A Cool Bruce Lee and Sharon Tribute, Sharon Web Mentions and a Look Back at Patti Tate

Here is a really cool new video of Bruce Lee and Sharon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFxBwNPTKZQ

Here are some Sharon mentions on the web for today:

http://www.ftape.com/media/?p=12634

And this one...but watch for colorful language! :

http://crazycannon.blogspot.com/2010/09/sharon-tate-january-24-1943-august-9.html?zx=b0ad5a774a5ed7ea

Here is a great look back at the lovely little sister of Sharon, Patti Tate:

And here is an old letter she wrote some years back (dated January 29, 1999) :

Hi there!

Thanks for coming to my site and wanting to know a bit more about me. As you know by now, I am Patricia Tate, known as "Patti" to my family and friends.

Many people already do know much about me and my life's circumstances. I would like to be a much more private person, but that's not what life handed me.

My father is Colonel Paul Tate and my Mom, now deceased, was Doris Tate, and they were originally from Houston, Texas. We were an Army family and were moved around the world quite a bit. We lived for awhile in Verona, Italy when I was really young. I was the baby of the family, Debbie is 5 years older and Sharon was 15 years older than me.

The only thing I feel like saying right now regarding Sharon is that most people don't realize that she was only a famous movie star for the last two and a half years of her life. I do have my own fond memories of her that I would like to remain private. It just kind of bugs me that the thing she seems most known for is her death. Is it really necessary for me to say how painful the whole thing was? Just put yourself in my shoes, how would you feel, and how would something like that affect your family?

My mother was of course, completely devastated. It took her a few years to deal with it and when she came to, she took it on with a major vengeance and became a leading Victims Rights Advocate. She fought with everything she had until the day that she died. There were times when I didn't feel like she was completely there for me, as she was so consumed by what she had to do to get laws changed and other related activities. But I took solace in the notion that if something like that had happened to me, she would fight to the end for me, too. Being a mother myself, I can now relate to where she was coming from.

In 1978, I married Don Ford, who at that time played in the NBA for the Lakers. We separated in 1992, of "irreconcilable differences". But three good things came out of our union, our children.

I have been busy these past seven years since Mom died, and Don and I split up, raising my kids and getting back into the work force. I am glad I was able to stay home with them while they were all young.

In the late winter of 1997, I felt a lump in my breast and had it biopsied, and was terrified to learn that that it was already Stage II Breast Cancer. I had a partial mastectomy and they gave me really strong chemotherapy which put it into remission by July 1997. The chemo was hell. It made my hair fall out and I thought I looked like a martian. It made me sick to my stomach and made me crazy in my head. I really thought I was going nuts! Thank God, I had family and friends to watch out for me and the kids, 'cause boy, oh boy, it was a really rough time.

I stayed in remission for over a year and went in for frequent check ups. The news was not so good in the in the fall of 1998. The cancer was back at Stage IV and had spread to my lymph system. It settled in my lungs and that's where it is. It's metastacized, like cotton candy. Breathing is a bit of a chore now. I have to be careful.

When I first told Robin the cancer was back, I told her what the Doctors had told me. There was nothing I could do and she set about making this site to get some good prayers and positive energy going. Well, two weeks ago I flew to Duke Medical University in North Carolina to hopefully be chosen to participate in the new breast cancer vaccine they're experimenting with. They didn't accept me, but what did they say was "Go home, get on some strong chemo, get the cancer into remission and come back in three months".

So that's the plan right now. I'm back on the chemo and trying to boost my immune system.

As a Christian, I believe in the power of prayer. Please pray for me and let God's will be done.



I would like to wish the very best to Patti's children and other family members.  May this wonderful lady Rest in peace.

