Kenneth

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discreet.

Kenneth's Business

Is Not Other People's

By Sally Quinn

L.A. Times/Washington Post Service

Ken-

WASHINGTON neth is probably the most famous hairdresser in America. He did Jackie Kennedy's hair when she was First Lady.

But Kenneth doesn't fit the image most people have

of hairdressers.,

"I always wanted to be an analyst," he says.

"People, especially men, don't know what to expect of don't know what to expect of a hairdresser. They think we all have orange hair and platform shoes."

KENNETH'S last name is Battelle, although it is rare-

ly used by his clients, ("they can't pronounce it") and he's 43-years-old.

He grew up in Syracuse,

N.Y., and after serving in the Navy, he had to quit college to help support his family. "I read an ad somewhere which said that the hairdresser's streets were paved with gold, so I went to a hairdressing school. I caught on quickly and soon moved to New York where I went to Rubinstein's, first."

The reputation that many hairdressers have for being homosexual doesn't bother Kenneth. "However, when I told my fraternity brothers I was going to be a hairdresser, all I can tell you is that I never got invited to any alumni meetings." He says it with a laugh.

"WHAT PEOPLE do in bed is a private thing. I've had male employes arrive at work in full make-up, but I don't fire them. They're talented people. I just make them wash off the make-up. Your own life has got to be pretty boring if you don't have anything to worry about but other people's business. I know that's a platitude, but it's what I believe."

Kenneth used to be seen in the society columns with famous clients, but all that has changed. He doesn't socialize with them any more.

"I had a brief fling at it,” he says.

"I WAS once invited to a dinner party by a client. After dinner her husband stayed home, and she and I went on to another party. The next day it was all over the papers. I hated it and that was the end of that.

"I have a life outside my work, which doesn't involve my clients and that's the way it should be. Imagine if you were a terrible bore at a party one night and had to do the hostess' hair the next day. I don't believe in mixing business with pleasure, finally."

""

As for other hairdressers giving little dinners for clients in their salons, which has become en vogue lately, "I would think there would be the danger of getting hair in your soup. KENNETH FEELS that there is an explanation for his and other hairdressers' new elevated position on today's social scene. (He doesn't socialize with them either, "but that's just the way it turns out.")

""

"IT'S NOT just me, it's the history of hair,' he says. "Until the '50s, hair was not very pretty. People wore hats and only had their hair washed and ironed. But then something called the Italian cut happened and then rollers. With the advent of hair came the advent of the hairdresser."

Kenneth only cuts hair and he charges $25 to do it. If you want him personally, all you have to do is "just call up." His salon does not have a very definite stamp the way Vidal Sassoon's does.

"We don't do that. I don't believe in it," he says. "There is no style today. All that is dead. Anything goes now. Dictating styles to women does not exist. It's the same with clothes. This year women can elect any style they want. And they don't like it. In my travels I've found that they want to be told how they should look. But the only important thing now is how the hair is cut."

Kenneth has many rich and famous clients, and he counts loyalty as the best present any of them could give him. Jackie Onassis still goes to him, so do Hap py Rockefeller, Mrs. Gardner Cowles, Mrs. Paul Mellon ("the most fascinating woman I've ever known") and Amanda Burden.

KENNETH feels that he's changed a great deal in the last 10 years. He's not publicly political "but I will say that I'm not a fascist.” He doesn't care much about clothes any more. "I used to, but now I buy things which amuse me. I don't pay much for them and I expect them to fall apart." He doesn't entertain "in a way that would interest anyone" but he does say that "parties are for two pecple."

He reads a lot of Zen, drinks a lot of good red wine, cooks "very well" doesn't take pills of any kind and combs his own hair.

"The question of living finally comes down to one word," he says. "Survival."