Asian J Beauty Cosmetol. 2008; 6: 0.
Study of Modern Hair Styles Represented in Femme Fatale Images from Mass Media
ABSTRACT
This article aims to discover and examine various hair styles that are present in "femme fatale" images, focusing on mass media. The femme fatale image has often inspired those artists who lived around the end of the century, and is becoming an important code that has influences over culture in general. This article investigates the femme fatale images that are revived in 20th century, from a aesthetical point of view. The article first defines what femme fatale is, and then explains the social & cultural backgrounds of the time it prevailed, and in the conclusion, it illustrates the application of femme fatale images to hair styles by showing publications of art history, fashion, and movies. First, femme fatale images from paintings reflect male instinct that is defensive against a female's overwhelming voluptuousness. Thus, it can be interpreted as men's fear of losing what they have, due to women's entry in public affairs. As a result, the images become asexual, and the hair style also tries to reduce womanhood by blending waves and straight lines. Second, the emergence of mass media such as TV, movies, or magazines in the 20th century has given the "mass" a power to form a beauty trend. Facing the problem of gender identity, women tried to find their role outside home, sexually freed themselves from men, and began to think sexual charms as their own expression of themselves. TV, movies, or magazines took the role of mediating trends and the public. In this process, the femme fatale code, which produced various images by repetitive imitation and variations, has become an important icon in expressing images. Due to the lack of preceding research which connect femme fatale with hair styling and the limited comparative analysis between articles of art and fashion, this study needs a follow up research in detail. Though it may be somewhat insufficient, I hope this article will help hair designers create unique styles rather than just touch up their customer's hair. Also, many researches with various point of view have to be made to contribute to the beauty industry and its education.
Keywords :
femme fatal, hair, image, style, mass media
