The Detroit News
Detroit's own Hair Wars gets coffee-table book treatment
Friday, December 21, 2007 Hair Wars
What: Wild hair creations by local and national stylists
When: 6:05 p.m. Jan. 20
Where: Northfield Hilton, 5500 Crooks Road, Troy
Tickets: $20 in advance or $25 at the door. Call (313) 534-8318 or visit www.hairwarsustour.com
Ursula Watson / The Detroit News
There are hairstylists who can whip up a 'do sure to turn heads, but in the Motor City, our hairstylists are known for creating coiffures that stop traffic.
Several times a year, at events called Hair Wars, which make a stop Jan. 20 at the Northfield Hilton in Troy, strong-necked models walking down a runway balance everything from luxury cars and motorcycles to birds, flowers and even barbecue grills on their heads -- all crafted from human and synthetic hair.
Even the outfits worn by the models are often made from hair.
This bold art subculture of sorts evolved from the hyperactive imaginations of black Detroit hairstylists and is captured in a book titled "Hair Wars" (powerHouse Books, $39.95) by photographer David Yellen with Johanna Lenander, who wrote the introduction and interviews. The pair spent two years traveling to Hair Wars shows and hair salons for the book.
Yellen and Lenander, who are married, attended a Hair Wars show at the Apollo Theater in New York's Harlem three years ago. Yellen was there to take pictures for Life magazine. To say the least, he says, the experience was eye-opening. "I was looking at some of the models thinking, 'How did you fit through the doorway?'"
Yellen, whose last book, "Too Fast for Love: Heavy Metal Portraits" with co-author Chuck Klosterman, is no stranger to the fringe-dwellers of mainstream society.
"I love things that have their own unique beauty, things that are very rare. As a visual (Hair Wars), it is just stunning. It is shocking and, at the same time, hilarious."
During the Apollo hair show, Yellen met David Humphries, also known as "Hump the Grinder," who is credited for bringing hair and entertainment together in Detroit.
Hair Wars began in the mid-1980s when stylists showed off their designs in Detroit nightclubs.
"It was not about the money; it was not a contest," says Humphries, whom the New Yorker magazine crowned "the Don King of black hair entertainment." "They wanted to create something to perform in (a show or a production). Secondly, it was the advertising."
The hair shows grew in popularity, and in 1994, Humphries took what was christened "Hair Wars" on the road, taking the show to cities such as Atlanta, Miami and Los Angeles.
The shows are alive with music and choreographed dances. The hairstylists have been known to rap and sing. Over time, Detroit hairstylists became legends for their creative hair designs. Little Willie is credited with placing a zipper in hairstyles called the French roll, which could be unzipped to reveal anything from a python to a bottle of Champagne.
Michael Turner, who was known as Mr. Little, presented flashy, high-energy shows that featured hair creations such as the Hairy-copter, which has a working propeller. Before he died this year in a motorcycle accident, he made appearances on "America's Next Top Model," "The Ricki Lake Show" and, fittingly, "Ripley's Believe It or Not." Yellen's "Hair Wars" book is dedicated to Turner.
Weave artist Steven Noss took Turner's Hairy-copter one step further during an appearance on "The Ricki Lake Show." The propeller actually lifted off the model's head, bringing new meaning to flyaway hair.
"It took a month to design and two weeks to create because I had to get the physics right," says Noss of Pittsburgh. "I had to have enough hair, but not too much, so the propeller would lift off the head and fly." Noss attended Hair Wars events in Detroit and around the country for six years before he entered a fantasy hair event in 2000.
"The shows are exciting, hot, street and edgy, and I was usually the only white guy there," he laughs. "They welcomed me with open arms and especially in Detroit."
While hair shows are nothing new, Noss says there is a clear difference with Hair Wars and other hair-centric shows. "What I see at 99 percent of hair shows geared toward European hair is a hairstylist just pulls a model's hair in a ponytail and then puts some ornaments in it. Not the black shows. It is about hair and black culture, not ornaments."
Why did this hair-gone-wild concept take root in the black community? Humphries says the brash nature of fantasy hair is an extension of Detroit and its people. "We are fashionable people, trendsetters. We are an aggressive people," he says. "Think about it. It was the aggressive people who came from the South to the North to make money in the factories."
Humphries says the in-your-face attitude found at Hair Wars and in the book is not for everyone. "You can't please everybody. This book is putting it out there that this is the way it is and what we do. The focus is on hair."
While the focus of the book is hair, one can't help but marvel at some of the models in their revealing, hairy outfits. The models come in all sizes and shades, and many don't fit the mainstream idea of what a model looks like.
"This book represents the cousin down the street. We have pretty models, crazy-looking models. There is no air-brushing. Again, it is really about the hair," Humphries stresses.
You can reach Ursula Walker at uwalker@detnews .com.