Reply With QuoteMy first response would be: "Who cares?".
My second response: Of course he had thinning hair! If he had not dyed it he would probably have a full head of grey hair, like Vernon. But after years and years of dying it, of course it gets thinner!
Larry Geller says "yes"!
I know this might seem like a trivial topic... but it's one I've thought about for some time. Again, it is revealing of Elvis' mortality. Although Geller's comments must always be taken with a pinch of salt, IMO, I think he can be reasonably trusted in his assessment of Elvis' hair:
Running some further searches on Google, I found a correlating source:From http://www.gellercare.com/faq/index.php
There are a small percentage of people who, like Elvis, were dealt a royal flush in the DNA department. Even though they break all the laws of good nutrition or lead highly stressful lives, their hair is not affected. Unfortunately this is not the case with the majority of us. For Elvis it is true that his lifestyle was extremely stressful, and along with an array of prescribed medications, a steady diet of junk food and a lack of physical exercise, his body eventually bore the full brunt of his exertions. Towards the end of his life, Elvis began to suffer from a host of debilitating health problems, yet despite the array of forces working against the health of his hair, it always appeared full and thick. Though Elvis was blessed with an exceptional, full head of hair, at the end his crown area was in the first stages of showing signs of thinning. I attribute this to years of neglect of his health, including a diet of junk foods and an exhausting and devitalizing lifestyle and toxic damage. I'm confident that my efforts over the years to keep his hair as healthy and attractive as possible slowed down the process so that it wasn't readily noticeable.
You learn something new every day!From http://www.elvisconcerts.com/newspapers/press31.htm
The Fayetteville Observer
August 4, 1976.
The king came , and his followers greeted him with screams and tears.
It didn't matter much that the heart throb of the late 1950s and early 1960s is now 40 years old.
The fact that the slender figure now has a stomach proluding over the belt of his flashy costume and that his shaggy hair is thinning on the crown was of little significance.
Last edited by Cryogenic; 04-07-2005 at 02:05 AM.
My first response would be: "Who cares?".
My second response: Of course he had thinning hair! If he had not dyed it he would probably have a full head of grey hair, like Vernon. But after years and years of dying it, of course it gets thinner!
I think He had a wonderful great hair. ABSOLUTELY
He had awsome wonderful hair even till the end, all the people who had seen him in those years say that THE HAIR was really surprisingly full and beautiful.
I think it was thinning but not in a way it would be noticed soon. Not in a alarming way. He always had much and thick hair dispite the fact he dyed it for many years. It could have been quite possible that if he could have set aside his use of medication and started a more healthy life his hair would have stabilized. I personally believe the thinning of his hair was just a side effect and had nothing to do with aging. Although he was grey quite early in life.
Even in 1977 - his last year - he still had this erotic appeal to his fans. It's sad for me that I was born in 1985, because I would have loved to feel his hair in my hands - really erotic!
But anyway - I would have loved his music for what it was, not because of the thickness of his hair.
Definitely.
But this is an Elvis board... therefore, we discuss Elvis. Music, clothing, life, health, attitudes... everything.
Exactly, because Elvis was more than just a mucisian. It's the whole concept of what made Elvis Elvis. And every little piece is like a piece of the puzzle. The more piece you have the more you understand what drove him.
Thanks, Leroy.
I feel that certain fans are FAR too defensive at times. A little bit of objectivity and open mindedness goes a long way.
While searching for relevant quotes from Larry Geller on Elvis' hair, I found another where he said that Elvis' hair was grey/white and that it was Elvis himself who said he wanted to keep dying it to remain youthful in appearance. While this would have seemed a pretty reasonable assumption for anybody that knows about Elvis Presley to any decent degree to make, it's nice to have it verbalised by someone that actually worked on his hair. I've actually read some comments before in which it was implied/stated that Elvis wanted his natural colour but the Colonel refused to allow it; that kind of nonsense (be it articulated out of a genuine belief of it being true or made up entirely) doesn't make the Colonel OR Elvis sound good. Perhaps the Colonel gave his opinion on it (and that's assuming he even knew)... but what kind of a person would force a grown man to dye his hair a certain colour and what kind of grown man would go along with it? Honestly, the Elvis myth gets spun to ludicrous proportions at times.
I totally agree, If Elvis wanted his hair natural he would have done so..... The Colonel would have little or no influence in this matter IMO. Vanity is part of the business that Elvis was in, had Elvis not been bothered about his hair he would not have dyed it from the late 50's early 60's. It could possibly have been due to grey hair why Elvis started, but I'm sure he could have matched the natural colour it was even back then!!Originally Posted by Cryogenic
Matt
One of the reasons Elvis dyed his hair was because he always liked the hero of the silent movie Rudolph Valentino who also had black hair. When Elvis saw the results on the movie screen (Loving You) he decided he came out better.
