Buried Treasures - Hair Styles In Cosmopolitan Magazine

Introduction

I used to be wild about Cosmopolitan Magazine during the reign of the amazing Helen Gurley Brown. As I got older and wiser and Helen retired, I left my Cosmo reading days behind.

One of my jobs as Tips & Articles writer for Hair Boutique is to look at all the Hair and Beauty magazines that are loaded onto the Dallas newsstands every month.

Normally I don't buy Cosmo, but for some reason the June 98 issue had a gorgeous cover shot of my favorite long hair blonde model, Claudia Schiffer.

I could not resist and decided I would buy the magazine for her photo alone (are you reading this Cosmo editors?).

Once I got home I decided to just quickly thumb through the magazine. I was amazed, shocked and pleased by the large number of buried hair styling treasures I found in this amazing magazine.

Normally Cosmo features a good monthly column called Cosmo Hair that has great hair care tips. In the June 98 Cosmo, this column almost pales (well not really) by comparison with all the wonderful hair styling tips and features and photos crammed throughout the rest of the magazine.

I had a strong feeling in my bones that this June issue was going to be very special when I found a full page Aveda ad on Page 8. I was thrilled. I felt very proud. My favorite hair care product was in the front of such a big name publication. WOW. I studied the Aveda product photos and worried that I must be a little nuts to be so excited by my hair product making it into Cosmo.

As I continued to thumb along I stumbled onto Page 13. There I found a great photo of Gabby Reece with her sun streaked shoulder length hair. Nice healthy hair for a woman out in the sun so much.

Page 14 had the beautiful Claudia in all her straight blonde glory talking about her beauty secrets. Her cover hair style is described in detail using L'Oreal products which Claudia is a current spokesmodel for. Peter Savic of NYC hair is credited with creating Claudia's stunning blonde look.

Madonna In Pre-Raphaelite Curls

Page 28 has a really good head shot of Madonna in her Pre-Raphaelite curls. I have always like Madonna because her hair is always changing. I don't always agree with her hair styles, but I think she looks great in her long curls.

Page 29 has a long haired brunette model although you can't see the back of her hair. Oh well. It is nice to see longer haired models.

As I continued to thumb through this gold mine Cosmo issue I was amazed at the great hair everywhere. The bottom part of Page 68 has 7 models wearing the latest day glo fashions. I was pleased and amazed to see at least shoulder length hair on several of the models. Two of the models display slicked back buns which Hair Boutique has been talking about a lot lately.

By now I was really getting jazzed about the whole Cosmo issue. I was thinking that I had found a real gold mine in all the great hair stuff. Could it get any better I wondered? Nope. As I continued to thumb onward, more and more hair stuff kept popping out at me.

Page 72 had a darkly tanned Guess model with thick curly shoulder length hair. Page 73 had a tastefully nude women modeling Elizabeth Arden Salon creme. The cool thing about the model is that she is flashing a wonderful example of a French twist bun to the camera. I studied that bun for at least 10 minutes. I didn't even notice that she was tastefully nude. All I cared about was whether I could see her hair pins in her twist.

Heather Graham And Rebecca Romijn

I turned the Page to 74 and there were all the celebrity Tinseltown toes with the latest summer polish shades on the celebrities including Minnie Driver with her gorgeous curls and Heather Graham with her bra length soft brunette locks. Rebecca Romijn was in the same lineup with her shoulder length flip. Great hair and great toenail polish. All on one page.

Page 76 had the first of two Cosmo Hair columns and it was so full of hair information I had to stop and read the page a couple of times. Not only were there pictures of all the great hair styles from the recent Oscar night, but there was a whole list of Dos and Don'ts for visiting your favorite hair salon.

The Oscar hair included Halle Berry's sexup updo, Madonna's sexy long curls, Cameron Diaz's glamorous hair barrette, Drew Barrymore's famous daisies, Jennifer Lopez's highlighted locks, Celine Dion's big bouffant, Winona Ryder's super short do and Neve Cambell's curls.

Cosmo Hair interviewed famous hair stylists Robert Gooding, Joseph Kenall, Allen Edwards, Daniel Galvin and Frederic Fekkai for quotes on how to be a good hair salon customer. You may be surprised by their comments. Some of the comments were quite entertaining and a lot of them were just about having good manners.

Cosmo Hair Column

By the time I hit the Cosmo Hair column I was still wondering if the hair could get any better in this magazine. The answer was a big yes. In fact, on the very next page was a gorgeous redhead with a very healthy head of shiny red straight hair. I studied her photos to look at the uneven messy part and noticed her healthy ends and the subtle highlights. Great hair.

Page 78 is the second Cosmo Hair column. WOW. Two great hair columns in just one magazine. The second Cosmo Hair column was just as chock full of great hair stuff as the first. The top of the page unveiled summer's sexy new auburn hair color trend with great photos of Helene Christensen, Uma Thurman, Trish Goff, Laetitia Casta and Linda Evangelista. The surprising thing was that all of the models had longer hair lengths. Linda Evangelista had the shortest hair with a bob to the bottom of her neck. The new auburn shades are stunning.

