It's been more than a year since I wrote an entry in my blog, and after some encouragement from some DV friends, I wanted to resume my posts about various topics. Today's is about the master and guru of long hair, Dr. George Michael.

 George Michael Pelisky was born in Russia inthe early 20th-century and grew up seeing long hair as something natural. His mother, an opera singer, had floorlength hair and his aunts also had extremely long hair. As a child, he watched them comb their hair and create elaborate hairstyles. When World War II broke out, George's world turned upside down. He was a trained medical doctor, but was unfortunately captured by Nazis and spent two years in a concentration camp.

Whilst being interned in a camp, he saw thousands of women with long hair having their hair shaved off. This memory influenced his decision to change career when the war was over in 1945, and he had the chance to begin a new life in America.  He began his journey to help women with long hair.

In the begining, it was not easy for him to train as a hairdresser because the hairdressing schools thought he was over-qualified as a doctor. He did not give up, though, and completed his training as a hairdresser and started work in New York. It was George's unique interest in long hair which set him apart from other hairdressers, who were too busy creating those weird and wonderful hairstyles we know from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. In George's salons, women with long hair would come to him for a consultation and he, and his staff, would do whatever was necessary to help them maintain healthy long hair. If you have seen photos of long hair on the internet from the 50s, 60s and 70s, then you should know that most of those women were George's clients. He was, and will always be, the king of long hair, even though he passed away this year in April.

 These specialist long-hair salons are in more than 2000 different cities worldwide. We have one in England and the nearest one to you Czechs and Slovaks is in Germany. I think it was his medical background which made him so great as a long-hair specialist.

 I, too, come from a medical background, although I was not able to finish my training at medical school. Nevertheless, I still work in a medical environment in a team composed of doctors, nurses and various other professionals. Some of the skills which we use in hospital, which are also very useful in hairdressing, are :

• History - asking the person about their background, their experiences, etc
• Respect - the person coming into hospital deserves to be treated with respect at all times, and not to be judged.
• Listening - listen carefully to what the person is telling you, and asking you.
• Empathy - this is the most important skill because a health professional MUST be able to put themselves in the patient's position, and subsequently offer an individual treatment plan.

If anyone cuts hair - for their family or friend(s) - imagine yourself in their shoes. If they want 0.5cm to be cut, cut 0.5cm. Don't try and convince them to cut 5, or 10, etc. Hairdressers and health professionals are in a position of power and incredible trust. Here, on DV, I read about people's experiences in salons and I feel sorry when someone writes that the hairdresser cut too much, or gave them a haircut they did not want.

 Everyone has their own role models, and mine is still Dr. George Michael. I want to leave you with a quotation from him :

"Age is irrelevant. With long hair, a woman's beauty is timeless"

Rest in peace, Dr. George....