Going Ape

It looks like a pile of leaves partially eroded by blight, or like a wet mop, upended, after a hard day on the kitchen floor. But this particular disaster area is no accident; it is a hairstyle, the purposeful creation of coiffeurs who see "the Ape" as the newest, most chic head around.

Other styles have been wispier (the Char), wilder (the Afro), more exaggerated (the Artichoke) and harder to maintain (the Poodle). But until now, women had not seriously considered a hairdo based on a multitude of lengths, from very short on top, to slightly longer along the sides, to a long, lank finale down the neck. They never considered it for good reason: it was sure to look abominable. But then so do midiskirts. And with hems gone to ungainly lengths, why not hair too? What better way to play both ends against the mini?

"The short-long cut.'' says Stylist Vidal Sassoon, "is the only right and logical combination to wear with the new fashion lengths." Leonard of London, who insists he invented it. is so happy with the Ape cut and so virtuoso at it that 75 top Japanese hair stylists flew in last week to study his techniques. Julie Christie, Mary Quant and the cast of Hair have all left theirs on English cutting-room floors. In Paris, the Duchess of Windsor, Mme. Herve Alphand and Claudia Cardinale have gone for Alexandre's version of the style; Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren settled for Apelike wigs. Alba of Rome's Alba & Francesca (who fittingly names the cut "degrade") has left Queen Anne Marie of Greece a shaggy exile, and last week even Ingrid Bergman went Ape at the hands of Giorgio of the Via Borgognona.

Actress Judy Carne, who turned up with the cut on Laugh-In, was told, "It's untidy." "That's it. You've got it," she replied. "The messier it is, the better," says Stylist Gene Shacove. "If an ape cut it himself, it would probably be a bigger hit." Manhattan's Paul McGregor, longtime advocate of the cut, gave it its first public exposure a year and a half ago atop the head of Actress Jane Fonda. McGregor, who sees the style as not only ageless but sexless, has monkeyed with Warren Beatty, Geraldine Chaplin, Donald Sutherland and all of his own family of six. "It is a true hairstyle," he says, "unlike the faking and teasing that makes so many women over 21 look like hookers. Now an older woman can wear long hair in the back without looking silly; the short hair in the front saves her."

The Ape has its practical advantages. Starting out unruly, it never looks worse growing out, needs nothing more than a trim every four months. For women who feel Pollyannaish with short hair, the hank at the neck lends reassurance if not beauty. And for those who want to go simian but are slightly squeamish, there is always Sassoon's new way out: the Veil, with a long thin screen of hair completely covering the face. Blinking, obviously, is a nono.

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