LATEST U.S. FAD IS HAIR-DO IN SIX COLOURS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22820, 15 December 1948, Page 5

LATEST U.S. FAD IS HAIR-DO IN SIX COLOURS

NEW YORK, Nov. 21

New York’s maddest fad for years is a hair-do which comes in six colours and costs about £l2. The new fad has women from Park Avenue to Broadway lining up outside the salon of Mark, the red-headed, slight, aesthetic-looking beauty specialist who created what he calls the “futuristic, non-objectivism hairdo.” “Women,” says Mark, with a majestic wave of his thin hands, “need—positively need—to be lifted from the slough of sameness they have fallen into in the past century.” To help them attain new heights, Mark says he gives women “individuality, personality and beauty by arranging their hair to resemble a work of art ... an abstract painting, really true art.” Mark uses wires, props, lacquer and coloured pieces of false hair —silverblonde, pink or green. For red-heads, pink, green, and turquoise go nicely, but for blondes almost any colour does. For black-haired women Mark uses false hair of silver-blonde or pink. Bird’s Nest—Most Futuristic Mark’s most futuristic hair-do is the Bird’s Nest. “It’s abstract, like a Dali painting,” he says. The Bird’s Nest has a diamondshaped bang over the forehead and a coil of braided hair around the crown. From the centre of the coil, a heavy, 6in. shock of hair shoots upwards. That is the “body” of the bird. Pushing out from the right temple is the bird’s “neck." It winds around to the left temple, leading to the “head,” which is complete with coloured eyes. An additional feature is a wad of hair studded with coloured sequins, propped above the bird. The wad glistens and sparkles in the light. “If the woman is black-haired,” says Mark, “the bird can be green or pink. If she is blonde, the bird can be black or blue."

Before he attempts his artistic creations, Mark says he types his patrons during a consultation. “While I talk to her, I learn something of her personality and am able to sketch a plan for the hairdo,” he says. “Of course, the most important phase of the consultation is the reading of the hairline at the back of the neck. It's like reading the palm—only more telltale.” Mark predicts it won’t be long before the futuristic hairdo will appeal to men. “After all there’s no reason why they shouldn’t have individuality.”