For Monday, April 5, 2010: Rare Ebay and Fake Ebay Items on Sharon, Sharon and Bruce Lee and a Rare Movie Poster for "The Wrecking Crew"

Ebay has some rare items that I have never seen before on this week:

A rare german book:

http://cgi.ebay.de/ROMAN-POLANSKI-TRAUMATISCHE-SEELENLANDSCHAFTEN-NEU_W0QQitemZ110510957384QQcmdZViewItemQQptZBelletristik?hash=item19baf76348

And Estate Records?  It states:

TITLE: PROBATED ESTATE RECORDS OF SHARON TATE POLANSKI

DATE: DEC 8, 1969

CONDITION: VERY GOOD CONDITION. MAY HAVE SOME THINGS THAT ARE HARD TO READ.

WHERE: LOS ANGELES

PAGES: 9 PAGES

HIGHLIGHTS: THIS IS A COPY OF THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENT. ALL MATERIALS HAVE BEEN OBTAINED FROM ACTUAL COURT RECORDS. COPY OF DEATH CERTIFICATE INCLUDED. OTHER NAMES MENTIONED IN THE PROBATE INCLUDE: PAUL J. TATE, GWENDOLYN TATE, DEBORAH ANN TATE, PATRICIA GAYE TATE, ROMAN RAJMUND POLANSKI, GRACE TATE, RUTH SCROGGINS.

http://cgi.ebay.com/PROBATED-ESTATE-RECORDS-OF-SHARON-TATE-POLANSKI_W0QQitemZ120551409324QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c116c86ac

And this is a fake photo of Sharon.  The clothes look like they are from the 1980s at least and the hair is not right.  Furthermore, the face has been taken from another photo:

Yes, I realize the seller is recommended but maybe they don't realize it but I bet this is fake.  Any comments?

Here are some great photos of Bruce Lee with Sharon on the set of "The Wrecking Crew":

Here is a rare Spanish poster for "The Wrecking Crew":

Rare French Sharon Tate Article Translated, Chuck Norris and "The Wrecking Crew" and that particular song by the Beatles...

Here is one of the translated articles I had done recently.  It looks to be from a French magazine but not sure which one.  It must be around the mid sixties.

I was sad for Kim Novak...

 

The other day when I was talking about Sharon Tate, one of my friends told me:  She would make a perfect Juliet, don't you think?  I'm not sure of her talent as an actress yet but she does have the body to bend over a balcony!

Anyway, Miss Tate didn't wait for that role but she has had a nice career so far.  Just after finishing the film "13",  she began work on her new thriller, "The Fearless Vampire Killers."

She discussed this and more when I interviewed her at the Ritz.  Miss Tate is an outstandingly beautiful girl with big brown eyes wide open like radars, with long blond hair and legs that won't quit, she appears ready for anything. 

Since our last meeting, I notice that her voice seems to be lower and the bottom part of her skirt seems to be higher.

"It's true," she answered.  "I'm taking voice lessons and it has become deeper now but as for my skirt," she says, jumping to her feet and turning to look at herself in the mirror, "I have many more that are way shorter."

"They're going to arrest you," was my reply.

"Not me," Sharon said, "I'm an Aquarius and Aquarian's get along with everyone."

I said, "I'm pretty sure you were engaged to someone the last time I saw you."

"With Jay Sebring," was her answer.  (Mr. Sebring is 33.  He's a Hollywood hairdresser who get paid 15 pounds for a haircut.)  "Now it is finished.  He was trying to dominate me too much.  When I was filming a nude scene in 'The Vampire Killers' he telephoned me and tried to dispute it.

"However, we have stayed friends.  I called him the other day to find out how he was doing.  He told me that now he was going out with a 15 year old girl.  I found that totally immature.

 

"I told Jay he should be ashamed--a 15 year old! When I was 15 I was still looking for red and white striped flannel nightgowns.  I was dead scared of men.  Jay told me, 'But she's very much advanced for her age.  She knows just about everything.' "

Miss Tate sighs thinking of the strangeness of life as she emptied her cup of coffee in one shot.

"I'm dating Roman Polanski now," Sharon said.  "I have to admit that I never thought that one day I would date someone so intelligent.  He is teaching me a lot of things and shares confidences with me."

