WIGS FOR AIR HOSTESSES

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31332, 31 March 1967, Page 2

WIGS FOR AIR HOSTESSES

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter)

MIAMI (Florida). The latest boon for airline stewardesses is the addition of wigs to official wardrobes. “We don’t have half the hair problems we once had,” explained Mrs Jerri Miller, fashion co-ordinator for one of the first commercial airlines to approve wigs and hairpieces for hostesses.

“I approved the wearing of wigs last spring. With the improved quality and craftsmanship of today’s hairpieces, I considered them practical.”

Of the 650 stewardesses employed by Miami-based air lines, approximately 150 now wear wigs. “The girls don’t always have time to visit a beauty salon,” Mrs Miller explained, “especially on a turn-around flights. And an immaculate hair-do is a must for them.” It is possible, she added, for a fledgling stewardess to fail her training course if she cannot manage her hair. Stewardesses employed by the National Airline buy their own wigs. But they have to be approved by the co-ordina-tor. The wigs must meet the regulation hair length—midneckline and be styled simply . enough to be worn with the airline’s uniform. Mrs Miller keeps a record of the wigs purchased by each stewardess. Natural colours are encouraged and nothing flamboyant, such as platinum, grey or black-black, is permitted. Although it is advisable, Mrs Miller said, to buy at

least the first wig in the same colour as the wearer’s hair, she is allowed to vary the shades if they complement the tones of her skin. Twenty-year-old Patti De Lucca, who has flown with the airline for two years, says that she has baffled even the crew by changing wigs. Once, she says, she left Miami as a blonde and became a red-head after landing in Los Angeles. “There was a group of seven people waiting for me to go to dinner with them,” she added. *!T walked right by them and they did not recognise me.”