Chapter 2 - Hairdressers-Past And Present
Hairdressers have always moved among commoners and kings, but they have achieved their greatest popularity at three points in history: shortly before the decline of Greece, just before the French Revolution—and today.
Study the greatest art works of all time and it will be obvious that there have always been great hairdressers. In fact, some of the greatest hair stylists of all time never touched comb or scissors to a woman's hair. They are the painters: Botticelli, da Vinci, Giorgione, Watteau, Titian, Ghirlandaio, and Raphael. Beautifully arranged hair plays a major part in many of their finest works.
In Europe during the Middle Ages, the local barber and physician were one and the same man. With the eventual division of labor, the doctor assumed long robes, while the barber, who was usually also a wigmaker, wore short ones. Originally, all hairdressing on women was done in the home, usually by the wives and daughters of barbers. For special occasions, they moved into the homes of wealthy noblewomen, sometimes working for days to build an elaborate coiffure.
The first male hairdresser to serve as a ladies' stylist was Champagne, who flourished in the days of Louis XIV. An impulsive artist, he was in great demand for his monumental hairdos. But as he often lost his temper and stomped out leaving his patrons with half of their hair undressed, many women turned to Canillat and LeBrun, both of whom were wives of wigmakers.
There was no immediate successor to Champagne, but soon after 1640, at the height of his popularity, the wig and wigmakers came into their own.
Around 1740, women's hair again began to be dressed by men. Peruke makers were called upon to make long rolled curls like the ones on men's wigs. One of the first was Frison, who in 1763 established the first ladies' hairdressers guild.
Dage, hairdresser to Madame Pompadour, had an annual income of a quarter of a million dollars a year. Legros was the first hairdresser to put the latest Paris coifs on "bebes (dolls) which were put on sailing ships and thus spread the "dernier cri" coiffure around the world.
Hairdressers played a very important role in the life of Marie Antoinette, who lost her head largely because of her extravagant hair styles. Her husband, Louis XVI, despised her hair fashions as much as the peasants resented the waste of flour used to make them. Ladies of the French Court poured thousands of pounds of flour on their heads when it rightfully belonged in the stomachs of countless starving Frenchmen.
Legros, who was originally a baker, opened an academy where ladies' maids and valets could practice the art of hairdressing on hired models. He was one of many crushed in the festivities attending Marie Antoinette's wedding to Louis. The Queen and her husband were so moved by Legros' death they donated a vast sum of money to his family.
Marie Antoinette's first hairdresser was Larseur. Eventually, she came to prefer the designs of Leonard. But to save Larseur's tender feelings, she let him do her hair first, then had it combed out and redone by Leonard.
Hoping somehow to escape the ultimate wrath of the Revolution, Marie Antoinette entrusted her jewels to Leonard. They were to be given to her sister in Brussels. Leonard, listed among those guillotined and buried in a common grave, turned up alive after a twenty-year stay in Russia. At the time of his death in 1820 he was superintendent of burials in Paris.
Shortly after the Revolution and the fall of monumental hairdos—followed by the Directory's short-cropped "coiffure a la victime"—there was an amusing legal action taken against hairdressers by the master barbers and wigmakers guild, who considered hairdressers dangerous rivals.
The hairdressers complained, in brief:
"What are the duties of barbers but to shave heads and purchase severed hair to give the needful plait by means of fire and iron on locks that are no longer living?"
The art of hairdressing, they continued, required at once the talents of poet, painter, and sculptor. "It is necessary," they insisted, "to understand shades of color, chiaroscuro and the proper distribution of shadow; the art of dressing prudes without making them obtrusive; the art of displaying the coquette, and of making the mother appear to be the elder sister of the daughter; the art of suiting the coiffure to the affections of the soul which someone is desired to comprehend, to the desire to please, to the languid bearing which wishes only to interest, to the vivacity which will brook no resistance—all this requires an intelligence which is not common and a tact which must be inborn. The art of the 'coiffure des dames' is therefore an art bordering upon genius and consequently is a free and liberal art."
Today's hair stylist faces the same problems and must have the same skills as did those long-ago, militant hairdressers. He has, however, much more working for him than the eighteenth-century French coiffeurs who relied so heavily upon the whims of the very rich and very noble; namely, scientifically formulated beauty products and a widely varied clientele.
He need not depend at all upon the royal nod, although, if he can call a few titled heads his customers, so much the better. Where the beautiful, rich, and blue-blooded go, the others follow.
Thanks to the recent development of private and chain-owned salons—there were two thousand in 1915; today, there are more than 140 thousand—the style which Jackie Kennedy wore yesterday can belong to an Alaskan housewife tomorrow.
Largely responsible for the dissemination of high coiffure are the giant chains, such as Charles of the Ritz, Maison Antoine, Coiffures Americana, Helena Rubinstein, and Elizabeth Arden.
Each boasts at least one trend-setting coiffeur who usually finds his inspiration in a tiny cubicle of the firm's New York office, then tries it out on willing visitors to the firm's hair-styling school, of which he is usually the head, and when it is perfected, he sends out blueprints of his design to member salons.