She starts biting her nails with an absent look and suddenly she notices what she is doing and looks guilty.

"I should stop doing that.  It's edginess or something like that.  I have a mass of energy inside me that I'm not using."

Do you feel you have gained some maturity in dating Polanski?

"Oh yes, absolutely.  When I arrived in London last year I was terribly shy.  Leslie Caron invited me to a party and I was thinking: What can I say to people that would be interesting?"

"I feel a lot better today.  I'm taking new vitamins from America.  They are big green ones. They're fantastic.  Without them I couldn't make it."

The nude scene that you and your exfiance got into an arguement about, was it really necessary?

"Absolutely, there isn't just one in the movie but three.  I had nothing on me but bubbles (from a bubble bath) but they covered me.  We even evacuated the stage.  The technicians are not peeping toms.  Roman told me: 'You could walk all nude in front of these men and they would not be embarrassed.  They would be embarrassed only if you are yourself.' "

And you were not?

"Exactly," she answered. 

Have you seen any shots of your first movie, "13"?

"Only a few shots," she said.  I felt disappointed for Kim (Novak) that she had to leave the film."  (Novak was replaced by Deborah Kerr in the middle of shooting because of an accident.)

"That (role) would have opened a new door for her career because she can't play an innocent girl anymore and here she had a fantastic role that was made for her.  But at the same time, it hurt her to play a mother when she used to play the type of role I was playing now.  In the beginning she didn't know I was going to be playing in the movie.  She had made herself a star playing these kinds of roles and seeing me now doing them instead of her made her sad.  A few times I noticed she was looking at me and I felt embarrassed.  However, she was always very nice to me.  I really loved her.  Her accident happened at a very bad moment."

I left her on the corner of the street and saw Sharon walking in the direction of the Piccadilly.  Her black eyeglasses on and showing her blonde hair.

--By Roderick Mann

 

Happy belated birthday to Chuck Norris who turned 70 yesterday.  He was an extra in "The Wrecking Crew" and good friends with Bruce Lee.  Here is an article on him:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/popcandy/post/2010/03/norris/1

 

What do you think of when you hear the song "Helter Skelter"?  I agree with this man's quote:

http://www.crawdaddy.com/index.php/2010/03/09/opening-the-book/

When I listen to the song “Helter Skelter”, I do not think of Sharon Tate or her murderers; in fact, I try to not think at all—thinking is the road to ruin when it comes to art. If I end up thinking while listening to “Helter Skelter”, it’s usually of Bono with his perennially open yapper telling the crowd he’s stealing the song back from another crazy asshole rotting away in prison. The thing is, that song was never stolen. Maybe it was given up by Beatle fans distraught over the news that day, but it can’t be stolen—only abused and poorly adapted.

Quote of the Week, A Mention of Bruce Lee and Sharon, An Interview with "The Ghost Writers" Olivia Williams and More

Quote of the Week:

Nan Morris-Robinson, friend of Warren Beatty's, on Sharon: "Gene Shacove and I double dated in 1964 with Sharon and Jay, who were going together. Gene and Jay, were both hairdressers and best friends. Jay was a little guy, sassy and fiery, he could do karate. Sharon had been brought into our circle by Richard Beymer. She was Richard's discovery, he got her an agent and introduced her around. I thought Sharon was the sweetest, most angelic creature, one who radiated gentility."

A mention of Bruce Lee and Sharon:

http://dr-hermes.livejournal.com/438955.html

Here is an interview with "The Ghost Writer" star Olivia Williams that mentions Polanski as well:

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/85476527.html

Here is some rare Sharon memorabilia:

Coming up this week... More translated articles...

Quote of the Week, Sharon Tate and Bruce Lee, More on Polanski and Sharon and Dorothy Dandridge?

