The Lordess Giveth - And the Lordess Taketh Away

Ciao a tutti,

What could I possibly mean by, the title of this post? Well, many people use this phrase to mean many things in their lives, only they usually say "Lord." For me, in this case, I am referring to my hair. Fortunately, the Lord has not taken away my hair, but the "Lord" or should I say "Lordess," that has ruled over my hair for a decade or so, and I, decided it was time to take away the long locks.

Many references have been made to my "locks" over the years, from TV personalities on their shows to stage presenters as they introduced me, to Newspapers and Magazine articles, like the Romantic Times Magazine quote from years ago that wrote, "... golden locks and a sexy smile whose career is about to explode. ... a bilingual English/Italian paean to the romance of life."

Well, now my "romance of life" was about to be chopped off, or at least part of it. And it couldn't have been done by a nicer person. I am referring to Marlene Schifter the Lordess Hairstylist of Hollywood. I'll explain that in a minute.

But back to me, and back to "The Lordess Giveth and the Lordess Taketh Away." It was Marlene who encouraged me to allow my hair to naturally curl and let it grow out.

It all happened a long time ago, on my very first head shot photo session here in Hollywood where I first met Marlene. She was kind enough to "style" my hair that day for my photo shoot, or so I thought.

Ironically however, up until then I had been wearing my hair really short, and I used to blow dry it straight. So, when I went to the studio to have my "professional" photos taken, I was taken back when Marlene wet my hair and let it dry and curl naturally as she worked the curls on my head and trimmed around them.

I didn't understand what was going on. I think I even got a bit testy asking her why she wasn't blow drying my hair straight and making me look "good?" It was about that time that the photographer came in and looked at me and said, "Good, okay, let's start."

"Start?" I exclaimed, "We can't start anything until my hair is right!" None of them, including my brother who was there too, could figure out what I meant. I tried to tell them I wasn't ready but to no avail, they thought I looked "fine." The only way I agreed to starting the photo session was if we could take half of the shots with the curly hair, and half after I took some time to straighten my hair on my own.

And so we proceeded with the shoot. When all was said and done and I received the proofs, I took them to every person I knew to ask them which pictures they liked better of the 438 or so that the photographer had taken. Wouldn't you know it, everyone of the people I asked picked a picture of me with the curly hair as styled by Marlene.

From then on, Marlene had earned my respect, and my apology. She became the Lordess of my hair and the rest is history.

Back to Marlene. It was written about her a few years back that she was the best kept secret in Beverly Hills, because she opted to work in a smaller boutique salon, Tina Cassaday's, and at a station that was above the salon and somewhat isolated. But she must have known what she was doing, because it was just what her high profile clients liked, privacy. However, the secret must be out because her schedule fills up fast now, and I find myself trying to compete for "hair time."

Actually, competing is hard to do with the people who's hair she cuts. When I said she is the Lordess of Hollywood stylists, it is not because her clients are the stars we all know from TV and Film. No, her clients are more important than them. By the way, she only cuts men's hair, and therefore, her clientèle is primarily made up of the men who make the stars what they are, the Producers, Directors, etc.

Just try and get an appointment with her around Oscar time.

So now you see what I mean by she giveth and she taketh away, because now after all these years, the one who giveth me the curls and encouraged me to grow my hair, took them away. But not all of them, I think she wanted to be reminded what the in-between stage looked like before going any shorter.

Well, what do you think?

The pictures are self explanatory, except for this last one. This is one of Marlene's clients who was scheduled after me who patiently waited while we agonized over how much shorter we should go, and while we took pictures and chatted up a storm. But we had fun and as you can see from this picture, so do her clients.

Thanks Marlene for the new look, I can't wait to see what people think.

Filippo

P.S. For those of you who wonder what the big deal is? Well, the hair, or lack there of, on a man's head really changes the look of a man and how people respond to him. If you need any proof of that other than the pictures above, you have to watch this humorous short video. It is made by a man with little hair and animated so you see him with different hair colors and styles. The video starts off with the word "Capelli" which is Italian for "hair." (Music Only)