This system makes it possible for a woman to have the identical cut and set in any major American city where the chain has a member salon. If the chain is large enough a woman can even be sure of getting the same styling abroad.
Out-of-town stylists are constantly alert to the latest advances in cutting, coloring and permanent-wave techniques; hairdressers are invited to visit the firm's home office, sometimes as often as once a year for refresher courses. And if the hairdresser can't come to the teacher, the teacher comes to him. Leading coiffure artists some-times clock more airplane mileage traveling from city to city than top diplomats.
It is said, and only the Department of Internal Revenue knows for sure, that many top stylists make $35,000 annually, plus solid gold gifts—in lieu of embarrassing tips. There is only one fly in the hair-ointment—piracy, of which most stylists complain long and bitterly.
Among the most famous of the current leading stylists are Antoine (Antek Cierplikowski), Enrico Caruso, Claude (Satz), Kenneth (Battelle), Michel Kazan, Ruel (Hook), Thierry (Roger Delmas), Alexandre, the Carita Sisters, Marguerite Buck, and Monsieur Norbert. Some brief biographies are given below.
ANTOINE: Sculptor, philosopher, showman and fashion-plate, he was the first of the modern generation of international hair artist-designers. Still quick of wit and motion, although well into his seventies, the man who once did the hair of the Divine Sarah is a powerful drawing card for the Seligman & Latz plush Maison Antoine chain.
Polish-born, he began styling hair at the age of eight, when he set his sister's hair with honey before cutting it. At twenty-five, he opened his own shop in Paris with his bride, Marie Berthe Astier, who is still his wife and business manager.
A stylist who believes you can "change the decoration but not the person," he is of the opinion that a hairdo should "bring out rather than attempt to change the wearer's personality."
Antoine insists it is every woman's duty to look her best. "Few women can attain great beauty," he has said. "Great beauty requires intelligence, but every woman can achieve a great refinement, a polished simplicity which is the next best thing."
Teacher of many of today's top hair-artists, Antoine first tried his now-famous blue rinses for white hair on his favorite sheep dog. When that became popular, he rinsed another pet orchid color. He liked the effect so much he had his sports car dyed to match the floral color.
ENRICO CARUSO: A family man, commuter and avid boats man, Enrico Caruso, still in his early forties, has made a considerable fortune. Named by his barber father for the famous tenor who was a family friend, he is admittedly expensive, creates soft and flattering styles and is the favorite of many top fashion models. Monday is traditionally model's day at the Caruso salon.
CLAUDE: Slight, boyish, with coal-black eyes and hair to match, the man with the eighteen-carat razor (presented to him by a grateful client) is the one to seek out for a really distinguished coiffure. The millionairesses' hairdresser, his appointment book reads like the social register.
Mrs. John Hay Whitney, Mrs. Winston Guest, the Duchess of Windsor, Mrs. Francis Kellogg, Mrs. Nicholas Goulandris, and Mrs Henry Ford II are but a few of his distinguished clients.
Son of well-to-do French parents and formerly a pupil of Antoine, Claude once combined fine cuisine with haute coiffure. At one time he offered lunches prepared by Maud of Maud Chez Elle. This joint and expensive enterprise was called Elle et Lui.
Now he operates from a converted town house in Manhattan's East Sixties. The cloakroom resembles an extension of Revillon Freres. Mink, chinchilla, and ermine are crushed together like children's coats in a school locker. At holiday time, Claude is so busy that socialites sit on the steps of his marble staircase waiting to take their turns under the dryers.
Claude never does a client's hair the same way twice. And despite the opulence with which he is constantly surrounded, his credo is simplicity. He abhors following fashion and believes there is one most flattering style for every woman which needs to be changed only slightly over the years.
"Some of the most regal women I know have been wearing virtually the same style for the past twenty years."
He keeps snippets of his favorite customers' hair, places them in cellophane envelopes, and stores them in an exquisite needlepoint box.
Unlike Kenneth, Claude likes to travel in order to do his customers' hair. He flies to Palm Beach several times a summer for the Duchess of Windsor. Mrs. John Hay Whitney frequently sends a chauffeured car to Claude's town house to transport him to Idlewild where the Whitney plane is ready to wing him to Fischer's Island.
MICHEL KAZAN: A serious-minded artist, Michel has the reputation for setting hairdo trends a year ahead. He has magazine credits which seem to validate his claim to being the first on the scene with the poodle cut, French twist, cap cut and bouffant.
The fashion futurist observed recently, while sitting on a Louis XIV petit-point chair in his lavish East Side town-house salon, "Nothing can make a woman look more old-fashioned than an out-of-date hairdo."
Michel is convinced that "A woman's greatest strength is the feeling she is beautiful," and he is constantly thinking up new ways to give her that strength.
After twenty years with Helena Rubinstein, Michel recently went into business for himself. He now has eleven salons around the world. His newest one is at Bonwit Teller.
Originally, Michel planned to be an artist. But while sketching hairdos for the Com6die Francaise in his native Paris, he decided he wanted to see how these hairdos would look on living women.