Here is the Quote of the Week:

Hal Gefsy on Sharon: "Everywhere I took her she caused a sensation, I would take her into a restaurant and the owner would pay for her meal. She collected more business cards than anyone I've ever known."

Here is an excellent French website on Bruce Lee, it has so many great and rare photos that it takes it awhile to load--but it is well worth the wait.  In addition, there are several great photos of Sharon with Bruce! :

http://flutesilencieuse.canalblog.com/archives/p1-1.html

More interesting articles on Polanski:

http://www.cinematical.com/2010/02/20/to-belabor-a-point-the-polanski-problem/

http://elizabethkelleylaw.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/roman-polanski-why-are-we-prosecuting-this-case-now/

http://thecitygreenclub.blogspot.com/2010/02/roman-polanski-sharon-tate.html?zx=1a6f583e32da03eb

A Web mention of Sharon and Dorothy Dandridge?

http://www.nyissues.com/dorothy-dandridge-daughter-dorothy-dandridge-biography-harold-nicholas.html

Article on Jay Sebring from 2002

Here is a nice article I found on Jay that also mentions Sharon:

New York Times Sunday Magazine August 18, 2002

Message In A Shampoo Bottle
By Mary Tannen

I have interviewed many celebrity hairstylists in my day, but this would be my first dead one. I figured it would be challenging but not impossible, since the initial contact had come from him -- or at least, from his products, which had come to me through an intermediary: black packages with red lettering. I held the shampoo like a talisman, noting the cross surmounted by a circle, the Egyptian ankh, sacred symbol of life.

Up until Aug. 9, 1969, the name beneath the ankh had stood for Jay Sebring, the No. 1 haircutter to the stars, the guy who came out of beauty school and invented a whole new way of cutting men's hair. Who went into a white-coated profession dressed in hip-hugger jeans and chambray shirts. Who studied martial arts with Bruce Lee and raced sports cars with Paul Newman. Before Aug. 9, 1969, it was a name known only in select circles; afterward it was known everywhere, as the name of the man who was butchered with Sharon Tate and three others in the notorious Manson murders.

Now, here was the name again, on a bottle of shampoo, where it had been leading a parallel existence for more than 30 years. To look at it, you would not have known that the events of that heinous night had ever occurred. I felt like Jay Sebring was calling me on a mission: to restore the name to the man, to devictimize the victim.

Where to begin?
 
It didn't take the deductive powers of a Philip Marlowe to call the toll-free number on the side of the package. Right away I got lucky. Nancy Papin, executive vice president of Sebring Products, answered the phone. Her husband, Robert, had been distributing the products for two years before Sebring died. They now own the company. The products go to about 2,500 shops across the United States. Not only that, there is a certified Sebring method that is still being taught and followed. Nancy gave me a number in Houston.

Mike Guessfeld picked up. He had the soft voice of a well-raised Southern boy, and didn't stint on the ''Yes, ma'am'''s and ''No, ma'am'''s. Guided by the phantom hand of Sebring, he has been cutting hair for over 30 years. He learned the Sebring method from the two hottest barbers in New Orleans, who had once sought out Steve McQueen on location, hoping to cut his hair and establish their reputations. But when they saw McQueen, it was clear that he didn't need a haircut. In fact, they were so blown away by how good his hair looked that they went to Los Angeles to meet the man who cut it. They learned the technique and opened a Jay Sebring franchise in the Big Easy.

One of my favorite Web sites -- www.findagrave.com -- listed Jay Sebring, born Oct. 10, 1933, and revealed a simple headstone in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Southfield, Mich., for Thomas J. Kummer. The accompanying head shot could have been that of a movie star, a three-quarter profile with half the face in shadow. The expression was thoughtful, even moody. The hair was impeccable. The man who had renamed himself after an auto race in Florida, who had scored big in Hollywood, had been carried back to where he started. I was not certain he would be pleased.

