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Crowning Characters
Head of hair: Wig maker Roman Zantman creates âhair systemsâ used in film and theater
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Head of hair: Wig maker Roman Zantman creates 'hair systems' used in film and theater.
How we express ourselves to the outside world is written in our hair style and clothing choices. Young punks with vivid mohawks, granny's going grey, young girls with the hair flick and even some very famous wizards promote their character through their hairstyles.
For wig maker to the stars Roman Zantman, every wig ' or as he calls his work, every hair system ' must have an almost invisible bond with the character being played in film on television and or in the theater.
'Hair defines the character of people. It shows their personality. That is why this whole custom made hair system is born from the cinema, the theater, where originally it was all to do with creating the characters,' says Roman, whose father, Theo Zantman, established one of the earliest wig making centers in Bali, more than three decades ago.
Roman says that as early as the 1960s, his dad worked in the theater as a makeup artist and wig maker, garnering world champion awards for his skill that saw a Dutch politician use his services to camouflage himself.
'Dad would completely disguise this politician, right down to a huge suit and big belly. The politician would go to bars, restaurants, the streets to talk to people about how they felt with the government,' says Roman at his Pajeng wig center on the outskirts of Ubud.
His father's decision to set up business in Bali was easy, says Roman. Visiting the island in 1980, Theo was immediately aware of the 'feeling for art and craftsmanship', alive in the hands of people from Pajeng village.
'To make wigs, especially for theater and film, needs finesse and understanding, so there was a good link with the people here from early on. From that day Dad began to build this creative production center in Pajeng,' says Roman of the more than 100 staff now working with Zantman Hair Productions, making wigs 'that go all over the world from Broadway musicals to the big screens of Hollywood'.
The Balinese can knot the 120,000 strands needed in a full head wig without any sense of frustration. The base mesh almost invisible, but ,for the wig makers of Zantman, this is all in a day's work.
'When I was a little kid I would be at Dad's factory in Holland and saw the process. The makers there very rarely got as good as the makers here. The hands here are far more flexible and there is that greater patience,' says Roman, adding people in Bali picked up wig-making skills with extraordinary rapidity, some becoming skilled in just a couple of weeks.
On the racks at Zantman's Pajeng center are hundreds of wooden wig blocks. Dozens have white mesh moulds and name tags. These, Roman says, are orders for private and theatrical clients.
Every wig made here is customized, heads are measured and moulds taken then shipped to Bali for making.
Roman says every whirl or change of follicle growth is designed into the wigs to make them as natural as possible. While the bulk of their work is for the performing arts industry, there are some private clients whose wigs are so close to their original hair, even family members don't know the difference.
'We have a client, even his children don't know he wears a wig. Now his son is going bald, but the father won't tell him about this solution. That is the thing in my job ' it's a success if it is never seen. It's invisible. People simply have their hair back,' says Roman.
Mixing hair on a large spiked comb is Nyoman Resi, 40. She has worked for Roman for 15 years. She says she takes white hair, colored hair and graying hair and mixes them through spikes over and over again to achieve natural looking gray hair.
'We do 30, 40 and 50 percent grey mixes, as people or characters age,' says Roman adding that for people suffering hair loss through alopecia they can have wigs made over their lifetime that reflects their age and the natural changes that occur.
A key figure in ensuring wigs are as realistic as possible is Wayan Suci, 27. The young woman heads up Zantman's quality control of the knotting process.
'What I am looking for is the color, movement, thickness or thinness in different areas of a wig that makes it precisely like real hair,' says Wayan.
It is this dedication to realism that has clients from around the world seeking the wigs made by the talented hands of Balinese.