Still very much interested in the stage, Michel has created hairdos for stars of many Broadway hits. He styled Carol Channing's hair for "Gentlemen Prefer Blonds", Judy Holliday's for "Born Yesterday", Elizabeth Seal's bouncy hairdo for "Irma La Douce", Anna Maria Al-berghetti's long style for "Carnival", and all the ladies' coifs in Noel Coward's "Sail Away".
When working on Broadway, Michel aims to make hair styles delineate the character of the leading lady just as her costumes and actions do.
He is also an active wig-designer. When Anna Maria's "Carnival" contract demanded she keep her hair long, Michel designed a shorter, more youthful wig she could use for after-the-show wear. One of his recent innovations is a chignon hat with a silk lining to be worn much in the fashion of Jackie Kennedy's favorite back-of-the-head pillbox.
LEON AMENDOLA: Head of Charles of the Ritz school, Mr. Amendola instructs some two to three thousand hairdressing students annually. His pupils come from all over the world. Some travel from as far as Nationalist China, others from Russia ("They seemed very anxious to learn"), and once he even taught the brother of the King of Thailand. A refreshing iconoclast, he doesn't think the art of hairdressing is as mysterious as many stylists would like their customers to believe. And, like many another top stylist, he began his career at an extremely early age. Mr. Amendola was just nine.
MONSIEUR NORBERT: The head of Elizabeth Ar-den's hair department is a slim, dapper, serious Frenchman with a mustache which quivers when he is most intently discussing his art.
A student of the theater, a long-time traveler in Africa, and a member of the French army during World War II, he was elected the best hairdresser in France in 1952. In 1957, he joined Elizabeth Arden.
Monsieur Norbert is the creator of the "Beauty Passport," which makes it possible for a woman to have her hair done in the same way in almost every major city of the world. He looks forward to the day when more stylists receive the same scientific training required in France. M. Norbert graduated not only at the head of his class but at the head of his country when he took his degree in hairdressing.
RUEL: Tall, broad-shouldered, handsome and most gracious in a relaxed American manner is Ruel Hook, style director of Coiffures Americana, which consists of more than three hundred beauty salons in fine department stores across the nation. Bergdorf Goodman, Jordan Marsh and Joseph Magnin are but a few examples.
Born in American Falls, Idaho, and also a former student of Antoine's, Ruel supervises the training of several thousand Coiffures Americana beauty operators.
A former high-school fullback, Ruel can't even begin to count the number of hair styles he must create a month. There's always a minimum of twenty-five to be sent out to member salons, plus special promotions, store window displays, and magazines. "Heaven forbid you send a style that even vaguely resembles one you've sent to a rival high-fashion magazine."
A versatile perfectionist, he prefers to design cuts which can be worn at least a half-dozen ways. He recently proved his skill with a razor to the nation when on a coast-to-coast television program he combed out a single set six different ways in only forty-five minutes.
Ruel's hobbies are as many-faceted as his hair styles. He is his own architect. He designed and built his own summer home and just recently completely redid an East Side town house. Its most striking feature is a two-story glass window which looks out on a garden he not only designed but paved himself. He did many of the paintings in his house himself; he designed much of the furniture himself, in addition to a two-story fountain which falls musically from his balconied living room to the dining room. He is also a bachelor and an expert cook.
ALEXANDRE: Considered by many Parisians to be their number-one stylist, Alexandre became a hairdresser to be reckoned with on this side of the Atlantic when he dressed Jackie Kennedy's hair on her first state visit to France.
Weeks before the Kennedys' arrival, he received a top-secret letter from the White House with a lock of Jackie Kennedy's hair. Where Kenneth sees the President's wife as an all-around twentieth century woman—a sports-loving, elegantly simple, intellectual, young wife and mother—Alexandre saw her as a Gothic Madonna.
The young man with a penchant for splendidly colored jackets and a passion for "oyster eggs" (pearls), which are showered upon him by his titled customers, first made international headlines when he fell into Venice's Grand Canal while he was putting last-minute touches on the hairdo of Princess Ira von Furstenberg just before her wedding to Prince Alfonso Hohenlohe-Langenburg.
Alexandre is now associated with Harriet Hubbard Ayer and includes among his world-famous patrons (he sees thirty-five to forty a day): Queen Frederika of Greece, Mrs. David Ben-Gurion, Greta Garbo, the Countess of Paris, Princess Maria Pia of Savoy, ex-Empress Zita of Austria and Princess Grace of Monaco.
Descended from an Italian general who fought against Napoleon in his Italian campaign, Alexandre started working at Antoine's Cannes salon when he was fifteen. During World War II he was a member of the Maquis— the French underground. He did the Begum's hair on the day of her wedding to the Aga Khan in 1946. She in turn introduced Alexandre to the Duchess of Windsor.
He numbers among his show-business and opera-world clients: Elizabeth Taylor (he accompanied her to Moscow to do her hair there), Audrey Hepburn, Melina Mercouri, Renata Tebaldi, and Maria Callas.