It had been years since I'd been to the City of Angels. Because Sebring had driven a Mustang Cobra, I thought I should, too, but Hertz could offer only a Toyota Camry, so I took it and immediately drove to Benedict Canyon, to what had become known as the Sharon Tate house, although she and her husband, Roman Polanski, were renting it at the time she died. The low, rambling ranch house was gone, replaced by one of those mutant behemoths that seem to be spreading across the country. Farther up the canyon, I turned on Easton, looking for Sebring's Tudor, once owned by Jean Harlow. It had the head of John Barrymore carved into the rafters, secret ways to get out of the house in a hurry, sprinklers over the windows to make it look as if it were raining outside.
 
I gunned the Camry up the steep, narrow road, trying to imagine Sebring and Tate roaring up in the Cobra on their first date. According to Larry Geller, Elvis's memoir-writing hairstylist, who originally worked for Sebring, it was Gene Shacove, then the hottest women's hairstylist in Los Angeles, who first told Sebring about Tate. They were at the Luau, a restaurant next door to Shacove's salon. Geller says: ''Gene was telling us how beautiful this new starlet was, and Jay started pounding the table, saying: 'I'm going to get her. I'm going to get her.' ''

Sebring asked Joe Hyams, at that time the West Coast bureau chief and columnist for The New York Herald Tribune, to introduce him. Hyams arranged an interview with Tate at Frascati's, a restaurant on the Sunset Strip. Hyams says: ''As I was finishing the interview, Jay came in and sat down next to Sharon. After a while I left. The next day I called Jay to see how it went, and she answered the phone, so I assumed it went well.''


It was in Sebring's house that Jean Harlow's husband had committed suicide, about two months after they married. Geller remembers that when Sebring bought it, he showed him the bathroom where the body had been found, and said, ''When I go, the whole world's going to know about it.''

Is it the manner of Sebring's death that casts a Gothic shadow over his life, or was it always there? I longed to see the half-timbered house but was foiled once again. I stopped the car and looked up to where the house should have been. The California sun blinded and confused. The vegetation obscured. Frustrated, I turned back to Beverly Hills and the salon of Joe Torrenueva at Camden and Wilshire.

Torrenueva went to work at Sebring's right out of beauty school. He was 18; Sebring was in his mid-20's but already a star with his own shop on Fairfax in West Hollywood. The shop had three doors, one to the main salon, one to the private room where Sebring and Torrenueva worked and one to the office on the second floor. It would be 3:15 p.m. Torrenueva would be finishing with a client and taking the next one. Over in the other chair, waiting since 3 o'clock, would be Henry Fonda, looking at his watch. In the meantime, Torrenueva would have heard the Cobra pulling in at 2:50. At 3:20 Sebring would rush in from the outside with his cutting tools, muttering that it was crazy out there on the set, he couldn't get away...

''I idolized him,'' Torrenueva said. Sebring took him along when he went to Las Vegas every three weeks to cut hair -- Sinatra's, Sammy Davis Jr.'s, the casino owners'. Sebring would fill him in on the clients: ''These guys are from the Purple Gang in Detroit. Just keep quiet and cut. You'll be O.K.''

After the killings, the police and the F.B.I. went to see Torrenueva. He got a call from a client in Las Vegas: ''Joe, I know you're worried. Listen, you're a good guy, you never hurt no one. No one's gonna hurt you.''
 
Torrenueva, half Puerto Rican and half Filipino, showed me his scrapbook with photos of Sebring and the celebrities, many of whom now come to Torrenueva. He's small, with a complexion as clear and fine as a baby's, short dark hair just touched with silver. I felt that if he were cutting my hair and looking into the mirror instead of my eyes, the words would flow; instead they stumbled and halted.

''Sharon Tate was his girlfriend for a long time,'' he said. ''To me he always loved her. There was a mystique about him. He was very shy, except with close friends. He was guarded. He had a lot of things going on that were just ready to click.''

In the pauses and non sequiturs, I sensed the restlessness, the discontent, that haunted Sebring. Torrenueva -- married since 19, a father and grandfather -- seemed to be still puzzling over Sebring's state of mind. The handshake from this soft-spoken man was a surprise but made sense. The power was in his hands.

