“This was the most unkindest cut of all.”
Posted on 08/26/2007 5:51:23 PM PDT by dighton
Howard Fugler, who has died aged 57, was a hairdresser whose client list included many of the film stars and famous recording artists of the age.
After a successful career with Vidal Sassoon in London, he moved to New York and, as a freelance, earned a reputation across the United States as “one of the great Sassoon crimpers”, attending to figures such as Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Elizabeth Taylor, Mick Jagger and Madonna. He also worked with most of the world’s leading models, photographers, make-up artists and fashion houses.
Known for his flamboyant dress and snazzy hairstyles, Fugler was a larger-than-life character as well as a gifted stylist. In his younger days, in keeping with the Zeitgeist, he practised excess in almost every aspect of his life, eating, drinking (he was a reformed alcoholic), dieting and shopping on a heroic scale.
In London on the first morning of the January sales, Fugler would brave the crowds at Liberty and Selfridge’s, only to return during the afternoon’s pandemonium to change whatever he had just bought. He was a familiar face in designer shops from London to New York and Los Angeles.
In the late 1990s, after grappling with a drink problem for several years, Fugler joined Alcoholics Anonymous and dried himself out, fitting in much charity work on behalf of AA around his hairdressing commitments.
Howard Edward Fugler was born on Christmas Eve 1949 and grew up at Stamford Hill, north London. Leaving Brook House comprehensive school at 15, he started work with Vidal Sassoon at his salon in Bond Street and later at the Grosvenor House hotel on Park Lane.
Rapidly developing his styling skills, Fugler was still a teenager when he became Sassoon’s youngest-ever stylist, with a client list that included Sassoon’s then wife Beverly Adams.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Fugler spent time in New York and Beverly Hills establishing Vidal Sassoon salons in the United States before turning freelance. He later concentrated on editorial, advertising and promotional assignments, working with well-known photographers, fashion magazines and the world’s leading models, from Jean Shrimpton to Kate Moss. In 1989 he styled the hair of the models on all but one of the 36 covers of American Vogue, Harper’s and Cosmopolitan magazines.
Despite the constraints of confidentiality agreements, Fugler liked to talk more about the people he met than about the work he did, and was an abundant but discreet source of celebrity gossip.
Once, when he became testy on a job, the supermodel Naomi Campbell called him a “bitter old Louise”; rather than be offended, Fugler dined out on the fact that she had put him in his place.
Another story he told against himself concerned his visit to a fashionable London restaurant where he wanted to pull some tables together for some friends. The staff demurred, pointing out that the position of the furniture was critical to the establishment’s feng shui and could not be moved.
An exasperated Fugler finally confronted the manager and hissed: “Do you know who I am?” Turning to the other diners, all of whom were following this unfolding drama, the manager asked: “Does anyone know who this man is? He seems to have forgotten.”
Fugler’s personal extravagance extended to his charity work (he would frequently help out at Alcoholics Anonymous in New York) and to his family and friends, to whom he regularly gave generous gifts.
Howard Fugler died of heart failure in New York on August 9. He was unmarried.
He might have made me start drinking again.
I was drunk!
His clientele: Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Elizabeth Taylor, Mick Jagger and Madonna.
Think about it. These people had the worst hair in Hollywood. The worst hair anywhere.
I bet he even did Jim Trafficante’s hair.
Alas, he just never found the right girl.
You won’t get any cutting remarks from me.
**
And I promise not to get snippy.
God bless our old poofs. He knows life would be far more boring without them.
“This was the most unkindest cut of all.”
As I hinted in the first comment, look for one outstanding line.
&&
I got it the first time, I just thought “the line” was perfectly obvious and still not original.
***
To Lonesome:
Ditto on the line, “Does anyone know who this man is?”
To dighton:
I, too, was confused; I thought you were soliciting wisecracks.
You guys are making me LOL!!
Pillow biter?
Ground rules and assumptions: Default position: Lacking evidence to the contary, assume that the vast majority of freepers “get it”.
British newspapers have turned the obit into an true art form.
For the funniest one I’ve ever read, see Mark Steyn’s obit of Canaan Banana.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1024308/posts.
Yeah, but it still should have tipped you off when her babysitter called the police!
Among my favorites, Pamela Nelson-Edwards and companion piece.
Whatever, that's all in the past. I raise goats now. Goats won't lie. Sheep are liars.
Yes, over 90 fahrenheit.
Everyone was sweating like crazy.
But it was a funeral with almost 300 people in the church. They couldn't say, "Let's bag Communion and go chill some place more comfortable."
So everyone did their best and got through it.
On an unrelated note: It was presided over by Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire who has come under such criticism and controversy recently.
I've heard him preach before, but not at length like yesterday.
I kinda like the guy. He made a very good impression.
Now I know I've been out in the heat too long. ;-)
Hair today, gone tomorrow.
RIP.
^^^
Definitely. I frequently mark a thread just because I know that when I go back to it later I will find a lot of clever wise cracks.
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