I think the greying came later on, somewhere in the second half of the sixties. Remember he did two movies with his own natural color; "Follow That Dream" and "Kid Galahad".
It brought a lot of work because he also had to dye his eyebrows and lashes. He also had to use mascara. Somewhere in 1976 he stopped doing that for a while and it made him look strange....
I've had he was influenced by Roy Orbison. Then again, I've also heard Valentino was the person who inspired him to grow sideburns when the general consensus seems to be he got them as a result of being a truck driver. It's hard to know what to believe sometimes. There may be some truth in one, none or both; the truth may even lie somewhere else.One of the reasons Elvis dyed his hair was because he always liked the hero of the silent movie Rudolph Valentino who also had black hair.
He also sported his natural colour in the army. Though, even by that relatively early time, his hair had supposedly changed from a sandy blond to a reddish brown.I think the greying came later on, somewhere in the second half of the sixties. Remember he did two movies with his own natural color; "Follow That Dream" and "Kid Galahad".
While on the subject of hair and its appearance in his films... Didn't Elvis wear wigs from time to time? His hair looks a little odd in some of his later films. I think it's fairly obvious he sported one in "Kissin' Cousins" (gah! what a film title!) but I'm talking about what we're supposed to believe is his own hair looking strange from time to time; sometimes, it looks overly "straight" or "overly neatly bound" for want of better descriptions. What has me convinced that it's a good possibility he wore wigs from time to time is when I found a picture on www.elvisnews.com from "Jailhouse Rock". All of its pictures are extensively sourced and captioned and this one explicitly stated that Elvis was wearing a wig.
As for his non-movie based appearance...
Elvis kept his hair loss and grey strands well hidden. I've never seen a single picture that reveals either. Come to think of it, I've never seen a single picture of him wearing real glasses with corrective lenses in. The only thing he couldn't really hide was his bloated appearance. Considering all the negative press that gets, perhaps it was indeed wise of him to reveal as few physical weaknesses as possible...
There doesn't seem to be much evidence of any mascara post-Aloha. I think he either stopped obsessing so finitely about his appearance or maybe stopped this particular aspect for health reasons (mascara might have aggravated his glaucoma, perhaps...?). Or maybe it's just me. Most of the time, no matter what the era, I can only faintly detect something around his eyes; though I can quite clearly see him wearing some from a 70s concert (the pic may even be in TCB World's gallery - an up-close shot of him wiping his face on a towel).It brought a lot of work because he also had to dye his eyebrows and lashes. He also had to use mascara. Somewhere in 1976 he stopped doing that for a while and it made him look strange....
Last edited by Cryogenic; 04-08-2005 at 08:16 PM.
The only times Elvis wore a wig was in the movie "Jailhouse Rock" where he's supposesed to have his hair cut before imprissonment and the blonde wig in Kissin' Cousins. Somewhere around 1964 he stopped using grease and started the hairspray era. This is also the period Larry Geller came into the picture. From that moment on Elvis got the most ingenius hairstyle ever. But I can assure you that it was no wig. It was cut in a certain way. On the sleeve of the Spinout album you can see that it was a real hairspray style.
Elvis used mascare to darken his lashes various times after Aloha. I you wanna see very clear pictures of you must look at the July tour of 1975. His lashes were so heavy and dark comparing to 1976.
Exactly, I was also thinking about that tour where the lines around his eyes looked way darker. But even so: with the spotlights on, you have to emphasize various trades of your face (like your eyes). So on-stage makeup is nothing new or rare.
With the thousands of pictures taken of Elvis throughout the 70s, why don't we see the 'bald spots' that (negative) reviews write about in newspapers? It's more than logical that Elvis' hair in 1976/1977 was not completely to be compared with 1956, but I've never seen any significant signs of heavy forms of thinning hair.
"A year from now, you'll wish you had started today"
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Albert, the fact that your hair gets thinner doesn't directly mean bald spots will be visible. Especially with the kinda hair Elvis had it would take a long time before a bald spot would form. There were some visitors of Vegas shows in 1976 who claimed to have seen a bald spot but that was outgrow.
What was visible was that the sides of his hair went slowely backward.
Oh, give me a break!
True, poor nutrition and other lifestyle factors can keep hair from being as full or lustrous or what not, but when I say full in that regard I am speaking of the diameter of the individual hairs, not how full a head of hair someone has, which is primarily determined by the quantity of them. Losing some hair is possible as a result of poor health--certainly some illnesses, but the predominant factor for determining when, to what degree, and in what manner one loses his or her hair is genetics. Period.
There are plenty of people who eat junk food or abuse drugs or alcohol or whatever who have great hair--duh!
