AURORA, IL–Signalling to other LGBTQ people is a longstanding tradition within that community, and such signals can range from explicit to subtle. When local lesbian, Trinity Benner, noticed a co-worker had gotten a haircut featuring a side-shave, Benner determined that this may signal a fellow LGBTQ co-worker. Or it could not.

“At first I was confused, because they had never given me that vibe before,” Benner said on Tuesday. “But my gaydar is kind of off sometimes; I really can’t tell. I mean, I don’t want to presume.” Benner, who hasn’t had a date in over 15 months, then took a lock of her own hair and twisted it around a finger, had just left her girlfriend two months before lockdown. “I wonder if they’re single. Or poly. I could get into that.”

During the pandemic, many people did not get hair cuts, and some even made more drastic changes, but Benner says it’s nothing that obvious. “I mean, obviously they cut their hair, but they have something else going on. I just can’t put my finger on it.”

When asked if she could just talk to the person, Benner hesitated. “Oh god no. That would be…too hard.”