A block away, on Rodeo Drive, I headed into DBL Realtors. (When pursuing the deceased, it pays to play the hunches.) I described my mission to the young receptionist. Would anyone there know what happened to the Tate house? The receptionist suppressed a smile. There was someone who worked there but was out; she claims she rented the house to Sharon Tate. I left the number of my hotel.

There are still three doors to the shop on Fairfax, and it is still a salon, only now it serves women. A beautician was escorting an elderly client to the door -- red-tinted hair back-combed and lacquered to last two weeks. Blotting the vision from my mind, I tried to recall the stories about the way it had been. Larry Geller: ''One afternoon, I had just graduated from beauty school, and I saw this stained-glass window with an Egyptian ankh on the door. My first thought was that it was a beauty salon, but it was wood-paneled inside. Jay was on a ladder hanging a plant. He said this was something new, hair architecture for men. I started the next day. They shampooed. No one had ever shampooed men before. The problem was how to dry the hair. You couldn't put men under those helmets. Heat lamps were slow. Then someone heard about a hand-held plastic contraption from Europe. They began blow-drying hair, and selling the dryers to clients at cost.'' Geller adds with a laugh, ''We were artistes, not businessmen.''

Hyams once arrived on his motorcycle. While cutting his hair, Sebring asked if Hyams would show him how to ride the bike. So Sebring appeared at Hyams's house off Coldwater Canyon on a Saturday morning. Hyams said, ''He was wearing full-tailored black leather, down to the black helmet and sunglasses.'' Sebring rode up and down the street, and then asked if he could borrow the bike for the weekend. ''I got a call an hour later,'' Hyams continued. ''He had had an accident on the first turn.'' The motorcycle was pretty badly banged up, and Sebring said he couldn't afford to pay to have it fixed; would Hyams take free haircuts in exchange? At the time barbers charged around $1.50 for a haircut, and Sebring's went for $25. ''Henry Fonda would be there when I went in; there'd be starlets shampooing hair. It was the hottest place in Hollywood in the afternoon. There was gossip, coffee, pretty girls and the haircuts were damned good. It was worth the few hundred dollars in damage to get the bike repaired.''

Around the corner from Fairfax is Fred Segal, a fashion mecca then and now. At that time, Fred Segal's big idea was to tailor bluejeans. Sebring, recognizing a fellow visionary, bought the hip-hugger straight-bottom jeans and faded blue chambray shirts, and sent his staff to get them, too. Within six months, all of Hollywood was coming in. As I drifted around, looking at the artistically ripped, dyed and wrinkled street clothes for millionaires, I imagined Sebring coming by for some tight-fitting bell-bottoms to wear out to the many clubs he frequented at night: the Daisy, the Factory, the Candy Store. He was friend and barber to Warren Beatty, and some say he was, with Shacove, the inspiration for the frenetic hairdresser Beatty played in ''Shampoo.''

Back at the hotel there was a message from a realtor, Elaine Young, and three numbers. I called, and she gave me a private number to call her back. She was clearly rattled that I found her by just walking in off the street. ''I was his best friend!'' she exclaimed. She was married to Gig Young and used to go with him when he had his hair cut, to gossip and see the stars.

''Jay was very good-looking. He was crazy about Sharon. The biggest mistake he ever made was not marrying her. She left him and went to Europe and married Roman, who treated her like dirt.''

Polanski never returned to the house in the canyon. The owner of the house moved in and stayed for years. ''He said the house had good vibes.'' It sold not long ago to a developer who tore it down to build an 18,000-square-foot house that just sold for about $8 million.

The week before the murders, Young had been to see Tate. Tate wanted to redecorate a room for the baby she was expecting in a month and asked for Young's advice. ''Jay was half staying there with her,'' Young said. ''Anyone could walk in and out.'' Young was in the car when she heard the news on the radio. ''I was devastated.'' She was still a little shaken at the coincidence of my finding her, but over the years she's come to accept that her real estate karma leads to strange places: ''I sold the O.J. place to O.J.''

