While watching a film from the golden years of Hollywood you have to admire the sheer perfection of the stars of that time, particularly the actresses. Of course each ‘look’ was the finished product of highly specialised teams of make-up artists, hair stylists, lighting technicians, cinematographers…even dieticians were on the studio payroll to ensure that highly valuable stars like Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth maintained their perfect figures.
Sure, I reckon those stars from that bygone age achieved, through the efforts of the studio system machine, a standard of physical perfection on film that you just do not see these days. Even the modern day airbrushing cannot make Paris Hilton look like her aunt Zsa Zsa Gabor did. I like the hairstyles from those old films and many actresses, and actors, required hours of work from stylists on their hair before a scene could be filmed - in fact it was a hairstyle which first caused female fans all over America to turn themselves into carbon copies of their idol…Jean Harlow and her famous platinum blonde locks in the early 1930’s. I was watching ‘Tootsie’ on the weekend and once again fell in love with Jessica Lange’s layered locks in that film, didn’t you just love the way her hair looked? she filmed Tootsie immediately after her demanding role of Frances which was about the tragic actress Frances Farmer - having been styled as an actress from the 1940’s she still had her hairstyle and simply shortened it for the role of Dustin Hoffman’s co-star in Tootsie. I was twenty when I first saw that film and went straight home and tried to replicate her bouncing layers with a hairdryer - but we all know it takes more than that!
Jean Harlow was not the first blonde actress but she certainly was the first to be titled the blonde bombshell and it was all due to her stunning platinum blonde hair. The actress’ natural hair colour was a reddish/blonde - kind of like Nicole Kidman’s real hair colour - and in order to make herself stand out from the crowd when she arrived in Hollywood she took a bottle of strong bleach to her hair and became the first platinum blonde star. Her hair won her instant attention from studio bosses and producers and the rest, as they say, is history. Women all over America tried in vain to achieve the same ‘look’ for themselves, some managed, many more actually injured themselves in the attempt by causing severe bleach burns and poisoning. Even though she dyed her hair various shades for certain film roles she always returned to platinum and her hair colour was so much a part of her persona that when she died from septicaemia/kidney infection it was rumoured that the cause was down to the platinum hair dye. Platinum hair is achieved by stripping the hair of all pigment and then adding violet/blue tones to create the snowy white light-reflecting appearance.
But it was not all platinum blonde back then - before Jean Harlow there was a brunette who really started the ‘must have hairdo’ phenomenon…and influenced Liza Minnelli some forty years later as she prepared her character Sally Bowles for the film Cabaret. Louise Brooks was the most stylish of all the flappers of the mad Twenties - just looking at her picture at left there, you can see that this was a woman of great style and beauty. In fact, she would not look out of place in films today. She was working as a fashion model when she was ‘discovered’ for films
Louise was also an individualist in every sense of the word; she was not known for being easy to work with and sadly never really made the transition successfully from silent films when the ‘talkies’ came into being. She was able to play both comedy, musical and drama - very much an all-rounder as an artist but she made her final film in 1938. She married but enjoyed the speculation surrounding her sexuality all her life; enigmatic to the end she rarely gave interviews in her later life but continued to fascinate those who had seen her work and became spellbound by her. With good reason. She died in 1985.
The gorgeous Rita Hayworth possessed one of the most coveted hairstyles of all time. Millions of women around the world tried in vain to replicate her lush, flowing waves of auburn/brown however there was one reason why most of them would have failed…
and that was because Rita Hayworth wore hair pieces.
That’s right. Her own hair was not as thick as it was preferred and so a series of special hair pieces were created for the goddess, in particular one which she wore on her crown. Interestingly when Rita arrived in Hollywood as Margarita Cansino studio bosses were impressed with the beautiful dancer but not with her hairline…she had a low hairline which almost grew down to touch her eyebrows. Intensive and painful electrolysis followed which created the high-forehead look which made Rita the legendary glamour girl of all time.
A star of the 1940’s Veronica Lake was often thought of as ‘the thinking man’s blonde’. Her style made her and, ultimately, unmade her. her ‘peek-a-boo’ hair style was copied by countless female film fans and as this was during the war years one problem arose…women working in factories at the time began getting their hair caught in machinery with several even being killed in serious accidents.
Veronica Lake, often teamed with actor Alan Ladd, eventually had to have her hair cut in order to appeal to women to do the same. She was photographed for an advertising poster with her hair wound around a machine part. Unfortunately Ms Lake was not as glamorous with her new, short slightly darker page-boy style and lost her glamour girl status. She ended up on stage and then did some television work in the fifties but never recovered from losing her fame in such a way…by cutting her hair.
Some famous hairstyles were born of necessity rather than for cosmetic reasons. When stage great and real life mother of Dallas villain Larry Hagman (JR Ewing), Mary Martin, took to the Broadway stage in the opening performance of South Pacific in 1949 her character Nellie Forbush was required each performance thereafter to ‘wash that man right outta my hair’ quite literally on stage each night. Because Mary was required to wet her hair each performance it was decided that she needed a hairstyle that she could both wet and dry in quick time - and so the wash and wear perm was born.
When the musical was eventually made into a film Mitzi Gaynor (above) played the role of Nellie Forbush and her cute ‘wash and wear perm’ was copied in hairdressing salons right throughout the western world. Until then the thirties-style Marcel Wave had been the standard hair perm ladies asked for - this one enabled women to go swimming and then shake their hair dry. Just like Mitzi and Mary!
Into the fifties and the Continental Influence makes it’s presence felt in Hollywood. No actress conveyed this better than La Lollo - Gina Lollobrigida - in the film Trapeze. The Italian look was becoming de rigeur and this was taken up by Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra soon after. The ‘continental’ look was influenced by the films of Fellini and Goddard; the look was heavy eyeliner and short, choppy hairstyles influenced - supposedly - by the ’street girls’ of Rome. Gina Lollobrigida and her ‘poodle cut’ became a sensation; elfin, short dark hair styled in wisps around the the face. It looked wonderful on La Lollo and La Liz - not so great on blonde haired mid-western Mrs America though…
And what would such an article be without the most famous ‘do’ of all time. The most famous hairstyle ever has to have been owned by the late Farrah Fawcett (Majors) of Charlies Angels fame back in the 1970’s.
The thing is we all thought we could ‘do the Farrah’ - and of course we all tried, but few managed it. The thing is that Farrah’s ‘do’ was the result of constant blow drying and styling, lots of heavy rollers, hair spray and - well - lot’s of stylists to do so. You needed a natural wave in your hair for a start, those with too-curly hair or straight hair may as well not have bothered. But bother they did, and carry it off they did not. Even I had a go at ‘The Farrah’ when I was fourteen; my Mum gave me a perm, put my hair in rollers and next morning I viewed myself in the bathroom mirror - then refused to go to school until the mess had grown out. She packed me off an hour later and I looked ridiculous, as did most women who thought they too could look like Farrah. Let’s face it - not even Farrah looked like Farrah without the hairspray and hairdryers!
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