Stars with top crops
QUESTION A Rachel is a hairstyle named after Jennifer Aniston’s character in Friends. What other haircuts are named after people?
The original eponymous haircut has to be the Caesar, the classic short-cropped men’s hairstyle named after Julius Caesar. The style was spread across europe by the Roman legions and more recently was sported by George Clooney in the U.S. medical drama eR.
Perhaps the most influential hairstyle of the last millennium was an 18th-century cut known as the Bedford Level.
At the time, the use of hair powder in Britain was so ubiquitous that, in 1795, Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger instigated a tax on the product to help raise money for wars with France.
This upset Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford. In protest, the Duke had his hair cut short and scandalously wore it unpowdered and unstyled in court. he encouraged his friends to adopt a similar, natural hairstyle in protest.
The style became known as the Bedford Level, after a geographical feature of the Fens of the same name and also making reference to the Duke’s radical (Leveller) politics.
Sideburns were popularised by the U.S. Civil War General Ambrose Burnside, who had a fine set.
The first eponymous women’s hairstyle was the Louise Brooks bob. Louise was a hollywood actress from the Twenties whose distinctive hairstyle became the signature style of the flapper era.
Marilyn Monroe’s signature platinum blonde hairstyle became known as the Marilyn. In the Sixties, the iconic pixie cut of the model Lesley Lawson was called the Twiggy after her nickname.
A popular cut from the Seventies was the feathered shag, aka the Farrah Fawcett, named after the star of the TV show Charlie’s Angels.
On this side of the Atlantic, Joanna Lumley’s short Purdey cut, which she wore for her role of the same name in The New Avengers, was widely copied. Following the release of the adultthemed comedy movie 10 in 1979, Bo Derek’s look of hair plaited with beads caught on.
Popular cuts of the Nineties included the Rachel, the straightened shag sported by Jennifer Aniston in Friends, and the Pob, Victoria ‘Posh Spice’ Beckham’s bob.
Adrianne Newton, London SW15. IN The Fifties, I had a Tony Curtis, a style sported by hollywood’s golden boy. even elvis copied the look, once seeking out the film star to tell him: ‘Mr Curtis, I want you to know I am a big fan.’
With a curl up front and a smart parting at the back, it was known as the duck’s tail in America, and the duck’s a*** by Teddy Boys over here.
The haircut inspired a classic joke. A man walks into a barber’s shop and says: ‘I want my hair cut like Tony Curtis.’
After the barber gives him a nondescript chop, the customer declares: ‘Oi, Tony Curtis doesn’t have his hair cut like this!’, to which the barber replies: ‘he does if he comes here.’ Tim Begg, Bury, Lancs.
QUESTION When were car roofboxes first on sale and who made them?
The earliest luggage racks were grilles that allowed drivers to strap their baggage to the outside of their cars.
These were generally galvanised steel tubing, which is malleable and resistant to rust. They were cumbersome, difficult to load and had poor aerodynamics.
Thule was founded in 1942 in hillerstorp, southern Sweden, when erik Thulin put the name on a pike trap he’d designed.
During the Forties and Fifties, the firm produced belt buckles, before concentrating on car-related products.
In 1962, it produced its first ski carrier, and in 1973 the Luxus, the first lockable version. In the U.S., the first roof rack manufacturer was Yakima Industries of Washington.
Founder Otto Lagervall was a paddlesports fan who had invented a foldable metal music stand.
In 1973, the firm released the Gold Rush Bar, a rack for carrying kayaks, which is still popular. In the same year, hollywood Racks produced the first boot-mounted rack for bicycles.
The first genuine roofbox was produced by Thule. The TB-11 was a moulded plastic box for carrying skis. In 1980, Thule released a second roofbox, this time in the U.S to carry surfboards.
The first utilitarian roofbox was the Thule Combibox 250 in 1984 — the world’s first blow-moulded roof box. Ian Watson, Nottingham.
QUESTION I have a camellia called Mary Williams. Who was this lady?
TReWIDDeN Gardens is among Cornwall’s finest gardens and is home to one of england’s best collections of magnolias and rhododendrons, as well as a collection of more than 300 camellias.
edward Bolitho bought Trewidden around 1830. he established the garden by planting woodland cover, before filling it with plants introduced from Asia and the Southern hemisphere.
The garden has remained in the Bolitho family, and his granddaughter Mary Williams (1894-1977) lived and worked at Trewidden after the death of her husband in 1955. She planted the Magnolia hypoleuca on the North Walk, which is now the largest specimen in the UK.
The lovely red Camellia reticulata Mary Williams and Magnolia mollicomata Mary Williams are named after her. Bill Yates, Truro, Cornwall.