Captain Moonlight: Think bouffant, think John Patten

THE FASHION message from the Oscars is clear, loves: the hair buzzword is 'lift': lift lift lift. Think mousse, think bouffant, think big hair, but only if you are a Guy.

For the Laydee, of course, big is dead: quite, quite finished, embarrassing and wrong. Hair must be flat, thin and stringy a la Holly Hunter, or smeared a la Sharon Stone.

But Spielberg, Pacino, Branagh and Bridges were flowing, bouncing, fulsome. You could almost see that upside-down blowing wave, the styling foam, dare I breathe heated rollers? Even the snowy- white Sutherland and Kirk Douglas, though perhaps lacking body, had masses of bounce.

As is so often true of course, we are led in our male hair trends by foreign statesmen. Remember vertical hair? Kenneth Kaunda? Hugh Scully? Need I even say the name now? Radovan Karadzic? All those Bosnian talks, maintaining his volume, wave and spring through late nights, early starts and adverse weather conditions. Is it any wonder the hair world sat up and said Hey?

We must look to our Education Secretary with new eyes. The stiffly elevating mass, the semi-casual sweep lifting, then falling over the eye. Patten showed foresight, a man in the van. But John, it's only a thought, love - just a touch too much spray?

(Photographs omitted)