From
Hair to Eternity: The Art and Spectacle of Hair
(ARA) - The famous and infamous have merged hair, fashion,
and art since . . . well, since they've grown hair and worn
clothes. It's a sure bet that Adam's and Eve's silky locks
and perfectly coordinated fig leaves weren't just happy mistakes.
Unfortunately, most of what's been happening lately in the
amalgamation of hair, fashion, and art doesn't qualify as
art or even haute couture. Floppy ponytails, filthy hair,
flapping skirts, and "f" words on T-shirts have
become the mandatory anti-fashion statement for the glitterati.
This voluntary hiatus of hair and fashion is beginning to
trickle down to the hoi polloi, too. Whereas, historically,
fashion and hair as art has always been the rule, rather than
the exception, this could be changing in the 21st century.
There is no shortage of criticism for fashion statements that
make you cringe -- but unless the fashion police are authorized
to incarcerate offenders, there is little we can do. Or is
there? Would you qualify as one of the next generation of
artists or designers who could stem this degenerate flow?
Hair Like an Egyptian
Even the Egyptians, who surely didn't expect to show up on
the cover of the latest stone tabloid, took great lengths
to be fabulous. One look at surviving Egyptian art reveals
just how much effort went into hair and fashion. Women wove
ribbons in their hair and placed spirals of gold in their
locks. Wigs elevated hair (literally) to an art form, with
fantastic sculptures for the head. As it happens, they also
helped keep the lice away from the scalp. Hair extensions
were also a must for the ancient Egyptian fashionista. Cleopatra
sports this style in surviving Egyptian art, and it's not
too hard to imagine Beyonce slinking around with this look
in her next video.
To Dye For
Our red-headed divas could take a cue from Queen Elizabeth
I who, during her time, guided both hair and clothing fashion
with her outrageous updo and gargantuan collars. Women of
Elizabethan times were so desperate to imitate her curly red
hair that they tried just about anything to achieve the look
including applying urine to their hair. They rolled their
red tresses onto a heart-shaped frame and shaved their foreheads
to imitate Queen Elizabeth's striking style. Maybe it's time
for Lindsay Lohan to ditch the blond and go back to the sexy
auburn that made her famous. Shaved forehead optional.
What a Birdsnest
By the 18th century, wigs were the hot accessory in England
and France. An English partygoer might show up to an event
three feet taller thanks to a carnival float of hair on his
or her head. Wigmakers truly were artists of the era. Wigs
were modeled over a cage frame using horse hair and copious
amounts of powder. Hairstylists planted flowers and figurines
in the wig, creating whole hair dioramas. Gardens, birds in
a birdcage, even a maritime scene complete with attacking
battleship -- this was hair art without boundaries. Madonna
was close to this when she went through her baroque phase,
but then she found Kabbalah and Chanel.
Hair Today, Art Tomorrow
Even in times when hair and fashion weren't quite so artistic
or outlandish, creative types found alternative ways to achieve
artistic expression through hair. For Victorians "hair
art" meant fashioning elaborate brooches, pendants, rings,
and even framed wall-hangings from the locks of their beloved,
sometimes dearly departed ones. Instead of wearing vials of
each other's blood around their necks, Billy Bob and Angelina
might have worn a lock of each other's hair. They might have
started a trend the rest of us could follow.
20th Century Locks
In many parts of the world, including the United States,
braiding is a high art that is practiced by hair artisans.
African knots, or Zulu knots as they are commonly known in
the United States, are sometimes called "chicken poopoo"
in Liberia. Apparently a clever soul decided that's precisely
what this style reminded him of. To achieve a chicken poopoo,
the hair is divided into even rectangular or triangular sections
all over the head; then the hair in each section is twisted
together and wound into a protruding knot. It's hard to imagine
Oprah's hair artist, Andre Walker, convincing our Queen of
the Talk Shows to try the chicken poopoo even though she'd
probably look very fetching.
Weave Some Magic
In the 21st century, aside from an occasional splash of red
or pink from Kelly Osborne or a bunch of stringy black hair
extensions from Christina Aguilera, our beloved divas are
playing it safe. When they don't look as if they've been dragged
through a hedge backwards, that is. Even Jack Osborne has
graduated from a coif that brought to mind The Simpsons' Side
Show Bob, to a closely trimmed, properly tamed, and some might
even say handsome coif. Cher's once outlandish wigs are now
mostly chic and pretty close to hair colors actually found
in nature.
Hair Do We Go from Here?
If life imitates art, and art imitates life, are we destined
to sloppy, boring, frumpy, and frowsy art? Sagging peasant
skirts, unwashed, pinned up hair, message T-shirts . . . Where
are artists the likes of Jose Eber, Coco Chanel, and Bob Mackie?
What has become of the mavericks of clothing and hair design?
Where's the cutting edge? Where's the art?
It's going to take a forward thinking artistic soul to breathe
life into our hair, design, and art; but what about a return
to hair and fashion simply for art's sake? Who wouldn't like
to see Angelina Jolie sport a black widow hairdo or Jessica
Simpson to show up on stage with something besides her cascading
golden locks. Perhaps a spider's web or a head full of flowers?
We don't have an eternity to make a spectacle of ourselves,
but we do have our hair. Do you have what it takes to lead
the vanguard in a new era of hair as art, for art's sake?
If you have a passion for art in its many forms, you could
turn your passion into your career. Art school is a great
place to turn your dreams into reality.
By Katrina Boydon
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