Hundreds of women and children have been removed by the authorities from a Texan cult accused of forcing underage girls into marriage and subjecting them to physical abuse. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has 10,000 followers, a $3m ranch called Yearn for Zion and a leader, Warren Jeffs, who is in jail.
What is not explained in any of the news reports so far is what membership of a polygamous cult could possibly offer its female members. Yet pictures showing the women and girls being bussed from the sect's headquarters have shed light on at least one unlikely advantage - great hair. As the women were taken into custody and investigators started searching their home, they each sported elegant quiffs, complicated plaits or multiple buns; hair so intricately woven that one hairdresser has called it "classic couture".
It seems being one of at least three wives leaves a lot of time for styling and the extra hands surely come in handy when you are trying to get your chignon right in the morning. The bravura styling set them apart from last week's cult-fashion disaster, in which followers of a Russian doomsday sect were seen skulking out of a cave shrouded in headscarves. The same stylish approach did not extend to the Texans' clothes: in keeping with the sect's rules the women all looked as if they had walked off the set of Little House on the Prairie, in long-sleeved dresses worn down to the ankles, in solid pastel shades.
Nevertheless, celebrity hairdresser Johnnie Sapong is impressed: "It's brilliant. They could be models at Dior. You expect big hair from Texas, so all the height makes sense too. Doing this without products is impressive. If they don't have access to mousse or hairspray they might be using sugar water to set the hair."