Michel Kazan, Hair Designer to Celebrities and Inventor of the Bouffant By Jonathan Englert Michel Kazan, hair designer to actresses and society figures and the creator of a seemingly endless array of famous hairdos, died May 13 at St. Luke's/Roosevelt Hospital after a long illness. His career spanned seven decades. At its height, Kazan's flagship salon, a luxuriously decorated five story townhouse in midtown Manhattan, was host to a parade of notables, including Natalie Wood, Raquel Welch, Doris Duke and even, on one occasion, Truman Capote, Lee Radziwell's companion while she was under the dryer -- Kazan never cut men's hair. In this rarified field, not known for the humility of its practitioners, Kazan, an impeccably dressed Frenchman whose head never knew a gray hair, had a reputation for gentleness, continental charm and an indefatigably personal interest in every client's coiffure, whether she was a celebrity or not. Though a promoter of many designs, he maintained, "every haircut, no matter what style, has to be individualized depending on the woman." Perhaps this explains the loyalty of his clients, the notoriously reclusive Greta Garbo being among his oldest. The salon also served as a training ground for a generation of talented stylists who would go on to prestigious careers themselves. It was here that Kenneth, known as Mr. Kenneth of Michel Kazan, became Jacqueline Kennedy's personal stylist after Michel stopped styling hair in favor of designing exclusively. Kenneth continued to give her the Bouffant, Kazan's creation, but eventually departed to follow her to the White House and the establishment of his own salon. The field over which Kazan would exert so much influence was not his first choice. In his later years, Kazan, who had aspired to be a plastic surgeon in his youth, would reflect, "I wanted to make women beautiful without cutting their faces." Lacking the funds for a medical education, Kazan initially studied painting in Paris. Later, the Comedie Francaise hired him to research and sketch authentic, period hairstyles for their productions. This influence remained with him his entire life, prompting one contemporary to describe him as a "technician with an artist's understanding of symmetry of form." In fact, throughout his long career, he would often resort to sketching to perfect a new look -- he was also a talented wig designer. His work at the theater, though, had awakened a passion for working directly on hair and soon he was cutting women's hair himself. In 1938, Kazan abandoned sketching and opened a salon on Place du Theatre Francaise. He never left the theater completely, however, as later stage credits for Hello Dolly and Auntie Mame attest. Although this venture, Salon Michel Kazan, was an immediate success, the outbreak of World War II forced him to abandon his business and emigrate to America. There he became the chief stylist for Helena Rubinstein, Inc. Kazan, at the time known simply as Michel, spent over a decade working with Rubinstein. By the time he left Rubinstein in the early 1960s, Kazan had become an international authority on hair and gained a reputation for his uncanny ability to predict seasonal trends as well as to inspire them. Over the next three decades, he forged a hair styling empire, largely in affiliation with Bonwit Teller, with salons in over twenty cities in America and Europe and sometimes surprising assignments that included designing hair for over 1800 stewardesses at Eastern Airlines and delivering mid-air styling demonstrations. In recent years, the company's operations slowed with Kazan's declining health and the bankruptcy of the upscale department store. Among Kazan's most famous creations were the French Twist, the Bouffant and the Page Boy haircuts. Others included the Fluff Cut, the Cockatoo, the Bubble, the Cleopatra, which rode the success of the eponymous Elizabeth Taylor movie, the Frizzes, and the whimsical Urchin, in which hair was "cropped and feathered like a little pixie cap." A tireless innovator, Kazan kept pace with the changing face of fashion and culture throughout the tumultuous sixties and seventies, at times adapting and at others, blazing new trails counter to a perceived trend. For example, his use of "falls", a type of hair piece, at a fashion show featuring designer James Galanos, a longtime collaborator, created a sensation that swept the world, despite the increasing popularity of the less complicated styles being pioneered by Vidal Sassoon. Kazan was also a frequent designer for Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and a host of other fashion magazines, an advisor to Chanel, as well as an oft-cited oracle on beauty, fashion and, despite his penchant for a quiet private life, society topics. His seasonal trips to Paris for inspiration and the pronouncements that would invariably follow remained cause for fevered speculation for many years. Kazan was also a deft entrepreneur. In addition to offering a line of wigs, perfume and hair care products and cosmetics, he sought to capture the American woman's appetite for beauty in short order with Pocket Full Of Curls, a pinned-on precursor of today's hair extensions, and Catch-A-Coif Corner, marketed as a glamorous pit stop for the busy student, "career girl", and young mother. Kazan believed that the secret to beauty, especially as a woman aged, was "not [to] stand still." Beautiful women, he said, "they go, they do . . . everything in life goes forward, forward, forward." He is survived by his wife, Marysia, and his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Funeral Arrangements: Viewing at Campbell's Funeral Home Wednesday and Thursday 6-9 pm. (1076 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10028 (at 81st street); (212) 288-3500) A funeral Mass will be held at 10:00 am this Friday at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan Contact Information Roman Kazan - roman@escape.com