Watch and go: see a film and get a hairdo

Watch and go: see a film and get a hairdo
Fiachra Gibbons, arts correspondent
Monday October 27, 2003
The Guardian

The art of hair salon conversation is under threat from new technology which may make excruciating small talk about damp weeks in Tenerife a thing of the past.

That dreaded phrase: "Been anywhere nice on your holidays, love?" may never again be heard. Salon chairs up and down the country are being fitted with small screens so customers can watch short films made by rising young directors while they have their highlights done.

"Watch and go," as the gimmick is being billed, is a breakthrough, according to the Film Council, which has been struggling to find a way of getting short films seen after TV channels have all but purged them from their schedules.

Young directors such as Carol Stevens and Matt Smith will get their miniature masterpieces seen while customers have something to kill the boredom during the complicated chemistry necessary to recreate the latest David Beckham barnet.

Even the stylists themselves appear to be relieved that the years of awkward conversation may be over. "The screens give us something to talk about," admitted Michael Barnes, the artistic director of the Nikita salon in the west end of London, where they have been piloted.

Five hundred salons nationwide in which the digital media company, i-vu, has fitted screens will be showing short films by the end of the year.

Paul Trijbits, head of the Film Council's New Cinema Fund, which backs 150 shorts a year, said: "Short films are essential to filmmakers' development. With limited short film programming in cinemas and little support from broadcasters, this is a fantastic way of getting an audience."

Mr Barnes said: "There has been a very good reaction so far. It is not that they would rather watch a film than talk, but it does make the waiting while you are undergoing a chemical process more enjoyable."

But the short films will have to compete with fashion and wildlife documentaries. "The men tend to go for the fashion," Mr Barnes said. "They like looking at scantily dressed women, while the more intelligent types like the wildlife."