This wavy hair is cut quite short — too short for rollers. Each curl is placed to con­form to the shape of the finished hairdo. Stand-up pin-curls are used to pro­vide fullness and movement away from the head. A strip of cotton 8" long and 3/4" thick is held in place with bobby pins; the bangs are shaped over the  roll.

                      

Under-curling does the trick here — helps the hair fit close to the head; the effect is obtained with very large pin-curls. No. 3 curls are used around the face; the row behind is composed of No. 2 curls. Here again is a style which falls into place easily, looking just as pretty when it's windblown as when it's combed.

Courtesy "American Weekly"

   

For a straight-haired 12-year-old, the pageboy is a good style to start training the hair. Keep crown straight and concentrate on training the ends under. The top curl is a No. 3; the bottom curl can be either No. 2 or No. 3, but which­ever you use make it loose enough so that it combs out practically straight. Turn the back ends under a piece of cotton.

Courtesy "American Weekly"

THE  ORIGIN  OF   MOBILES

The elements of good design are the same in all fields, whether in automobile bodies, aeroplanes, architecture or hairdos. A long-felt admiration for the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and Alexander Calder has enabled me to see this. An ever-increasing interest in modern architecture and design has made me de­termined to design hairdos which have the basic con­cepts of good architecture: functionalism, balance and harmony with their surroundings. You realize how readily these principles can be applied to hair styles. A hairdo that is practical for everyday life is functional in the same way as a building that fulfills its purpose, whether it is a theater, an office building or a home. A functional building is clean of line, with no elaborate or irrelevant decorations; a functional hairdo does not have an excess of details to increase the trouble and expense of upkeep while serving no useful purpose.

From the work of Frank Lloyd Wright I learned, too, the importance of working with natural materials. As he built a house from materials native to the location in which it was set, so I design hairdos that are based on the natural qualities of the hair.

Notice that the first curl on the forehead is a No. 3 curl going forward; the other two are No. 3 curls going back. One row of large No. 2 curls makes the pageboy.

MOBILE HAIRDO THATISN'T AFRAID TO  LAUGH

The mobiles of Alexander Calder, which have at­tracted wide recognition in recent years, illustrate the beauty of motion. They are designs in metal and wire, or other materials, so hung and balanced that they move with currents of air, then go back to their orig­inal arrangements, making attractive patterns at each stage of their activity. Movement catches the eye, gives life to what you see, because movement is life.

Like Wright, Calder and other modern designers, 1 try to look at old problems with a fresh eye. When 1 realized the beauty of hair in motion, and the natural tendency of hair to move with its wearer's movements, I began to try new ways of cutting hair. When I first saw Calder's work years ago, I realized that we were both trying to do the same thing, he in steel and wire, I in hair. That is why I called my results mobiles.

7 The first pin-curl on the cheek is turned forward; the rest of the curls on the side are curled back, as you notice in the picture. This combination of curls will give you a soft wave.

 

 

8. Finger combing.

 

 

 

9   The hairdo in motion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I see it, a mobile is not any particular hairdo. The term "mobiles" embraces all hair styles, for they are based on one idea—movement. For a mobile, the hair can be long or short or medium length. What is essen­tial is that the hair should be free and capable of movement.

You will see that the first example is a long mobile set by pin-curling, that it can then move freely but will afterwards revert almost to its original shape no matter how violent the actions. The mass of hair can be re­turned to place by a shake of the head and finger combing.

At the other extreme are the short mobiles. These are set in pin-curls, not to make them conform to a rigid or unchanging pattern, but merely as the means of giving them the beginning of some shape instead of al­lowing the hair to fall flat. Once it is given that shape it should be allowed to be free to change its pattern from day to day after the setting. This can be done by a new form of hair care which I call doodling—twisting or pulling a strand of hair to help the hairdo assume an attractive shape.
                                                             SHORT MOBILE

11. Here again the stand-up curl is used for extra height, with hair that has a slight bend. No. 3 curls are used for the on-the-face curls. No. 4 for the remainder.

12. The third represents a medium mobile between the two extremes. The back section moves in a mass but less violently than the first hairdo. The tiny tendrils of hair around the face have the same delicate whisper of movement as the short mobiles. It is set with pin-curls and combed into shape to conform with the pin-curls. It takes a combination of combing and shaking into place and doodling with the fingers.

A straight-haired girl with a center part. The part utilizes the comb-up method, giving the mini­mum of height and drawing the hair quite a bit forward, before using No. 3 curls to barely turn the front ends.

THE DANGERS OF MISUNDERSTANDING

As I have said, the modern trend is toward the free and casual in hair styling. For a certain type.of woman there is a danger of misunderstanding this whole trend. This type approaches any hairdo, an upsweep, a wavy bang or whatever, with the desire for a fixed image of what it should look like. She wants a definite pattern, a place for every hair and every hair in place. If the hair is supposed to be casual, then by Jupiter she is going to have it casual even if she has to lacquer it in place! When 1 designed my mobiles, this idea was the furthest from my mind.

The other possible danger lies in misunderstanding the term casual. It does not mean careless, any more than looking natural means looking as though you had just got up out of bed. For hair to look well in any hair­do, at least fifty per cent of it should look restrained; the other fifty per cent can be free. For example, a short hairdo that fluffs around the face in wandering tendrils could be flat and neatly combed at the back.

Hair that is—or looks—completely unrestrained gen­erally looks horrible. There must always be evidence of attention and good grooming. No matter how casual and free the hair, the hair should not look uncared for. In other words, it should be combed frequently as well as being doodled, shaken or patted into place.

13. This is not what I mean by mobile or casual hairdos, but is included as a horrible example.