FilmIndia (1948)

1 DUR WOMAN'S PAGE — i Plaits Off Michael V 1 Hair styles, like hats, are gating higher and more exotic. Few • .voinen have sufficient natural lair to achieve the present trend )f fashion, and so. . . . ■ My masculine notions were : shocked. "What!" I exclaimed, * 'False hair! Oh, a few, I suppose, ■' vho always have done; but not seriously. . . . ?" ' "Nonsense," said Raymond, the veil known London hair stylist in lis Grafton Street salon. "It is a fashion, like feathers in hats. A iouple of years ago I was suggestng false hair tentatively to my dients — now women ASK me for t. Opposition is simply a quesion of prejudice. "So long as people talk about t, a style is fashionable. The moment it ceases to be controversial you have to introduce something new.'' The Peg y Pearson "The average woman's hair is neither long enough nor firm enough for today's styles. The present fashion will last, perhaps, another year, and then it will be out. Then. I suppose we shall be accentuating the natural trend again." Styles are tending to be built up very high in front, or tightly flat on the forward part of the head and flowing behind. Raymond has even introduced styles which can be altered daily merely by the addition of a Chelsea bob. One increasingly popular style involves the use of dress material interwoven in plaits or bobs. FIVE-MINUTE PERMS When Raymond went on to talk about permanent waving I must admit I visualised the fourhours ordeal I had witnessed as a "Have you no faith in me?" Shahu Modak seems to be asking Jaimala in "Mandir", a Bhoomraddi Productions' maiden social shortly coming to the Swastik. child when my mother had nowhere else to leave me. I had heard something about a cold water perm and I knew it was faster; but I was not a little surprised when Raymond said: "Five minutes sees the actual processing through — and I do not have to worry about curlers. They are antiquated." The base of the cold water perm is sulphide; but nobody will go into it more deeply than that because the treatments which branch from the base are closely kept secrets. "The general principle of the perm," Raymond continued, "is to soften, shape and then re-harden the hair. I use sun rays — not ultra-violet or infra-red — and that is the secret of speed. The perm itself takes five minutes, although, naturally, the combing and drying take longer." Tall, dark Alexis, manager of the London salon of Antoine, the international coiffeur, told me more about the perm revolution. "When people talk about perms," he said, "they usually mean little curls that cling to the head. But ideas change swiftly — we are perming hair now in long, large waves." INTRODUCING ' WINTER STORY" Antoines are introducing a scries of styles called the "Winter Story." General principle of the designs is practicality in windy weather. There is "Cross-wind", which builds the hair forward on the right side of the head in small curls. There is "Ocean Swell," waving up from the front of the head. There is "The Gust" which is a style completely on the too of the head. And "The Maelstrom" builds the hair high and rolling forward, cut fairly short at the back. Just as the young French dress designers are directing fashion back to the Nineteen Twenties, hair dressing is also drawing on the past. Antoine has introduced a sleek, simple style for teen-agers, based on the fashion in Paris when Napoleon III was Emperor. Side curls with bows, a centre parting, and a flat top are. the main points. 31