CORKSCREW CURLS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 91, 11 January 1935, Page 5

CORKSCREW CURLS

The Sculptured Coiffure

Hairdressing this season is distiuct-

.y different' from anything that has been seen before in our times, states a writer in the "Christian Science Monitor.” Its basis is no longer waves but fiat corkscrew curls arranged in bands, w'bich may form a coronet-like line across the top of the bead from ear to ear; or a diagonal path from ear :o nape; or form a thickly massed caplike effect at the back of the head. The neck, however, is swept clean of curls, the movement being swiftly upward. Bangs are modish, but are discouraged for those whose good looks they do nit enhance—and these are many. Ore coiffeur told me thal “bangs detract from a look of innocence and artlessness, giving a face an expression of calculating wisdom." One is forced to' suspect that these artists become at times a little over-intense! However, it is well to consider the matter before having one’s hair clipped for a fringe. The exposed forehead is also modish, and from it the hair is likely to be drawn up obliquely to a tiara of curls. Sometimes this direct line is broken by a very narrow fillet, scarcely more than a thread. Partings, at the moment, frequently send the hair in two different, directions, one straight back along the edge of the parting at its light, the other, on the left, downward in a thickly curled mass. When the severity of the line can be worn becomingly, a flat, uncurled, unwaved plane over the temples is particularly smart. “It Depends, Madame.” . '

However, what may be denominated as ’‘curly individualism” is the slogaif in beauty parlours. The authoritative gentlemen who preside over coiffures stress this individualism always. To one of them I remarked a day or so ago, wishing to seem informed, "The mode now is a Hat plane over the ears, is it. not, monsieur?” To which he replied, "It depends, madame. Now for you I should advise a softer line, but for that lady whose reflection you see in the mirror, yes. Her type is served by coldness and hauteur. There is no

mode, madame, but that of enhancing the’glamour of the individual.” One of our department stores employs . a sculptor to design coiffures ' in their beauty salon. Seldom does be take /up the weapons of his craft, but he studies each client and then with the eloquent thumb of the, clay ’modeller he indicates to his staff the proper treatment of the tresses: ' That hairdressing is a solemn matter the history of costume attests This notwithstanding the fact that during a brief and comparatively recent period which some of us remember—however strong the longing, is to forget it!—ladies merely "did their hair” in front of their own mirrors, gathering it up, sometimes over a "rat” or cushion into a coil on top or torturing it into a “Psyche.” Yes, hairdressing among the people of antiquity, and during the Renaissance, and when the Louis of France painted the lily and gilded the rose,, was an art or at least an artifice of great moment; and it | is one again. Styles from Antiquity. A study of old volumes on costume and of the heads of statues shows us, moreover, that we have by no means exhausted in the modern world the possibilities which women’s locks, long and short, afford. For instance, we have not done much with the Egyptian method of plaiting hair in shoulder-’ . length strands which may again be braided together in some complexity and then trimmed into a shape resembling the “Dutch bob,” only longer. Or with the shoulder-length curls of Greece, radiating in all directions from the crown and bound by. a fillet or Stephane. The Zulu warrior, on the other hand, has lent us an idea, for he wore a coronet of stiffened curls. The fourteenth century, top, has made a contribution, for then was worn a glossy ring two or- three inches in diameter extending from above the forehead, around the ears to tho nape of the neck, formed of tight curls fastened in place by a glutinous substance. In the middle of the eighteenth century curls were stiffened with wire and strips of hair doth, and piled to incredible summits, where were perched not only plumes and flowers, their stems thrust into vials of water concealed in the coiffure, but also sculptural groups. Whatever we have undergone in this generation we have also escaped much so fai;. ■