Before there was a Louis Alexandre Raimon, or Vidal Sassoon or even a Jose Eber, there was Antoni Cierplikowski, better known as “Antoine of Paris” (1884 – 1976). He was the premiere hairdresser throughout much of the last century and his illustrious client list included such names as Carmen Polo, 1st Lady of Meirás, Lady Mendl, the Duchess of Windsor, Greta Garbo, Sarah Bernhardt, Mata Hari and Lady Wimborne – the list goes on and on. It has been estimated that after he opened his 67 salons, that stretched from Hollywood to Paris, his mark had made on over five million women.
Yet, as this article makes clear, to simply write the man off as a “celebrity hairstylist” is to ignore his myriad innovations:
• Antoine was the creator of the Bob.
• He created the Perm.
• He was the first to tint gray hair to blue.
• He was the first to apply a lacquer to hair as a fixative.
• Antoine was the first to tinge isolated elements within a hairdo blond as a streaked highlight.
Journalist John Ratcliff pointed out that the fellow was given to a personal style that ran in a direction favored by Liberace.
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