‘Do the Right Thing

RuPaul, you can stop drooling now, girlfriend.

Just clip this article, honey, and get your bad self to the nearest coiffeur because these are the phatest looks for 1998.

With hot curling irons, mousse and dye--not to mention mahvelous imaginations--the Detroit gurus of glamour came to L.A. recently to curl and cluster, sculpt and scrunch, and twist and tease hair like nobody’s business.

The trade show at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel billed as “Hair Wars” drew thousands of convention-goers from Los Angeles and Orange counties, San Diego and as far away as Florida and New York.

They came to learn from the masters, more than 100 of the nation’s top African American hair stylists who battled for the best looks including the “Old Too Cool Flip,” the “Rope-A-Dope Ponytail,” the “Criss Cross Basket Weave French Roll” and the “Pin Curl Explosion.”

David Humphries, the Detroit-based producer who has brought Hair Wars to L.A. the last four years, says hair stylists have become celebrities and L.A. is the place for such an event because, “We’re not just hair stylists, we’re hair entertainers.”