By Christine de Kock
Cape Town billionaire Mark Shuttleworth is sporting a new hairstyle - his fifth in the past five years - and this time it's a hippie/surfer look.
He was spotted with his new long-hair do this week at the launch of a Shuttleworth Foundation project to make the Internet available to schools in previously disadvantaged areas.
Since Shuttleworth shot to fame when he sold his IT software company for about R3,5-billion in 2000 he has been changing his hairstyles.
| 'It does nothing for him' |
In the early days he was just a "Regular Joe" with a hairstyle that matched. There was a tuft of fringe that frayed across his brow while the sides were kept full but short.
Then he had a 1970s flashback in 2000 when he adopted a middle parting. In 2001 there was what looked like an encounter with a runaway lawnmower - he'd cropped the lot.
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In 2002 the tufty locks grew back when he spent about R180-million to blast into space aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule and become the first African in space.
However, things got out of control by the end of the year, and he sported a very Vincent van Gogh goatee, with full sideburns.
Again, the shears came out in 2003 and Shuttleworth took on a retro look, leaving only the sideburns.
| 'He could get away with spiking it a little' |
He allowed them to grow down his cheeks until the end of 2003, when they stopped short of his dimple.
This year Shuttleworth has trimmed the sideburns but sports a surfer/hippie look, with long limp locks hanging over his collar, while his forehead, in contrast, is exposed.
Is this the look he should have, the man South Africans admire for his business acumen, cool personality and big bucks?
The Cape Argus asked Frank Fowden, stylist to the fashionable and the famous, what he thought of Shuttleworth's coiffure.
Fowden, whose clients have included Sharon Stone, Priscilla Presley, the Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michael Schumacher, remained silent when he looked at the recent Shuttleworth photo.
He was loathe to say anything negative about Shuttleworth, a South African icon.
But urged to comment, Fowden took the plunge. "His hair is too long. It does nothing for him. Nothing at all.
"The sideburns must go, go, go, all that hair!" Fowden said.
"It's flat on top where his hair is thin and the long hair brings attention to the flat top and makes the forehead look big. It looks dated."
Fowden advised Shuttleworth to give more body to the hair on top of his head, through texturing it.
"He could get away with spiking it a little."
Fowden pointed at a picture of Shuttleworth in his astronaut gear in 2002. "This is more his style. He has more of a square jaw-line and a Brad Pitt-style hair cut would suit him.
"He could even bleach it, that would make it stand up better ... although he might lose a bit of hair."
Fowden said hair loss should not be a bother these days as there were products available that promoted growth and strengthened hair.
And here's a final tip to all the fashion fundis out there who want to try a new look.
Fowden advised that people should go for something that complemented their "height, body construction, skin colour and face shape".
- This article was originally published on page 3 of Cape Argus on February 09, 2005
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