Before heading out to the airport, I stopped on Rodeo Drive to check out the clothes at Theodore, just as I did in the summer of '69, when I purchased a string bikini in purple panne velvet. Yes, I was in Los Angeles then, cooling off in turquoise pools high above the city, breathing in the blood-warm air heavy with jasmine, eucalpytus and sweet-smelling herb. I was riding on the Marrakesh Express with Crosby, Stills and Nash,
and although I didn't know Sebring, I was living in a world already altered by him. As Geller says: ''Jay was on top of Mount Everest. I would love to watch him style hair -- what he could do with scissors. Every movie I see from the 60's, that was our work. We created the look of the 60's.''

Until I'd made my journey guided by a ghost, I had known only the name of the victim of the man with the crazy eyes. Now I understood how much of what I had been seeing that summer had been shaped by Sebring's spirit, and how much the name lives on. The bottle of shampoo only begins to tell the story.

THE SHAMPOO BOYS

If you have to ask how much it costs to get your hair cut by a celebrity stylist, maybe you should think about going to your local star and using the money you save to buy the celebrity hairstylist's products.

VIDAL SASSOON

He came out of a London ghetto to create the swinging hair that every woman had to have in the 60's. (He did Mia Farrow's hair on the set of ''Rosemary's Baby.'') His extensive product line includes new styling appliances designed by the internationally known industrial designer Marc Newson. Blow-dryer and curling and straightening irons, from $20 to $25 each.

BRAD JOHNS

For Uma Thurman, Natasha Richardson and Talisa Soto,he's the colorist of choice. Johns calls color ''the accessory you never take off'' -- and a valuable accessory it is. Colorsave is his line, with five products to keep that expensive color job looking good, including Intense conditioner, $22, and Postconditioning spray, $18.

FRÉDÉRIC FEKKAI

This charmer from Aix-en-Provence focuses on the complete picture. He asks clients to stand while he cuts, so he can see how the hair fits the woman. His spas and accessory shops further extend the Fekkai style. Salons on 57th Street in Manhattan and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills serve clients like Renée Zellweger, Jennifer Connelly and Kim Basinger. Newest products are his Protein RX line, to repair frayed, beat-up hair cuticles. They smell comfortingly of vanilla frosting with a hint of milk of magnesia. Shampoo, $20. Treatment mask, 5.5-ounce jar, $28.50.

GARREN
 
Man of 1,000 magazine covers, who ministers to the likes of Madonna, Gwyneth and Oprah, Garren can also do you in his Henri Bendel atelier. While you're saving up your pennies, why not invest in his Designing Spray Tonic, $26, which adds volume and shine before an attack of the blow-dryer. You also might consider his new Hair Fragrance. Smell like Sheer Fig, for $35.

CHARLES WORTHINGTON

The sun never sets on this British stylist's product empire. Beginning with his first salon in London, opened in 1986, he has reached out to women around the world, offering products to solve every hair dilemma. His latest group is called Dream Hair, with ingredients to strengthen, moisturize and protect from the sun. Perfect Reflection texturizer can turn hair crises into opportunities. A little dab, and wayward locks are suddenly brilliant, $12.

JOHN SAHAG

Like Michelangelo cutting into marble, Sahag snips the shape ''demanding to be born.'' Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Jessica Parker and Winona Ryder are a few of his name clientele, who swear by Air Lift, a fast-drying styling lotion that gives them volume at the roots and lift at the crown, $13.50. Wavy and curly types are devoted to Zero Weight, $13.50 for shiny, separated bends. And everyone goes for Revitalizing Drops, for sheen and to take away frizz, $22.50.

Mary Tannen is the beauty editor of The New York Times Magazine.  Note: she will also be seen in the new Sebring Documentary.