ReStyled & Edited by Pharaoh from the LateNight Hotel Barber Shop Written By Chris Parmenter magister@academy.net.au

It was still early on a Wednesday evening, when I noticed this good-looking young guy walk across the hotel lobby floor. I work here evenings in my father's barber shop, and normally it's quiet and I can study, but tonight I felt a little restless. That was how I came to be looking up when he strolled in from the street. He walked up to the front desk, and after a hurried but hushed discussion, it looked like he passed some money over to Joseph, and Joseph reluctantly imparted some information. With a purposeful stride, the young guy headed toward the elevator, and I hurried toward Joseph. "What was that about?" I asked, partaking in the universal hobby of hotel employees - gossip about the guests. Joseph told me that some powerful Hollywood producer was in town for a few nights (strictly incognito) and the stud was a young actor who had bribed him to give out the room number. This was another universal trait of hotel clerks. The ability to accept bribes. I went back to my shop, and made a determined effort to read my chapter on anti-social behaviour, wishing for a little social behaviour of my own. The ding of the elevator made me look up, and the young actor stormed out. By the look on his face, I didn't think the impromptu audition had been entirely successful. He stalked across the lobby, but stopped halfway and seemed to be swearing to himself. He threw what must have been his portfolio to the floor, and spun around to wave his fist in the air, probably in the direction of the redoubtable producer. I was admiring his extreme overacting, when he turned and caught sight of me. It was too late to pretend to be doing anything else but staring at his tantrum, so I smiled encouragingly. He gave me a half-embarrassed look, and then as he noticed the sign painted on the window, his expression changed to that of someone having a brilliant idea. You know, the kind that in the cartoons has a light bulb going off over their heads. He walked purposefully over to my door. "Listen, I've got a problem," he said, "and I think you can help." His name was Eric, and he had some fairly specific requests. It seems that this Hollywood producer was making a film about the life of some little known 1920's actor, and Eric wanted the part, and assured me he was perfect for it. He wanted me to give him a Valentino haircut, and then he would go back to the producer s room and read him some lines. I thought his plan was a little thin, but, then again, my text book wasn't thrilling me either. In the true tradition of Lucy fans all over the world, Of course I would help him out, that's what I'm here for, but I said we could elaborate his plan somewhat. I called Joseph over from the desk, and then laid out my foolproof scheme. Yes, I would give him the makeover, but what he should do is dress in white tie and tails. When this big shot ordered room service, Eric could go up and be discovered. I hear that producers love doing that. Joseph then went one better. He mentioned that one of the guests, about Eric's size, had left his formal tails ensemble to be cleaned. Eric could borrow it, therefore looking like a very posh maitre'd, but also giving him a more twenty's look. This was to be done for a small fee on his part, though, as he would have to square it with the regular staff and all. Eric didn't seem to mind, but I thought it was a little bit against the spirit of spontaneous insanity. Joseph went to arrange things and get the tails, while I sat Eric down in the chair to do my usual magic. I ran my fingers through his over-long hair - it felt very strong, dark, chestnut brown, and he wore it over the collar at the back, and falling freely from a natural centre part far too long over his forehead and on each side of his face, altogether not the sort of style to present for a job prospect. By stroking my hands through it, I could tell it would be long enough to pull back, It would take a fair amount of shaping, but the raw material was there. The comb ran smoothly through his hair, as I checked to see which way it would curl, and the best direction to cut. I combed his fringe straight down over his forehead, and without the wave it covered his eyes and reached nearly to his chin, running the comb from the crown of his head, across his skull, and then let the fringe just fall forward. After a quick tidy up, I wet his hair down so I could shape it without having the brilliantine clog up the comb. The first thing was to establish a really strong and straight part, so I chose a line about an inch off-centre. The tricky bit was to get all the hairs on their correct side, the right, but when I was finished he had a white line of clean, virgin scalp running from forehead to crown. To emphasize this, I carefully shaved a very narrow channel into the part with the cut-throat razor, hardly more than the natural part, but giving it highly groomed look. The next step was to go around the edges and trim everything up properly so that when it was combed back, there would be shape and not bulk. Rather than using scissors, I razor-chamfered backwards, so that there was never a distinct stop-and-start long-hair line. This meant that when he went greaseless his fringe would probably have a strong angle to it, but it was important to have the length tapered so it didn't stick out behind his ears. The process was to sculpt the hair, so that it flowed across the top of his head, and back along the sides. I cut his hair up off the collar. To keep within the spirit of the 1920's the hair taper at the back was more medium than long. So I took the hair off with the fine clippers about an inch up and again razor chamfered it to present a nice, overall, extra smooth surface. All the time I was explaining the process to Eric, and instructing him how to achieve the same effect himself in the future. You never know when an actor needs these make-up and hairdressing tips. In his case, he knew roughly what he wanted, and asked sensible questions, but it was still a matter of starting the style from scratch, and only that his hair was already too long by his own confession, it would the silent-movies style would not have come out so well. There are two options for sideburns with a Valentino cut; long and thin, or shaved right off to the eyeline. Eric already had long thick sideburns and we discussed they should