Introduction
Sophisticate's Hairstyle Guide is a hairstyles magazine for women. Published in the United States since the 1980s, it is the oldest magazine of its kind in circulation. Each issue has about 120 pages full of hairstyles pictures, advice, interviews, news and information. The cover typically has a large central picture of a celebrity who is one of the most beloved women in America at the time. It also has about a dozen small pictures of other high-profile female celebrities. Inside there are about a thousand different hairstyles.
Womens Health Magazine
What makes it unique?
Shg has built up a very good prestige as the oldest, largest, and best hair magazine which allows it extra way to the stars unavailable to its competitors. The editors often like to show images of a celebrity reading a previous copy of their mag. Each issue has an exclusive e-mail interview wherein one celebrated woman reveals her attractiveness secrets for hair and makeup as well as her preferences in fashion and style. This regularly includes data about her daily routines and beloved products.
Sophisticate's Hairstyle Guide is unique in its very liberal and very consistent use of airbrushing. It's far more ultimate than just removing a scar or pimple. Every woman in every single recent issue, it seems, has been noticeably airbrushed. It is not clear if the changes were automatic in Photoshop, or if somebody was asked to go straight through each image and make all the changes manually. In any case, the editors don't allow any pictures with blemishes on faces even though it's a magazine about hair and not makeup or skin care. There is no certain sign any hairstyles have been doctored.
Most of the women are young, so it doesn't make much sense. It's not as if they are removing wrinkles. Why does everyone have to be Photoshopped and their faces worked over? Many of the small images aren't closeups but they are enhanced. Doesn't this have a negative impact on women by pushing perfection as the (unattainable) standard? One suspects the motivation is simply to avoid offending stars by publishing pictures which are not entirely flattering. But it's neither general nor necessary, because none of the other haircut magazines do it in an ultimate way. It makes the women look artificial.
Shg doesn't have pictures of black women! You might think this is racist if you didn't know any better. The truth is they have a sister publication called Sophisticate's Black Hair Styles and Care Guide which focuses exclusively on African American women. The publishers did not initiate group in the middle of the races; black ladies have different hair texture and traditionally go to salons which have master hairdressers to cut and style it. They just have different needs and interests, and can buy discrete black-only hair magazines. The editors simply result their lead.
Nevertheless, it is still worth pointing out because some African American women could be offended in reading the magazine for the first time without being aware of the sister mag. In any case, would there be any harm in including at least a few black hairstyles in every issue with a note that there are many more in its sister magazine?
Standard issue
Although there is a heavy focus on the newest celebrity hairstyles, Shg also shows many new haircuts of hair models who are not famous. categorically one of its best parts is a very large "Clip & Snip" section at the end. It has about 500 hairstyles of non-celebrity girls organized in equal-sized small photos (about 2x2") with 20 per page. However, they are not categorized by distance or color like similar magazines; everything is thoroughly random. That could slow down the process of seeing a new hairstyle.
Nevertheless, these images are consistently high quality because most if not all were taken by Tom Carson, the top photographer in the hair industry. The styles are also perfect because each shot includes the name of the salon where the girl got the cut. The salons simply submit their best work and see the mag as an advertising venue.
Other content which is approved for each issue includes an visible narrative on a hair salon, such as one frequented by celebrities. This is beneficial for those who live in Los Angeles or New York and want the same haircut as a star and/or the same hairdresser. Most issues also have a Salon Guide which lists a few adopt hair salons in some states including prices. However, it might be more helpful to furnish a long and full, list for every state.
Makeovers never seem to go out of fashion, so you see before and after pictures of girls who changed their hair style and/or color. They now show about 20 examples, which is more than other haircut magazines. These examples are good quality and contain technical data on how to generate them. Shg also follows the new hair magazine trend of showing different ways to style the same cut.
The stock photos are from major agencies like Getty and Retna, yet you often find republication of publicity pictures courtesy of the movie studios. This is more base on the front cover presumably to reduce costs, because photo agencies fee more for cover placement. Although it may save money, it sometimes makes the magazine appear slightly out of date. It is base to find a featured retrospective for an actress where the editors show different pictures of her discrete hairstyles over the years.
There isn't a hairstyles magazine just for men, and even though this mag has the widest circulation of all hair mags, it doesn't have even a small regular section for men. The most you could expect is only a few pics per issue. This is an area they could invent in the future. Even if men don't buy it, their women who do get it could show them new looks they like.
Sophisticate's Hairstyle Guide is published by associated Publications. Its competition hasn't made a serious challenge to their position at the top of their niche in the attractiveness industry. Ap has its two well-branded magazines, one for white women and the other for black ladies; whereas its main competitor has many less well-known mags.
Shg has come to be a better stock over the years under the direction of its editor-in-chief Bonnie L. Krueger. She has led the publication since the 1980s. Older versions were thinner and had far fewer styles. They had relatively few full-color pages and most were black-and-white on procedure paper. Now most pages are full-color on regular fashion magazine stock, and only a few at the back are two-color and course.
For example, the April 1987 edition had Vanna White on the cover and pics of over 200 new styles in a total of 90 pages. The February 2010 version had Carrie Underwood and 950+ hairstyles spread out over 130 pages. But both covers made a point of promoting the revelation of star "styling secrets."
Conclusion
Sophisticate's Hairstyle Guide is a very good publication with high standards and wide appeal. It has many hairstyles pictures and it is full of former content. It is easy to read partly because it is light on advertisements; for example, one issue had 122 pages with only eight pages of ads. It is available as a single issue on many newsstands (.99 Us) and by subscription (8 issues/year for .00 Us).
Sophisticate's Hairstyle Guide - Magazine With Pictures of Women's Hairstyles
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