I think Elvis' hair did thin towards the end, but as has been said, not to the point where his scalp was visible in places other than a part in his hair. There was just less of it overall. Think of how "big" his hair looked in TTWII; it wasn't that way towards the end. But that's not to say it looked bad--not at all. It basically just looked normal. His hair was fine (the hairs themselves, thin) but his head was extraordinarily full of them, so he had plenty of room to lose some before it would have ever become noticeable in the way of thinning areas showing.
His hair being as full as it was is part of the reason why it looked at times like he was wearing a wig.
He did have a little hairline recession. It certainly wasn't bad, but because of it, I'm actually surprised he styled his bangs up for shows at the end. Otherwise you couldn't tell. But really it was not very noticeable anyway.
...you won't forget me when I go.
I honestly don't know why it is sometimes so h-a-r-d for some to see Geller for what he is ----> he's a self-promoting schmuck selling snake-oil & bamboozling easy marks ........... both then & now.
The Col.'s own words to Geller ---> "I think you missed your calling, Son ...." (paraphrased).
It's quite ironic that Geller has so much distaste for The Col.; it is also very revealing for those that take a moment to really think about it. The Col. had him pegged & kept him on a leash ........ for reasons that had nothing to do with his "positive"influences on Elvis.
Hint: Does the phrase .... "Don't Con a Con-Man" ........ mean anything here?
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I agree with Lonnie: "Gimme a break!" Geller is as slick as he is a joke.
- Capt. "EL."
Maybe....... or perhaps it wasn't readily noticeable because onlookers were so taken aback by the gawdawful styling choices.Originally written by Larry Geller
I'm confident that my efforts over the years to keep his hair as healthy and attractive as possible slowed down the process so that it wasn't readily noticeable.
Eileen
You do bring up an excellent point, Eileen.
To add further: If you ask others who were there about "Elvis' Personal Hairdresser / Spiritual Guru" (Larry's self-created "Title") -----> most, if not all, will tell you that "Elvis didn't have a hairdresser." (Paraphrased).
E had many filling that role. I can also relay to you the following FACT - there were others who cut / worked on E's hair even all the way up to & including 1977.
Yes, Geller cut E's hair a lot. So did others. He's the only one going around inflating that specific role into something it isn't.
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The same also applies to the "Guru" title. Geller was not the only, nor the first, to indulge E with this kind of esoteric nonsense (from the 1950's - before Geller ever even meet Elvis, up thru 1977); he, again, is merely the most vocal about it.
Geller ............... then & now .......... is a Charlatan.
(Once again, the perennial disclaimer - JMO - ie: those who do not like it ----> can take it or leave it, fwiw).
Am merely taking the time to contribute some reality / TRUTH to this thread. Hopefully, ......... others will learn a bit of critical thinking themselves, in the process.
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Final note: How many have forgotten about "The Elvis Diaries" that E (according to Geller), asked Geller to keep for him in order to tell his story to the fans. (On further inquiry, Geller will elaborate that the diary was actually some of his personal thoughts that he jotted down on the back of Tour Itinerary sheets while on the road with EP in the 70's).
I'm positive that some are "believing" this, but .......... I'm sorry ---------> this particular sham by Geller was one of the more blatant self-indulgent-self-promoting-BS that there ever was. In fact, it even strains credulity well beyond the breaking point.
Ask yourself the following question: Why wasn't this the FIRST book Geller ever published, instead of his other(s)?
- Capt. "EL."
Sadly, my stepfather believes in all the same concepts. To me, it is - and there's no other way of so succinctly putting it - 100% BULLSHIT.The same also applies to the "Guru" title. Geller was not the only, nor the first, to indulge E with this kind of esoteric nonsense (from the 1950's - before Geller ever even meet Elvis, up thru 1977); he, again, is merely the most vocal about it.
I actually feel sorry for people who believe this because they genuinely believe it and not because they have an agenda. I think Elvis was such a person. Conversely, I think that Geller, while he may be the former, is almost certainly also the latter.
That said, I like the way the man conducts himself when speaking in interviews and on newsgroups. I was perusing a Google newsgroup the other day where both he and Marty Lacker have posted to. Lacker had a tendency to shoot his mouth off and be coarse (albeit, to my mind, remaining truthful) - whereas Geller was dignified, articulate and restrained. Whatever his true agenda may be and however his conduct factors into it, I really can't fault the man there.
Geller would probably tell you he was too distressed after Elvis' passing to summon the energy and gather his thoughts for any kind of publication on Elvis himself. Then came the Goldman book. After that, I don't think many publishers were all that interested in anything written about Elvis that didn't contain some dirt and juciy "information". It's only more recently that the dust has settled, so to speak, and a more eclectic variety of books have appeared.Ask yourself the following question: Why wasn't this the FIRST book Geller ever published, instead of his other(s)?
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