just be trimmed. In the long run we decided to shave them off completely in the spirit of the overall new look. So a quick buzz with the clippers up each side of his face and trim the scissors. Next was a very accurate shave all around the edges, another feature of a Valentino. This haircut must look as it had just stepped out of the barber shop freshly cut, and the sharp edges added to the effect. Even at the back I shaved the hair off to the neck, being careful not to encroach into the taper, but still going to the very edge. The whole process turned out to be quite interesting, and I wondered if the style would ever make a come-back. I brought one front lock down to make a kiss curl on his forehead. He laughed and said it made him look too much like a sissy, but I explained that Errol Flynn had let the occasional errant curl touch his forehead, and he was anything but gay. Finally we decided this would not do for Valentino, so the curl was worked back into place. This is perhaps the main feature of a Valentino. Al the hair must be severely brushed back and flattened close to the skull. There must be no hint of a curl, wave or even a comb or brush mark - perfectly smooth flat and shiny. The next step was to provide the brilliantine that would keep everything in place, and add that extra shine. One of my customers was a distributor for SPRUSO, a genuine 1920's solid brilliantine, so I was able to keep within the time frame and the look. Then I applied the compound to young Eric's head, working the thick vaseline base all through his damp hair. When I had manipulated Eric's hair into the perfect Valentino, heavily oiled and brushed absolutely smooth, which took some time, I sprayed it all over with a quick-drying and hard-setting hair lacquer. The effect was so perfect that the overhead lights bounced off Eric's head, which could have been mistaken for highly buffed car duco. It was an amazing totally transform a man. I mean, one minute this guy is a shaggy young 90's actor, the next minute he is a suave gentleman from some earlier generation; one minute this other guy is yuppie executive, and the next he's a 1920's man-about-town. The power of this little styling can seem to change the personality of a man. I was interested in getting into the part as Eric, it seemed. Joseph returned with the white-tie (including shirt) and tails, and Eric retired to my back room to change. Joseph had to be bullied letting us use his highly polished black shoes. After a quick lesson in how to fix a bow-tie, he was ready. He really did look the part with his brilliantined hair and elegant clothes. The shoes were a little loose, but as long as he didn't try tap dancing, they should stay on. Joseph returned to see if everything was ready, and started giving Eric a rundown on how to serve food. Then it was a matter of sitting around waiting for this producer to order something (and lets hope it wasn't breakfast). Just when I was beginning to think maybe the idea was crazy to begin with, one of the cooks waved from the service entrance, and we knew the plan was on. The plan was falling into place. It was thrilling to watch Eric walk across the marbled lobby floor, looking just like a star from those early talkies, or even silent movie who had just stepped off the screen from those bygone days, especially since the lobby was art deco décor. With the plan underway, there was little to do except get back to the homework, and await further developments. Joseph came over about an hour later. We sometimes sat around talking when it was a quiet night, usually about nothing important. Tonight we talked about what we had done, and how. Joseph would be fired unless he got that tails to the cleaners by the end of his shift in the morning. I sympathised with him, and we actually had a good talk. He even asked me to call him Joe, and even though I liked the formal atmosphere of calling him my friend, Joseph...  in casual conversation, I said thanks, and he could call me Chris. About half past eleven, as I was starting to pack up and call it a night, Eric came out of the lift. This time his expression was one of self-satisfaction. I didn't need to ask if he had gotten the part - his every move proclaimed him an up and coming star. Joseph came over and we stood in the doorway of my back room as Eric changed out of his evening wear. He was chatting away eagerly about how well the evening went, and how this producer didn't even recognise him as the young actor that had been at his door a few hours earlier. Anyway, Joseph got his shoes back and the tails to the cleaners on time. After redressing Eric surveyed his Valentino in the mirror. This was a good luck look he decided, and would wear his hair like that in the future, especially for the folio pictures at the movie studio that the producer had ordered for the following morning. I waved him back in the chair to check that all was well with the haircut, even though it looked like it. After one more run around the edges with the razor I gave another heavy spray with the lacquer. Now it would stay in place in a gale. To help the drying process I hit it with a hair dryer. The result was set absolutely solid; tapping it with the comb sounded like tapping on plastic, which is what Eric's hair looked like, black, gleaming plastic, the ideal look for a Valentino To help overnight I had a heavy-duty fitted hair net in the drawer and advised Eric to wear this when he was sleeping. A few jokes later he saw the sense and agreed to make this his habit. Unfortunately I couldn't give him any of the lacquer, but we figured that a good dose of Spruso and a fast hard-drying Spruso hair spray that I sold would do for everyday use. On Eric, not a hair was our of place, and it would stay that was for days unless mussed up in the shower. A shower cap would fix that, and the hair-net in bed. Even when he did shampoo his hair, he would just about be able to achieve then same exacting style because he had been paying attention to me tutoring, and because the part had been shaved in to give him that special effect. It would be easy to find and groom the hair from that mark. Actors have to work hard for they art, helped of course by their barbers. Eric did get the part, and the producer was so impressed with his appearance that I was asked to be his personal barber for the length of the movie shoot. So most of the time I was still able to keep open Late Night Hotel Barber Shop.