Ryan Teal Shares Sydney Guilaroff
“The best thing about studying these amazing Hairdressers from our past is that we are no longer allowed to just be Mediocre, We have to strive to be the best we can be. If not for us we owe it to these Legends. If our best is to work 1 day a week part time than we better be the best part time hairdresser we can be. We owe it to our Ancestors, to our Mentors when we let ourselves down by not being the best we let down Antoine, or Alexandre De Paris or Sassoon. We have a rich legacy and history to live up to and we need to respect that, as well as the craft, and the life style that we have chosen. When we study our history we realize that we are standing on the Shoulders of great men and women in our industry. We are STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS of GIANTS!!!” GO BE AWESOME;-) ~ Ryan Teal
Sydney Guilaroff
(November 1906 - May 1997)
Born in London, England, Guilaroff originally set out to be an architect, which speaks loudly to the sense of design and amazing details his work would always portray. Due to an injury, Guilaroff’s life would change when he became the Protégé of Antoine De Paris at the prestigious Antoine's Salon in 1925. Sydney soon became one of their best hairdressers catching the eye of Joan Crawford catapulting him into a whole new world working on the big screen as chief hairdresser for the MGM Studios.
Working with stars like Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra he quickly became the Super-Hair-O of the silver screen driving women and even men to duplicate Sydney's trendy looks of the stars.
He was well known for transforming Lucille Ball from blonde to siren red…
Marlene Dietrich’s mind blowing up do…
And his first signature bob worn by Louise Brooks…
Over the many years of working together, Sydney became besties with Marilyn Monroe. He was actually one of her last phone calls the day of her passing.
Sydney was the first named hairstylist to ever receive any credit on film (“The Wizard of OZ”,1939) and also the first bachelor to ever adopt a child making legal history and setting the mark for years to come.
Sydney’s career spanned for over 50 years (1934 - 1987) with over 4,000 onscreen views of his masterpieces, creating the countless iconic looks we still strive to replicate to this very day.
Sydney Guilaroff was one of our greats and is one hairstylist every Hair Nerd should know!