Soap Opera Digest
October 20, 1998
Coif-y Talk

Catherine Hickland, who plays Lindsay Rappaport, the newest flaxen-haired beauty on ONE LIFE TO LIVE, has the same problem with her coiffure as everyone else. “Hair is the bane of every woman’s existence—and every man’s, too,” she sighs. “I cut 16 inches of my hair because I wanted to stop having bad hair days. I thought that would end my problem, and it has, to a certain extent. But now, I have this new haircut, which if you put a brush to is completely ruined and looks ridiculous! So now, I have to ‘arrange’ my hair with my fingers. And that brings another whole set of hair problems.”

Was it traumatic to get so dramatic a haircut? “A lot of people write and tell me they love my new haircut, so I’m not that freaked-out about it,” she smiles. However, “Everybody has an opinion,” says Hickland. “Even [TV Guide Columnist] Michael Logan has clocked in with his opinion about my new hair. If he doesn’t like it, he’ll call and leave a message: ‘What’s with your hair?’” Like on her first day at OLTL. “My first day, I didn’t know what to do with my hair, it was all so new. So we thought, ‘We’ll curl it!’ And it looked really bad. One of my producers said to me, ‘Maybe we’ll just get you a foolproof haircut.’ I thought, hmmm… ‘women-in-prison’ films? Forget it!”

All joking aside, Hickland says she really hasn’t had a bad hair day since she cut it. “There are days that it doesn’t look so great, but there are stylists tending to it every minute, so I haven’t been unhappy. My best hair day was when Lindsay got married to Clint. My hair never looked better! We had our honeymoon night, and throughout all the fabulous lovemaking that was going on, [Clint Ritchie] was running his fingers through my hair. Of course,” laughs the actress, “[the honeymoon] happened off-camera.”

SIDEBAR:HOW DO YOU SCREEN TEST…HAIR?

Generally, the last step of getting a job on a soap is when the actor screen-tests. When Catherine was testing for the role of Tess on LOVING, the stage manager whispered to me that the producers wanted me to cut her hair into bangs. So, I borrowed some sewing scissors and nervously introduced myself to her. “Hi, I’m Russell, head of the hair department, and I’ve got to cut bangs on you-now.” She explained that she had just finished growing her hair to all one length! The poor girl was just numb. It’s a miracle that she could even do the scene. “I’d better get this job,” she quipped to me as I did it. (She did, of course!)