Of blond bombshells and wicked redheads
CUTTING-EDGE haircuts and colors by L’Oreal were front and center when high-end hair salon chain Toni&Guy flew in its International Technical Artistic Director and Educational Technical Director for Essensuals, Francesco Fontana, to show off its new campaign at a hair show at Crowne Plaza Ortigas on Aug. 17.
An interesting man dressed in a blue tweed suit, two-toned tasseled loafers, and his face decorated with a toothbrush mustache, Mr. Fontana made audiences actually take the time to observe the haircuts, which featured, among others, a cottoncandy pink pageboy, an angular bob with red streaks, bombshell curls, a wavy bob, and a shoulderlength haircut with chopped side-bangs.
Mr. Fontana’s clientele belong to the higher and inner echelons of fashion. “If you’re talking about gossip magazine people... not much. My clientele is much more behind- thescenes,” he said. His clients include the “right hand” of a late fashion designer, as well as editors of fashion magazines.
As the event was about color, Mr. Fontana discussed color psychology, and how choosing a hair color is not so much a random choice. “I think color says quite a lot. When you’re [ thinking] about the meaning of color, for instance, when you’re thinking about red, it’s the color of sexuality, but also, it’s the color of alerts, or alarms.
“Many colors, they’ve got so many different meanings,” he said.
He discussed, for example, how blonde formed the stereotype of having more fun, which kicked off in the 1950s with the rise of blond bombshells like Marilyn Monroe. Yet blond hair was once perceived as the color of innocence as babies born blond sometimes had hair which darkened with age), the belief in Christian iconography that blond hair was associated with the Virgin Mary, and, going back further, was once associated with the divinities of Greek mythology noted Mr. Fontana.
Meanwhile, red hair was “the color of the devil,” he said, “Or people with too much passion.” Red was often seen as the hair color of prostitutes or wicked women, as seen in paintings depicting wicked women in the bible, or as recently as the character Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind.
“When you put in these... meanings of color into a personality, then it’s going to start telling you quite a lot on who the person is,” he said. As for what unconventional hair colors say about a person, he said slyly, “What do you mean by conventional?”
He then went on to say that, “Hair is the ultimate fashion accessory.”
“It takes more... a harder decision to make a statement with your hair.”
He related this to his career as a hairdresser, which some people think function as artists, in a way; but then, Mr. Fontana doesn’t think so. “The way I see my work is as a co-creator.” An artist can paint on a wall, and people may make comments on a painting, but, “It’s not going to have an impact on the wall,” he said. On the other hand, “When I do a color or a shape with a client, there’s another human being who’s going to have to live with that.” —