Never fear, Cosmo Hair graciously gives you detailed information for finding a colorist to visit for the latest auburn colors (Sharon Dorram of NYC's Joh Frieda) or what products to use at home (L'Oreal Casting Tone-on-Tone Gentle Coloran in Redwood). Another option is Clairol's Natural Instinct's in Nutmeg.

If you are not blown away by the auburn haired beauties, you may be interested in the hair accessories reviewed at the bottom of the page. Colette Malouf's beautiful enameled flower hairpins are displayed along with Kerri Linden's beautiful pastel barrettes and sticks. I really loved the hairpins. Very classy.

Cosmo Monthly Beauty Q&A

Page 89 is the Cosmo monthly Beauty Q&A column with a question on Hot Highlighting. This column covered how to have your boyfriend highlight your hair at home. Really. Check it out. Of course I personally would never consider letting my boyfriend, my best friend or my dog highlight my hair at home, but the tips are actually quite interesting.

Page 112 contains a great photo of Mariah Carey with her naturally curly hair hanging down to her chest. The model on page 121 for Zero Frizz demonstrates a sweep of very thick gorgeous auburn locks. The before and after hair photos are amazing.

Page 137 has a model with a gorgeous summer braid. Page 152 has a photo of Katherine Ross and Dustin Hoffman from the Graduate. The 1998 Katherine sports a very short hair style, but her long brunette locks looked great in her Graduate wedding dress.

Page 199 is the Cosmo June Calendar. I learned that short haired beauty Courteney Cox is a June 15th Gemini, that Origins is releasing a new bad hair day treatment and Johnny Depp turns 35. The only thing the Cosmo calendar forgot was my birthday on the 23rd. But hey, they can't remember everything.

Kate Winslet's Ringlets

Page 214 starts a 4 page spectacular spread of yet more celebrity hair from the 98 Oscars. Kate Winslet's ringlet curls are featured along with Ashley Judd's short flowered decorated do. Sharon Stone's hair is shockingly short while Madonna's is amazingly long. Claudia's long blonde hair shimmers while Jennifer Lopez displays a long sweep of hair to her waist.

Note: Visit The Kate Winslet Gallery and Kate Winslet Hair Page.

Page 230 through 243 has yet more great hair shots. The Ray of White article features several pages of a blonde with very unusual and interesting bangs, highlights and styles. Page 238 is the starting page for the Love Locks Not Curly, Not Straight feature article about having long, tousled, windblown, romantic hair. The first page of the article has a blond with very long, thick and tousled hair. Beautiful.

Page 240 displays 7 female celebrities with longer, romantic, very wavy hair. The top of the page has detailed instructions on how to care for Wavy, Straight or Curly hair. Some of my favorite products are recommended. Aveda PureFume Brilliant Retexturing Gel is recommended for wavy hair while Redken Undo Weightless Finishing Creme is recommended for Straight hair. Sebastian's Xtah Twisted Taffy is recommended for Curly hair. I was only slightly disappointed that they did not mention my favorite curly hair goddess, Ouidad, or her products.

Wigs, Extensions Or Neither?

Page 243 has an unusual model with what looks like two tone, two part hair. The top part of the hair is short and blunt with the longer part a darker brown handing to her waist. Check it out. Is she wearing a wig, extensions or neither? You tell me.

Believe it or not, I was starting to believe I had hit the last of the hair hot spots when I found a wonderful messy bun on page 255. Cosmo graciously provided photos of Melrose Place star Brooke Langton demonstrating different stretches. The photos show off her messy bun from several great angles.

As I cruised towards the end of the magazine I found yet another messy bun on page 275 in a Virginia Slims ad.

Finally my fingers rested on the last page of the magazine where I found the Cosmo Last Gasp column and more noteworthy celebrity hair. This unusual and entertaining column displayed carbon copy celebrities down to their carbon copy hair styles. Neve Campbell and Demi More were both photographed wearing the same short hair flip while Fran Drescher and Laura Harring showed off identical updos. Check out the last page for more details.

I finally managed to close the back cover and pry the Cosmo out of my weary hands. Sitting before me on the desk was the Cosmo magazine with gobs of little yellow stickies hanging out of the edges so I could find my way back and report all this great hair stuff to the Hair Boutique visitors.

Now my major concern is for all the past Cosmos that I have missed while I was focusing on the mainstream beauty magazines. You can bet that I will be standing in a checkout lane next month with my $3.00 clasped in my hot little hands while I buy the July Cosmo issue. Stay tuned for more great hair sightings.

Social Media Network Information

Please follow me on Twitter at: http://Twitter.com/HairBoutique. I look forward to meeting new people from all walks of Twitter and learning from their Tweets. Visit us at Hairboutique.com located at: http://www.HairBoutique.com, on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.

Thank you for visiting us at The HairBoutique Blog and for leaving your comments. They are very much appreciated. We apologize in advance but must remove any direct advertisements or solicitations.

Original Publication Date: 3/1998 - Revised Publication Date: 03/22/11

If you want to talk more about this or other hair care articles on HairBoutique.com or anywhere else, please post a message on HairBoutique.com's Hair Talk Forums.