A MUST 'DO
Hit show 'Friends' inspires hair craze

Date: November 19, 1995
Section: Image
Page: F1
Illustration: photo (3)
Source: Barbara Bradley The Commercial Appeal Fashion Editor
Edition: Final

Amy Sharp, 28, owner of a Germantown boutique, changed her hair to the hottest style in the country last month, but did her customers comment? No way, said Sharp. Why would they? ''Their hair looks just like mine,'' she said. ''Everybody who comes in has the same hairdo.''

Here and everywhere, women are mad for the long, layered shag worn by actress Jennifer Aniston on the hit NBC series Friends. Forget the show's glib dialog and hip story lines about a group of struggling, twentysomething pals. People magazine in a recent issue lightly dubbed the real secret of the series, ''in a word, hair.'' All the cast are cropped in trendy looks with Aniston's character, Rachel, the pace-setter.

''Not since Farrah Fawcett has a television star had such an impact on hairstyles,'' said Linda Loredo, national artistic director for Supercuts, a chain of more than 1,100 salons. ''Women are literally pouring into our stores asking for her haircut.''

The style is almost a reverse of the old shag, said Ted Cortese, co-owner of Diva Colour Studio in Memphis. It's long on the crown but cut into choppy layers on the bottom - giving it a two-length effect.

It can be worn down and poufy - for maximum adorableness - or pushed back for drama.

''Nothing about it is perfect. It's haphazard, and that's what makes it soft,'' said Cortese. Girls from 16 to 25 see a brand new way to wear long hair. Baby boomers link in to the young and feminine shag.

Chris McMillan, 30, is the California stylist who created Aniston's look, as well as the layered styles of fellow cast members Courteney Cox (Monica) and Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe).

''Jennifer had long hair, and she needed a long hairstyle so I just started layering it,'' he said. ''I kind of gave it an Ann-Margret-clued-into-that-mod-'60s look. It's such a cute hairstyle. It's so sexy.''

McMillan, who works at the fashionable Estilo salon in Los Angeles, had styled a few celebs including Christian Slater before getting a break on the Friends show last year. In 1994, McMillan was working with clients at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills when the publicist for Cox dropped by and asked him to do Cox's hair.

He quickly fixed her hair in the bathroom, and she liked it so much she asked him to do it for the show, which was about to start shooting. When Aniston saw Cox's new look, she asked McMillan for a revamp, too.

''I cut (Aniston's hair) for the character, but she has to look good in her life, too, so we did it for both,'' he said.

McMillan said he has since cut the hair of all the other major cast members, guys too, some as part of a story line this fall. Phoebe cuts her friends' hair and butchers Monica.

For Sharp, co-owner of Indigo boutique in Saddle Creek North, maintenance is no more than leaning over and blow-drying her hair from the underside. But that's not true for everybody.

Stephanie Messer, 28, a University of Memphis law student and professional model, has already been in and out of the style.

''It's supposed to be a style where you don't have to have every hair in place,'' she said, ''but it felt like more work than if you did have it all in place.''

Messer had to use two curling irons, a small one for her shorter hair and a big one for her top layers. ''If I just dried it, it stuck out everywhere,'' she said. She recently moved on to a more blunt cut.

Stylists say new trends are already nudging the Friends 'do.

Bobs are turning into ''sha-bobs,'' said Cortese, blunt in the back but shagged around the face for softness.

Linda Lockwood, stylist and makeup artist who does mostly commercial work, notes a big swing back to the late '60s, early '70s. Hair is close to the head and straight, often long and sometimes flipped on the ends like Marlo Thomas once wore. It goes with the return of heavy, smudgy eye makeup, pale lips and hiphugger pants.

''If you watch Melrose Place, Beverly Hills 90210 - they're all pulling that stuff back,'' she said. Even dark roots are starting to peep out.

But Lockwood thinks high-fashion looks are not what they used to be.

''We're in a time when people are confused about hair,'' she said. ''They want what's in.'' But on the other hand, ''They're starting to be comfortable with what works for them instead of just what's on the cover of Vogue.''
Caption: Photographs by Michael McMullan

(Color) The Friends hairstyle is shaped with a wet cut.

(Color) Amy Sharp with the style made trendy by actress Jennifer Aniston in Friends: It's long on the crown but cut into choppy layers on the bottom - giving it a two-length effect.

(Color) At Diva Colour Studio in East Memphis, co-owner Ted Cortese cuts Sharp's hair in the hot new style. ''Nothing about it is perfect. It's haphazard, and that's what makes it soft,'' he said.

Document Number: CMA11190167
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