and the small town of Amara, further inland, AFP said.
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I can imagine people in that condition hacking their hair back a bit if it was long enough to get in the way - falling over their eyes maybe. But it's nowhere near that length. I still find the short, neat crops on both of them a bit of a mystery.

I don't know how plausible it is that the more recent videos of the couple were filmed much earlier and we're being hoaxed by the surgeon (and the French news agency? - I agree, it does seem unlikely). I hope I'm completely wrong and they're both alive. I hope they're released very soon. I just find the hair surprisingly anomalous.

And since there doesn't seem to be another thread on this, should the government pay the ransom?

Rolfe.
 
Rolfe said:
Do you think the amount of hair growth of both people (including Mr. Chandler's very short cut), and the maintenance of that auburn hair colour in a 56-year-old, are compatible with a captivity lasting over three months?
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For what it's worth, Rolfe, my mother is 52 and has dark brown hair with natural blonde highlights. Unless you get very close to her you can't tell any of those blonde hairs are actually gray. Some people keep their hair color later in life than others.
 
I should maybe forget the colour question - it's just that that's what drew my attention in the first place. The auburn colour just looked to me as if it was out of a bottle, considering Mrs. Chandler's age. I could well have been wrong though.

I'm trying to persuade myself that there really is over three months growth of hair on both captives, but I'm still struggling.

Rolfe.
 
Have you looked at the pictures? :confused:

I could believe there was three months growth on Rachel Chandler's hair sooner than I could believe that was a wig of any sort. Much more easily.

And that's not even mentioning Paul Chandler's very-short-all-over crop.

Rolfe.
 
I don't think there is 3 months growth either. I would find it odd that they had both been allowed to cut their hair when they are supposed to be being treated badly. However, I can't think of another explanation that is less odd than that, at the moment. Can anyone else?
 
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