The quick and widespread response to my first book, Be Your Own Hair Stylist, confirmed my belief that the American woman wants a common-sense approach to her hair problems. With both my customers and my readers, I have always tried to be as practical, clear and realistic as I can. Much that is said and written about beauty problems, and especially about hair, is sheer eyewash. When, in Be Your Own Hair Stylist, I offered the reader the findings of my years of experi­ence, it met an evident need for more straight talk and less chichi.

Since the publication of that book, there have been some interesting developments in hair styling that have prompted me to write a second one.

Most important of the trends has been the growing desire for greater freedom in hair styles. The hairdos I have introduced which I call "mobiles" have been hailed by both the beauty editors and the public as an answer to this need. Freedom of motion, the key­note of these styles, is obviously in tune with our times.

Women have learned the difference between mobile and static hairdos. Mobiles are young, practical, and becoming to a wide variety of faces and hair types. Static hairdos are those that, cannot move, that must lie still and be perfectly groomed to look their best. Mobiles can bounce around, be blown by the wind or by physical activity, yet fall back into their original lines and contours, retaining their attractiveness at all times. I shall have a great deal to say about mobiles later in this volume.

Along with this interest in freedom and simplicity, some other trends have emerged. Coloring the hair, for example, has ceased to be a skeleton in the closet.

Nowadays any girl or woman who believes she will look more attractive with hair of a different color goes ahead and changes it. The bugaboo about "dyed hair" is outmoded.

A note of interest, too, is that the center part has taken on new meaning. For years it's been drummed into our ears that only a beauty can wear a center part. This is nonsense. Any woman can part her hair in the cen­ter—provided she knows what to do with it afterwards. In the pages that follow, I'll show you that the center part can be another step on your road to freedom, be­cause it offers a complete new gamut of styles for any woman to wear.

In the past few years I have been pleased to notice also the increasing number of women who cut their own hair. This is a praiseworthy trend. I hope that more and more women will take their courage in their hands, along with their scissors, and learn to cut their own hair.

My aim in writing this book is, of course, just that— to try to help you to deal with your own hair. It is your hair, you know, and nobody else's, and what you choose to do with it has a great bearing not only on your appearance but on your convenience and en­joyment. First you have to recognize your hair for what it is: curly, wavy or straight; lively or flat; oily or dry; thick or thin; coarse or fine. Then you must decide what to do with what you have: how to make your hair a thing of beauty, working within the confines of reality, not fantasy. It's as simple as that, but unfortunately not enough women understand it.

There is nothing complicated or technical about what I have to say. You will find, however, that it is best to read through the whole book before attempting to work out a hairdo for yourself. Working with your hair, like many other occupations, becomes very simple when you've mastered the fundamentals, and that is what I've given you in the early chapters: the funda­mentals that will give you a new viewpoint about your hair and enable you to deal with it easily, efficiently and enjoyably.

If you are dissatisfied with the way your hair looks, if you spend your time—not to mention effort and money —trying to make it do something that nature never in­tended it to do, take heart. You don't wear the rigid corsets of your grandmother's day, but you are con­stricting yourself with a cast-iron coiffure. I'll show you how to shake off your shackles. Come along and join the ranks of freedom!

Victor Vito

1. Typical example of a mobile hairdo, which allows full movement without looking disarranged.
2. In the past few years more women have taken to setting their  own   hair  successfully.

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